Ask Gary: Should Alonso go to McLaren?

Is it true that Fernando Alonso has signed for McLaren?
Maria Sacher, via Twitter

Maria, I have no idea, so I will change this question around to 'should Alonso sign for McLaren?'

In reality Ferrari and McLaren are - sorry, were - two top teams. Over the last few years neither has shown any consistency in performance or the ability to recognise why they are not performing to the level that they believe they should be.

So in response to the revised question, my answer is: why would he move? It would be like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

With Honda joining McLaren as engine supplier, it may mean that financially Alonso would be better off at McLaren; however, I don't think he is struggling financially at Ferrari.

Remember BAR and then Honda didn't really set the world alight in the 2000s, and when push came to shove Honda disappeared off back to Japan. It could just do that again if the project is not successful.

Is Formula E the elephant in the F1 room? New tech, city circuits, star drivers, co-operation between teams and promoters?
Michael Fitzgerald, via Twitter

Michael, Formula E is not in competition with Formula 1 and I don't see that ever being the case.

Hopefully it will last long enough to give us a chance to judge it properly, but as you say, with all the new tech and those drivers who are not doing it for fun, it is an expensive venture.

As for the co-operation between the teams and the promoters, well, the promoters are paying for it so the teams should co-operate.

It's great to see someone doing something different, but personally I don't see electrically-driven cars - never mind electrically-driven racing cars - being the future.

They are far too expensive to manufacture, and it will only be when it comes to disposing of them - or at least the battery pack - that we will find out their full green credentials.

Have F1 cars really got so much easier to drive than they were 20 or 30 years ago?
Ben Stuart, via email

Physically, Formula 1 cars are much, much easier to drive than they were before the turn of the century. When we saw Piquet, Senna and Mansell (to name but a few) absolutely destroyed on the podium, they were not doing it for effect - the cars were extremely tough to drive.

Currently it is more about mental awareness. It's still just as difficult to go quickly, but everything is at hand on the steering wheel, which means not having to take your focus off the track.

Plus the cars have very efficient power steering and braking systems, so the physical requirement is nowhere near the level it used to be.

I remember drivers that I worked with having to turn into a fast corner and then jam the steering wheel with their leg because they didn't have the strength to hold onto it. So yes, times have changed.

How would you propose getting fans closer to drivers? Pitlane access? Meet the drivers? Can F1 learn from NASCAR?
Andy Geering, via Twitter

In the past Bernie tried to make Formula 1 untouchable and by doing this he was able to demand higher prices from the TV companies.

If you take the British GP as an example and look at the numbers, around 100,000 people will attend Silverstone on race day and around six million will watch it on TV in the UK alone - never mind the rest of the world. So TV does reach the masses and does justify that exclusivity that Bernie has created, but that means sitting at home and watching it.

Times have changed dramatically, and F1 will need to adapt to the mobile world that more and more people's lives are now built around.

The teams need to also buy into the fact that when at a grand prix they are there to put on a show. The people that have paid lots of money to actually come to a race meeting need more access to the drivers and top-end team personnel.

As you suggest, a pitlane walkabout and organised meet the driver and team personnel sessions would be a great place to start.

Mercedes has had a lot of reliability problems this year. Why is it so difficult to get cars to the finish as road cars are very reliable now?
Sarah Curtis, via email

Sarah, when you consider the time the engine manufacturers and teams have had to come to terms with this new power unit package for 2014, the reliability is very, very impressive.

A typical road car will be in design and build for about five years before the first one rolls off the production line. A Formula 1 car will take about six months. It is not many years ago that finishers in an F1 race were down to single figures, so in reality we have come a long way.

That said, I do agree with you that Mercedes needs to look at why it appears to be suffering more problems than the other top teams. If not, it could just throw away a championship that should have been won this weekend in Japan.

What were the challenges when grooved tyres came in? What was done with the suspension as you had less mechanical grip?
@Gear_HeadBrazil, via Twitter

Basically the grooved tyre was a way of having less rubber in contact with the ground without having narrower wheels and tyres that would have looked even more stupid than the grooved tyre.

Not a lot was done with suspension to compensate other than cambers being very important. If you consider that the tyres were made up of rings of rubber separated by the groves, each one of them worked independently like a separate tyre.

When the lateral load was built up on one ring of rubber, it didn't transfer that load into the next one, so if the cambers were not optimised the car would sort of walk across the road as it built up the load in each ring of rubber. If you've ever ridden a motocross bike on the road you will understand what I mean.

Aerodynamics overpower everything, so connecting the upright and wheel assembly to the chassis will always be compromised if an aerodynamic gain is on the horizon.

Why was Mercedes' advantage reduced so much in the last race in Singapore?
@pcutts, via Twitter

Good question. I wasn't in Singapore so I didn't see the cars in detail. But I would suggest that as Singapore is a high-downforce track, Mercedes doesn't have as much room left as some others to add more downforce to its cars.

If you look at tracks where the rear wing level is reduced slightly to help with top speed, Mercedes - due to its power advantage - has been able to run more downforce than anyone else. The maximum rear wing size is defined in the regulations, so Mercedes can't add as much extra downforce as some other teams when we go to the tighter circuits.

Hi Gary, I saw last week that it was the 15th anniversary of Johnny Herbert's win for Stewart. What was your experience of that weekend? I enjoyed the '99 season with Jordan and Stewart taking it to the big guns.
Mitch Connor, via Facebook

Mitch, it was a fun weekend and I also enjoyed it, but it was more about the whole season.

The car was a good little package and although he had gone when it hit the ground, technical director Alan Jenkins had done a very good job, mating the SF3 chassis to Cosworth's new and very light - if a little fragile - engine.

Working for someone like Jackie Stewart, who has won three Formula 1 world championships and is a very successful businessman, was a real pleasure. He knew and understood the motor racing side of things and he would back you to the hilt, plus he was (and still is) exceptionally good with the sponsor side of things.

Johnny and Rubens Barrichello were very competitive drivers and after the season that Stewart GP had in '98, they were perfect drivers for a team that just wanted to progress and as you say, kick the arse of some of the big guys when the opportunity arose.

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