Places Alonso Would Rather Be! – Hall On F1.
It was supposed to be the reunion of The Dream Team.
McLaren Honda, so supremely dominant in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
World Champions at the helm in Fernando Alonso & Jenson Button.
Aero guru snatched from Red Bull in the shape of Peter Prodromou.
Rather than hit 88 McLaren Honda levels, the team have hit early 80’s Spirit & Williams Honda levels.
Retirements are the order of the day. The season has very quickly turned into a nightmare for all concerned. If Japan was the weekend where Alonso seemed to be trying his best to get fired and thus end the “GP2 engine” torture, this was the weekend where humour saved McLaren Honda’s season. Hamstrung by their inability to rectify the current issues, because to do so requires a token allocation only available over the winter, the end of the season can’t come quick enough for McLaren Honda, and most notably the drivers. For in Brazil the same problems would come back to haunt Alonso and he decided he’d rather be somewhere else. He’d rather be on holidays.
A cheeky wink to the cameras preceded it and then Alonso, having found a deckchair, lay back.
Enter the social media photoshop wizards.
Before the hashtag.
Grand Prix Times perfectly captured the mood at McLaren, as after the session both McLaren drivers took the proximity of the podium to take what would be their only chance to be on one this season. Again the realisation triggering humour amongst Alonso and Button.
@_McMike_ summed it up perfectly. #PlacesAlonsoWouldRatherBe
The McMike original.
The Template. Nice work McMike.
The Buxton tweet.
The RT. Game on!
What followed was a snowballing of work from the collective genius of twitter.
It makes us at Motorsport.ie want to learn how to Photoshop.
Alonso keen to track the artwork.
The Painful Truth?
McLaren Honda’s season saved by a hashtag or the release of a season’s worth of frustration?
Thank you to everyone involved. Particularly to @_McMike_ for brightening up what was otherwise a dull Formula 1 event and dark weekend. Humour is a very powerful tool and this weekend, possibly for the first time this season, it no doubt brought a smile to McLaren Honda and its fans.
The Power of Social Media. It’s a pity those at the top don’t get it.
Until the next time,
Dave