|
|
Post by Big Blue on Jul 4, 2018 10:28:58 GMT
Or he agreed to leave after a couple of seasons of basically nothing.
They're pretty much all change and it doesn’t seem to be helping.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tim on Jul 4, 2018 11:19:49 GMT
There's been a lot of talk about the poor performance of the car this year.
Last year they thought the performance deficit was all down to the Honda engine and that they actually had a very good chassis.
This year they're the slowest of the Renault engined teams (I think) and I think its been confirmed that the calculations they did last year in respect of the performance of the chassis were wrong and haven't they concluded that there's an eroor in their wind tunnel stats but as yet they don't know what it is or how its occurring?
Ron must be pissing himself!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2018 12:35:37 GMT
"Ron must be pissing himself"!
At least he will be considering the irony, perhaps even sending commiserations to the team in jest. He did after all manage most of the good times.
|
|
|
|
Post by Big Blue on Jul 4, 2018 13:35:18 GMT
Ron will be plotting a take-over of the racing team then on the back of their success buying back his car company.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisM on Jul 5, 2018 7:30:16 GMT
The more McLaren go downhill, the more I am amazed at Lewis's decision to leave them and join Mercedes-Benz.
What an inspired move that was unlike Alonso's decision to join McLaren !
I wonder if Lewis could detect that something was going seriously awry and that helped him make his decision, or was it really all down to having tea with Ross Brawn at his mum's place? Would love to know what Ross said at that visit......
|
|
|
|
Post by PetrolEd on Jul 5, 2018 8:31:23 GMT
Probably the x millions he was offered rather than an inspired decision but no doubt timely.
I don't think it unfair to call Alonso damaged goods. Of all the places he's worked there's a trail of destruction left in his wake. Flavio, Symonds, Piquet, Domenicalli, Luca DM, Ron Dennis and now Boullier. I know he's bloody good but why would you want to take the risk of employing him if you can take a corporate like Vettel for less.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2018 8:44:18 GMT
Whilst I suspect Alonso's a more political driver than many, to ascribe responsibility for the downfall of most of those names seems strange. Flav was a chancer from the off (Benetton and TC etc), and several of the others oversaw significant downturns in form or fell to nights of long knives from above.
Unless 'Nando has powers of mind control - but then he'd be using them on the other drivers, I suspect.
|
|
|
|
Post by PetrolEd on Jul 5, 2018 9:38:14 GMT
I'm stretching the truth for sure. H's fucking about trying to score single points when he should have 5 world championships behind him. Being political is just polite for calling him more trouble than he's worth. Don't get me wrong I'm an Alonso fan but the only way I'd employ him is if I wanted some marketing value like his Le Mans and Indy ventures.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2018 9:45:48 GMT
I think his talent will go down as the most wasted in F1 history, given the long careers that F1 drivers have these days.
|
|
|
|
Post by Big Blue on Jul 5, 2018 13:51:37 GMT
I think his talent will go down as the most wasted in F1 history, given the long careers that F1 drivers have these days. Kimi: "Hold my vodka" |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2018 14:05:35 GMT
Whereas Raikkonen has probably had the most fun. I know which I'd rather have been!
|
|
|
|
Post by Alex on Jul 30, 2018 10:06:24 GMT
So halfway through the season and McLaren have mustered just 1 point for every 6 won by Ferrari and Mercedes. That’s more than shambolic, it’s utterly embarrassing for a team of their stature who hold one of the best drivers in the sport on their books. It’s difficult to see how they can get out of their hole though. It’s not as if they have any other engine option having burnt their bridges with Honda and Mercedes and they clearly are struggling to put together a decent chassis and aero package.
But surely the award for the most piss poor team management has to go to Williams with only 4 points from 12 races. Or 0.33 points per race. I’m struggling to see how that can be sustainable. Williams have always attracted some big name sponsors but those days must be long gone and I can’t see how they’re making money anymore. They can’t even attract average drivers to the team these days.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisM on Jul 30, 2018 12:50:10 GMT
But surely the award for the most piss poor team management has to go to Williams with only 4 points from 12 races. Or 0.33 points per race. I’m struggling to see how that can be sustainable. Williams have always attracted some big name sponsors but those days must be long gone and I can’t see how they’re making money anymore. They can’t even attract average drivers to the team these days. Frank Williams' philosophy was always something along the lines of you don't need a very highly paid driver, anyone can do a great job in a great car. Look at how many great drivers ended up leaving Williams as a result of this thinking. Problem is that you need a greta driver to identify a lot of the shortcomings in the car. They chose not to pay Kubica's demands and stuck Sirotkin and Stroll in the cockpits due to the money they brought with them, and when Kubica did get a run in the car at one of the recent GPs, he summed up the issues with a couple of sentences after just a few laps (and was apparently frowned upon by senior members of the team). Great shame he wasn't involved more in the car's development.
As to McLaren... to think that they had Mercedes engines up until a few years ago.... and as I keep saying, what an inspired decision Hamilton took to jump ship; I wonder if he had inside information on how crap their designers were becoming?
EDIT: It would be interesting indeed if a rumour I read comes true, that Stroll's dad will buy out Force India and Stroll will drive for them. I wonder where that would leave Williams?
|
|
|
|
Post by Alex on Jul 30, 2018 13:16:35 GMT
But surely the award for the most piss poor team management has to go to Williams with only 4 points from 12 races. Or 0.33 points per race. I’m struggling to see how that can be sustainable. Williams have always attracted some big name sponsors but those days must be long gone and I can’t see how they’re making money anymore. They can’t even attract average drivers to the team these days.
EDIT: It would be interesting indeed if a rumour I read comes true, that Stroll's dad will buy out Force India and Stroll will drive for them. I wonder where that would leave Williams?
I doubt they’d miss him! |
|
|
|
Post by PetrolEd on Jul 30, 2018 14:04:15 GMT
Williams are in an embarrassing state for sure. One paid driver is fine as long as you have someone of experience in the other seat as they did with Massa. I can't believe its cost effective having two paid drivers and missing out on the prize money that comes with finishing higher up in the constructors championship. They've got some decent people in management so hope it turns around.
Do we think McLaren and Williams are guilty of diversifying too much away from racing?
|
|
|
|
Post by scouse on Jul 30, 2018 14:50:31 GMT
I think they've done the right thing until such time as a budget cap is introduced. I know McLaren where the original big spenders, but the best part of half a billion to run two cars is just a joke. Liberty need to turn around and say to Mercedes/Ferrari/Renault/Honda these are the engine regs and by the way you can't charge more than 5 million a season for them, if you don't like it, go and find some other series to run your power units in. Oh yeah, you also can't run your wind tunnel for more than 2 days a week.
|
|
|
|
Post by Big Blue on Jul 30, 2018 15:14:24 GMT
Do we think McLaren and Williams are guilty of diversifying too much away from racing? No, F1 is guilty of allowing Mercedes to be a manufacturer and engine provider. You might say Ferrari were always both but Ferrari (before FIAT) were not on the same scale as Daimler and even if they are close to it now they are nothing like as organised as the Anglo-German team and never will be. F1 is also guilty of massively complicating the specification rule book, with the design changes and manufacturing techniques required to get close to the specs being so high that the original garagiste teams (like Williams were) cannot hope to stay on top. No one wants F1 to be a copy-book formula where two companies make the chassis as this detracts from the issue of designers moving the game on as opposed to rule makers doing it and to ensure that F1 remains a builder's series the design criteria for chassis and bodywork needs to be simplified. In addition the cost and complexity of the power-plants is stupidly detracting from the input to other areas of design advancement as the result is a drain on resources (financial ones) for other design. So to answer the question: Williams and McLaren had to diversify to compete with FIAT and Daimler-Benz because the rule book has been written to allow their financial and technical might to shine - things like the whole hybrid bollocks being written into the rules because Honda wanted it to be so - that's gone well. |
|
