May 03, 2006
Is Mclaren the team to be in 2007?
Attrition has been the buzz word at Mclaren, while the team poached readymade world champ from Renault, the team has been losing key technical personnel almost on regular basis. It all started when David Coulthard lured the star designer (and his mentor) Adrian Newey to Redbull. There isn’t a week when we don’t hear news of someone leaving Mclaren, the latest entry Neil Martin is moving to Redbull. Interesting point to be observed is the people who are leaving are not one of the drifters category one finds in paddock, these people have spent their lives at Mclaren. With that background, money is not the obvious reason why the key staff is leaving the team .Is it change in Mclaren culture that is taking away these people from the team?
Trying to map this to Kimi-Schumi and 2007 driver line up saga, I really wonder would both Juan Pablo and Kimi be really making a wise choice if they plan to stick with Mclaren, whose management have betrayed them time and again with unreliable cars in 2005. While Mclaren was fastest car on grid with reliability issues from day one in 2005 season, in 2006 so far both Kimi and Juan have been very tentative in way they handle their and Mclaren really doesn’t look at par with Renault. It remains to be seen if the team really comes up with a car to fight Renault dominance thereby creating the much needed impetus for the team for a brighter future..
In support of Jense...
Grandprix.com has come out in defense of Jenson Button, Jenson is sole Briton on the grid (of course we have Scot David Coulthard and Test driver Ant Davidson). As much as we feel sorry for him, the problem lies with British Press, While US press (and now rest of world media) have tendency to put people on pedestal, and then start hurling dirt on their face. British press traditionally tend to project even their ordinary achievers as “All time greats” . Anyone who can remember the tennis duo Tim Henman & Greg Rusedski , come Wimbledon and British press in lame hope that they will see a British Champion waste million a keystrokes in describing how these guys are at top form, practicing hard ,( some sympathetic guest commentators “courteously” back these claim) and then likes of Samprases and Federers end up winners. Another recent messiah the press have found is in cricketer Andrew Flintoff ,whose heroics helped Poms win back the revered Ashes urn from Aussies after nearly two decades .Buttons story is pretty much the same. If Button wins,whenever that happens , Brit press will go overboard in covering every little thing the poor fellow will do , like recently they have been harassing Freddie Flintoff.
Interesting Quote
There are a lot of IFs in Formula One, in fact IF is Formula One backwards!" – Murray Walker, The voice of F1 for over 50 years
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posted by Unsui @ 11:27 PM
3 Comments:
Doesn’t look too good for McLaren at the moment, but organisations of the size of McLaren with the $$$ they have can pull out of such mess. You never know, Mike Gascoyne could be on his way to McLaren, and that would indeed be something.
I think anyteam with good sponsors and decent technical talent should be a sound bet. Red Bull is looking good and but their F1 future is doubtful, over a long period. Williams looked the team to beat when JPM signed for McLaren, and see how the tables have turned.
McLaren has the Mercedes brand name associated with it, and after Ferrari, the Merc is the most powerful brand in F1. Hence sponsors are always willing to get associated with this combination. Additionally they have Kimi and the future driver line up has a World champion in Alonso, and if JPM is there to partner him in 07, given his 06 form, it would be an ideal platform to build up.
I doubt if there is dearth of technical talent in F1, and there’s much more than just BIG names who can design a Winning car. Haven’t heard of any name from Renault other than Pat Symonds, and that team is on a high even with limited budgets.
The question which I have is, IS FERRARI THE TEAM TO BE IN post Todt era?
Thats a valid question again. If your news about Schumi is true, history has it if he parts ways with Ferrari, quite likely His Men will leave with him , If he retires as well there will be huge turnover in Ferrari, But the same logic that you have put for Mclaren will hold good , Philip Morris and Marlboro have already committed upto 2011( that too with Ferrari covering their logos on venues with Tobacco advt ban). Mike Gasgoyne and Mclaren is good combo, but Gascgoyne had problem with Toyota as he tried to put his weight behind moving the team HQ from Cologne to UK, Don't rule out the new guy David Richards trying the lure the English man to his team.
JPM and Alonso good combo, At the moment JPM looks like man of mission to me and that really makes me really glad,
JPM is indeed a man on a mission. Frankly the impact, which he left on the entire F1 world and me in his debut season (2001) has never been realized by him till date. We did see sparks of brilliance from him when he won the German GP of 03 with 1:05 minutes between and the next best car, which was being driven by DC.
So he does have the capability, whether he realises it is what needs to be seen.
Good point there by David Richards and Gascoyne combination happening. Its a possibility certainly.
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