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Friday, July 28, 2006

Conflict of interest.

The following mail conversation, shows what IT professionals do in their Billable timings ;-)
On a more serious note, its one of the best conversations I have had on F1 for a long time, and what a coincidence, its documented as well.
Thanks to Mahesh for letting me publish it.
Its in an unedited version, call it uncensored if you wish.
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: 'Nilesh Sane'
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:03 PM
Subject: RE: When was
 
Nilesh,
 
There is no denying of the fact that Ferrari Bridgestone  and rules devised in their favor have been a decisive factor. In fact Stoddart’s Engine article also didn’t mention anything about the tire thing, Mosley who harped abt cost saving , forced Bridgestone and Michelin to spend Millions on Dollars to research on special compounds that could last entire race length & when the results proved favoring Michelins, rolled back to older rules end of one season, In fact Michelin gave a breakup of the excess monies that were wasted in the effort, Again the Michelin Running teams didn’t stood firm with Michelin, No wonder Michelin must have felt betrayed and parted from F1 ( unlike the GPMA who make all noise and then still suck it up).
 
But all said and done, the mail started from the poll “whether Macca will win any race this season” and hence the points that I brought up. I too am not really defending JPM , but JPM had come to groove with Mclaren way after his return from injury , you can’t deny that. About Kimi fighting his way back from grid , JPM too did that in Hockeinheim didn’t he !? ( well he lost his car in final corner in qualifiers the day before was reason for his demotion). But that doesn’t really cover up the blunders that team has committed in 2006 so far does it ?? .
 
If like you say that Macca surely handled FA signing “professionally” and confided in Kimi and JPM and still kept their focus on 2006 campaign ,
 
a) Kimi’s body language doesn’t really reflect that, that he already has Ferrari contract in pocket. He just is content to make his 60-5 laps and return to paddock ,coz anyways he can’t really has car to take it to scruff by neck
 
b) agreed JPM was more Human element and hence can’t control his temper , but then put yourself in his shoes, your boss gives you all the pep-talk to up your game and all the BS and you arrive at first race and you see  logistics botched up ( faulty engine) and then insists that you have to live with that for next two races , then suddenly one race down the line , your car is again screwed up and you get first touch of car at beginning of qualifiers , and all the while keeps rumors going around organization to question your credibility and professionalism and all general BS to cover their @$$ . Can you really deny these “facts” .  
 
Biggest problem with  Macca at the moment is mismanagement. No denying that
 
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From: Nilesh Sane Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 3:48 PMTo: Mahesh ParabSubject: Re: When was
 
Well Michelin- Renault Combo is working isn’t it !? ,Its only for past couple of races they have been on back foot
Yes its working, but what's equally important is that it worked really well, when Schumacher messes up. Really, if you consider that Schumacher's effectively ruined his chances of winning at Monaco, got stuck behind Truli at Canada and Kimi @ Silverstone, I think he could have won the race. Ofcourse he didn't, but he had a car which was capable of winning, had it been 102 on the grid. Renault has been winning because they have a good car, but more importantly they have Alonso.
 
Its ok to be a Fan of a team ,but you shouldn’t have one-eyed adoration ,and overlook their mistakes ;~),
:-)) Ofcourse I am not overlooking their mistake, in am only stating that the fact that they are not performing too well is not down to them being carried out due to the Emirate's, Vodafone and Alonso deal it due to purely technical factors within the team.
 
By haphazard approach now the means they missed out on taking proper brain dump from newey and while chasing the new sponsors post FA signing made public , they didn’t settle the driver issue for good , if they had professionally a) convinced Kimi to stay for 07 ( as he was more of Insider) b) told JPM that 06 performances would be his key to get good drive for 07 and as such they would give him full support to prove his talent on track .
I don't for one moment think that they didn't try all they could to make Kimi stay on for 07, or didn't persuade JPM to up his game, but since that was not happening, they really didn't have much option but to secure a top driver for 07. Heck Ron even said that they made 4 different suspension setting for JPM.
Look, JPM beat Kimi fair and square only at Brazil. His wins at Monza and Silverstone came due to the fact that Kimi started from the back of the grid. As much as I may like JPM, and think that he is equal to Kimi on his days, he didn't match up to him consistently due to whatever reasons. Yes the McLaren didn't suite him alright, and he did do a good job when he was on a song, but don't you think that he could have done a better job at it, cus if he had, he would be the prime choice to partner Alonso for 07.
No fan likes to defend his teams failures, and I am no exception here, but I am not a fair weather fan, though I agree that the Trio at McLaren could've managed 06 better, they did what they could. I sometimes feel sorry for Ron Dennis, as his racing instincts are crubbed by having a German white collared giant like Mercedes dictating terms to him.
Saheb, had Bridgestone and Ferrari alliance not existed, we probably wouldn't even be having this conversation. By speaking on Maccas issues, we are discussing the wrong point, its the tyres which is the real culprit, not the engine or chassis.
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: 'Nilesh Sane'
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 12:26 PM
Subject: RE: When was
 
  1. a)      Well Michelin- Renault Combo is working isn’t it !? ,Its only for past couple of races they have been on back foot

  2. b)      Newey Factor – Yes I had written to it before, 2U at length , how the current team is not able to come to terms with what might have been a “incomplete handover”

  3. c)      But the other mystery factors “ especially from Haug’s (Engine) Dept” are the once they have not addressed, Engine running is a different story , but being able to use engine to maximum is the difference between lying in mid-field and competing for front end.

  4. d)      About Norbert Haug , what he is saying on eve of Hockenheim , every lay F1 follower has been saying from season start , and they don’t make those million dollars that Haug makes – so less said the better about this guy
 
Its ok to be a Fan of a team ,but you shouldn’t have one-eyed adoration ,and overlook their mistakes ;~),
FA signing really changed the balanced in the team atmosphere at Woking..
Score card of Macca  at End of 2005 season - Plus points : Narrowly missed Ch’ship , One driver fastest on grid, second driver finally settling in and starting to match the existing driver on speed and results. Car fastest on grid , capable of blitzing the field even from back of the grid, Minuses : reliability issues ,only hole to be plugged car reliability issues. And getting replacement of start designer who has parted ways
 
This balance sheet looks healthy , and all ingredients in place to better their 2005 results, Only requirement go back to drawing board ,work on the reliability issues . I don’t have anything against business and securing sponsorship and services of WDC driver , but Macca &/Mercedes hashed up way they handled the situation
By haphazard approach now the means they missed out on taking proper brain dump from newey and while chasing the new sponsors post FA signing made public , they didn’t settle the driver issue for good , if they had professionally a) convinced Kimi to stay for 07 ( as he was more of Insider) b) told JPM that 06 performances would be his key to get good drive for 07 and as such they would give him full support to prove his talent on track .
 
They wouldn’t have been in this situation first place. What has happened from 1st race onwards is public , and so many questionable things have happened at Macca during the season is well documented (by me) ,so now you tell me … its just violating basic principles of management , Ron-Haug-Whitmarsh messed it up big time, as such I don’t really see a Macca win (under normal circumstances ) ,maybe one off like Spa’04 .
 
2007-08 well it’s a long way to go ,and we will talk about different things then
 
 
 
(image placeholder)
From: Nilesh Sane Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:37 PMTo: Mahesh ParabSubject: Re: When was
 
I beg to differ.For smaller organizations, getting big marketing deals and signing a WDC would effect its operations, but I doubt if that would be the case with McLaren. It’s basically the Newey effect and the fact that the tyre rules changed, is what’s causing the problems.Even Haug is mentioning that they need to start from the front of the grid if they want to score the big points.But that’s besides the point, as long as Ferrari-Bridgestone alliance exists, I doubt if we will see any competitive races in F1.
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: 'Nilesh Sane'
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 11:07 AM
Subject: RE: When was
 
Totally 4got that Suzuka was the last Mclaren win …
 
Macca Engine reliability in 2006 is still a debatable issue, Coz for weird reasons Macca is not encouraging their drivers to run on full revs.
Second Matter under cloud is Qualifying Strategy – either really the pit crew has not yet come to terms with the new format , that they release their Drivers at wrong times and drivers get struck behind traffic in Qualis or their Drivers are not yet come to terms with new format.
I have said this time and again unless they qualify on front row they are not going to win a race, and more often than likely will be causalities in mid-field incidents which are common on race start.
 
Other strategy of good results if they are sure about their speed is  a ) pound whole bunch of laps on Friday to get good setup,without worrying about the engine, if the speed is really top notch its better to start from Behind and avoid mid-field skirmishes and win race ( which is what Kimi & JPM did regularly  in ’05) , Kimi did that only once in ’06 .
 
Now that we are at it this whole Starting from back row and still winning is not really a benchmark for “great drive” , rather for faster cars its better to do that and avoid race-start pileups in mid-field. Nico and Webbo have been doing those drives regularly in this season when they are starting from last row and finishing 09-10-11 , even JV did that a couple of races this season , Their results would have been better if they had MP420 under them , but press doesn’t highlight this in the reports.
 
In nutshell , More than rivals Macca got distracted in Winter events ( signing of WDC and big sponsors) and really hashed up on MP421. The lack of confidence in their car right from Drivers and Engineers has resulted in Mediocre season so far. And unfortunately they haven’t really put their head down and focused on turning around things with car development, rather are just busy with finger pointing , driver bashing , who will drive with FA in ’07 and all things other than races. On Hindsight, Signing of WDC was the key factor that put ’06 season off course, more than rivals they have got distracted and lost focus more than the rivals.
 
(image placeholder)
From: Nilesh Sane Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 1:10 PMTo: Mahesh ParabSubject: Re: When was
 
I think it was Kimi at Japan 05. Ever since Mercedes has tied up with McLaren, they have become just so inconsistent.
But here's a school of thought.
 
Post 2000, when Ferrari dominated F1 for four years, McLaren & Williams were the only teams which came close to dislodging Ferrari. Its not as if the talent at Ferrari was better than at McLaren or Williams, but Ferrari was simply unstoppable and with bullet proof reliability they were impossible to beat. So what made the Ferrari's so fast? Obviously it was the tyres, and the fact that Bridgestone were concentrating on developing the tyres only for one major tyre manufacturer, and pooled all its resources in developing a tyre which would have to suite only one team rather than 5 teams, as in the case of Michelin. Last year, the single tyre rule, threw the cat amongst the pigeons, and Ferrari was caught off guard, as Bridgestone didn't have the data for such tyre constructions. They goofed up, and all it took was one error from Max to under estimate the impact the rule would have on his own stable (read Ferrari). Tyres are more important than those 20-30 odd BHP and sleek aero, and I believe that's what F1 is all about. Its a formula for Tyres and not for cars. heck, Bridgestone didn't have too much trouble with the switch to V8 chassis speck, because the grooved slicks with tyre changing at pits returned. This is a mockery of F1 and its sad to see they people can get away with such an obvious scandal.
Here are some of the race results for the 05 season, and shows how crap the Ferrari really is on equal playing grounds.
Picked em up at random.
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/britain/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/hungary/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/turkey/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/italy/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/belgium/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/brazil/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/japan/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/germany/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/europe/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/monaco/rres.htm
http://www.newsonf1.com/2005/races/spain/rres.htm (Apparently he retired because of TYRES, holy shit, now we don't see that happening too often do we?)
 
Its a sham, Ferrari struck a winning formula with BS and used BS as their private tyre manufacturer, and FIA turned a blind eye towards it.
 
 
I don't know how this would spell out in the long run, but given that Mercedes have more experience with v8 (obviously their engines this year are pretty good), all it requires for McLaren is to do a decent job with the chassis, as they would have having a world champion driver driving for them. The tyre issue will be out, hopefully, if the FerrariStone alliance does not continue.Plus with slicks returning from 08, it would be like turning back to known grounds.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mahesh Parab
To: Mahesh Parab
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 11:09 PM
Subject: When was
 
 
The last time Macca won the race ..seems like ages now ..and who climbed the Top step for them :-??
:P
 
Interesting poll check this


Monday, July 03, 2006

USGP & Hindsight Wisdom

After conclusion of USGP2006 ,One cannot but help to think of the Fiasco in 2005 with 6 cars shod with Bridgestone tyres racing , What would have happened if Michelin runners had run in 2005 edition probably like yesterday ,8-10 cars would have gone down on lap one on notorius T1-T2 and few due to debris on tracks ,from 1st corner incident and what would have left would have been 9-10 cars like yesterday. It was more or less the same scene on T1-T2 in 2004 when yours truly had best seats to witness the scramble then.

Never the less , again with empty track Schumi got better of his team-mate massa, using pit strategy, Massa led the race for almost 30 laps ,to finish 1-2 for Ferrari.

Alonso for once in the season looked like a Human driver, with problems like his competitors. 4 points finish to him and victory to Schumi means his lead over the seven time WDC reduces to 19 points. While the world watched at Montreal 2005 Alonso Whining to Renault pitwall for Fisi not letting him pass by as he had “faster car”. Alonso did return favor by holding Fisi for too long and depriving him to have a go at the leading Ferraris.

On personal front, watching JPM and then JV ending DNF was not exactly something one stays awake for in wee hours. Though Ron Dennis echoed my observation that Mclaren cars were squeezed by Button and both Kimi and JPM responding differently, one braked and other raised, which basically points this one as a racing incident more than anything. I am still awaiting the official version as released by race director and the stewards after their post race investigation. With this continued Kimi and JPM’s bad run at USGP.
Not much to say , as other than Luizzi’s move on Rosberg on first straight , the race was pretty much a mundane affair. Rather saw more overtaking moves in IRL’s Kansas300 edition ,where Tony Kanan and Vieto Meira made some amazing side by side over taking moves.

Results
01 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:34:35.199
02 F. Massa Ferrari + 7.984
03 G. Fisichella Renault + 16.595
04 J. Trulli Toyota + 23.604
05 F. Alonso Renault + 28.410
06 R. Barrichello Honda + 36.516
07 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1 laps
08 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
09 N. Rosberg Williams + 1 laps
Did not finish
10 R. Schumacher Toyota + 10 laps
11 C. Albers Midland F1 + 36 laps
12 J. Villeneuve BMW + 50 laps
13 T. Monteiro Midland F1 + 62 laps
14 T. Sato Super Aguri + 67 laps
15 J. Button Honda + 70 laps
16 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 73 laps
17 N. Heidfeld BMW + 73 laps
18 JP. Montoya McLaren + 73 laps
19 M. Webber Williams + 73 laps
20 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso + 73 laps
21 C. Klien Red Bull + 73 laps
22 F. Montagny Super Aguri + 73 laps


I