Who goes at McLaren?

[Dave Baumann]

Since the end of the season McLaren have been curiously quiet, up until the past couple of weeks, and that always makes me wonder when Ron goes that quiet. It seems they have been making some pretty big plans, but not for next year, the 2007 season! Nicking Vodaphone off of Ferrari for 2007 must have been pretty sweet for Ron and now they have signed Alonso. So, the question is - who's off, Montoya or Raikkonen?

 

[Kaotik]

Since the end of the season McLaren have been curiously quiet, up until the past couple of weeks, and that always makes me wonder when Ron goes that quiet. It seems they have been making some pretty big plans, but not for next year, the 2007 season! Nicking Vodaphone off of Ferrari for 2007 must have been pretty sweet for Ron and now they have signed Alonso. So, the question is - who's off, Montoya or Raikkonen?

I can see 2 possibilities here - Either Räikkönen has already made new contract (with Ferrrari most likely) for 2007 - OR - Montoya is leaving (due bad performance last season)

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

No top driver will go to Ferrari while they have to play second fiddle to Michael Schumacher. They all want to win races and world championships, and a Raikkonen will not defer to his team mate. Dennis is always saying how much he wants to keep Raikkonen, but never has a good word to say about Montoya, so if both drivers want to stay, I think Montoya will get the boot.

 

[Kaotik]

No top driver will go to Ferrari while they have to play second fiddle to Michael Schumacher. They all want to win races and world championships, and a Raikkonen will not defer to his team mate. Dennis is always saying how much he wants to keep Raikkonen, but never has a good word to say about Montoya, so if both drivers want to stay, I think Montoya will get the boot.

But remember that Schumacher does NOT have contract for 2007 yet, he might quit after forthcoming season

 

[archie4oz]

I say Montoya goes... Too much personality to deal with, and last season was pretty abysmal. Certainly Raikkonen and Alonso would be easier to manage than Prost and Senna were..

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

But remember that Schumacher does NOT have contract for 2007 yet, he might quit after forthcoming season

Which top flight driver is going to commit to Ferrari now, knowing that if Schumacher wants to stay another couple of years, he gets preferential treatment clause actually written into his contract?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I say Montoya goes... Too much personality to deal with, and last season was pretty abysmal. Certainly Raikkonen and Alonso would be easier to manage than Prost and Senna were..

Yeah, Montoya made too many mistakes and performed pretty poorly overall. That obviously annoyed Ron Dennis. Montoya didn't finish that far behind Raikkonen by the end of the year, but Raikkonen had terrible reliability problems throughout the year, or else he would have blown Montoya away in the results.

 

[BlackAngus]

Well, Ok Im a montoya fan so I have some bias here but.....

I think montoya's performance was not all that bad, seeing as he had a fairly major (eh hum) injuy that kept him out of a few races. My personal bet in all this is Kimi with another team (Dont forget ferrari's budget isnt as big as some of the other auto manufacturers,possibly even Red Bull if Newey and Kimi got on good together?), and Alonso taking his place. I am very confused tho over Alonso and Mclaren, with all their reliability problems in the last few years, that just seems a strange choice.


OT:
Have any of you hear rumors of Michael leaving the big F along with Ross and Rory? Maybe
Michael, Ross, Rory, and Newey with RB? Oh yeah!

 

[XSBagage]

Well, Ok Im a montoya fan so I have some bias here but.....

I think montoya's performance was not all that bad

I'm not a montoya fan and I agree, the way I remember the season he had a bad start but by the end he was very competitive, close to raikonnen if memory serves me right.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

They always say that F1 judges you against your team mate in the same car - and Montoya scored just less than half of what Raikkonen did. That's not done Montoya any favours.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I caught a few comments on Radio Five Live earlier and they had Paul Stoddard commenting on the idea of Kimi moving to Ferrari and we twisting the knife a little saying something like "who in their right mind would want to go to a team owned by a small car company who are lossing sponcers" - if anyone at Ferrari were listening to that they were probably fuming.

However, that is the question - there have already been many reports of Kimi talking to Ferrari and this could be a signal that a deal is already in place and that Schumacer is off in 2007 (taking thing to their conclusion). If thats not the case then it does look like Montoya's position is very tenuous, and nothing short of a steller year this year will change anything (and even then, I'd say it would be no guarantee) - I think Montoya will have a lot to prove this year (and as a fan of Montoya myself, I hope he does). As for Montoya's personality, I don't really think thats that case as this was fully known about before McLaren taking him in, if anything he's proved that he's less hot headed than he appeared to be at Williams.

One other factor that has come out of this, as the pundits were spinning on the radio, is what Alonso's move signals for Renault. It may be the case that Renault feel they have achieved their goals they aimed for in F1 and that they may only want the expenditure for a few more years - Alonso's move may be an indication that he knows Renault's involvement in the sport may be short lived here on.

 

[BlackAngus]

Alonso's move from Renault is strange, and I cant quite figure it out. I guess I was thinking money was the motive there. Renault doesnt seem like a company that will pay huge $ for a WDC as much as others, Id imagine since the knife is in charge now. Besides arent Renault commiting to Heikki Kovalainen as their next big driver? I guess I see this as more of a Flav inspired thing than a sign of Renaults committment to the sport. Flav made cash off of Alonso and wants to make another big wad with Heikki. I guess I see this as more of a Flav inspired thing than a sign of Renaults committment to the sport.

As I see it Heikki is developing the car in 2006 for his 2007 entry into the sport, Renault want Heikki to start in a good position with a car made for him.

 

[Moloch]

who cares?
The v8 F1 cars will have about 200HP less...
atleast for 2006...

De la Rosa : V8 F1s are close to GP2s

This is one of those sentences any F1 enthousiast fears to hear, whilst getting ready for the worst. Pedro De La Rosa dropped one of those bombs the FIA will have some troubles to diffuse : "As far as I'm concerned, a V8 F1 is now very close to the GP2. It's way easier to drive", the Spanish McLaren Mercedes team test driver said, having completed a comparative test between a V8 and a V10 on Jerez track, last week.

"It's much less physically engaging", the Catalan adds in an interview to the newspaper Marca [sorry I don't know how to translate this part-not very informative anyway]. "One can very easily make 100 laps during a test day."

"I think they've gone way too far and removed way too much power", he adds, [idem], "They should have reduced the aerodynamics by 20% in the same process. Even the public will notice the difference, especially regarding the sound produced by the engines. It's far less spectacular than before."

"If they had combined a loss in power to reduction of the aerodynamics, the car would have been quite nice to drive. But driving the same car with 200HP less becomes really simple.", adds Pedro, comparing the V8 F1 to a sucker unable to get into speed at the exit of a corner. "It's like asking a marathonian to run one kilometer in 3.20 instead of 3.15. It annihilates the adrenalin release and makes all the needed aptitudes for driving a F1 car irrelevant"

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=235736