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By CookinFlat6
#432953
Interesting,brave and seemingly heartfelt words from Ron. It could be that he saw this coming and has created a new angle with Honda etc,but I dont see anything replacing the free money just for naming your team.

In the other hand it could be that Rons absence, his achievment in the road car plus his retirement age are distorting things to him. May a guy on here, WB springs to mind, could have told Ron a year ago that there were no more sponsors willing to pay 50 mill for a car in mid grid, however temporary and however quickly they get back to the front. The old days of selling the past and the future just doesnt was h anymore, with the only team to add spponsors being Merc. Williams got Martini but for a price Ron rejected. Red Bull are owned by Red Bull, Force Indias sahara...well lets say no more there..., Ferrari and their immoral drug deal with PM Marlboro and thats about it. Lotus and Sauber been crying for someone for years now.

Vodaphone fled, Santadar following, Eimrates swapped to FOM. The only team worth sponsoring right now are Merc, because they are winners. There is no value in associating with a sport that your team spend each weekend moaning about not being clever enough to compete, then of course someone had the bright idea to go pay to view, which must have really excited the advertisers

Ron is correct ofcourse and he is big enough to say it, where the others b!tches and twisters would be ..well , lying and twisting the lack of sponsor. If he had looked at Button and then the results since Lewis left in clear daylight, he should have sawn Martinis arms off, even at 15 mill

He is starting to remind me of an old unbeaten heavyweight who comes out of retirement and gets a good slow hiding before finally realising that times have changed and the old saying 'tough guys dont dance' dont apply anymore with the new generation of guys equally at home in the ring or the dancefloor :hehe:

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis says he would rather be without a title sponsor than undersell the space on his team's Formula 1 car.

The Woking-based team has been without a title partner since its Vodafone deal ended in 2013, despite having famously declared that one would be revealed on December 2 that year.

Dennis now believes that the costs of competing are so high that handing over title sponsorship rights is no longer possible without selling it off too cheaply.

"Title sponsorship doesn't exist any more as a concept," said Dennis. "If you look at what title sponsorship would normally be, it would be somewhere between 40-50 per cent of your budget.

"Where the budgets are for a competitive team, no company will come in and give you that kind of money.

"Therefore what you do is you cut it up into bite-sized pieces, so you get a range of companies with similar philosophies to join you on the car.

"Do we have room for bigger brands on our cars? Yes we do. But the reality is that we put ourselves in a position where the technology side of our business is providing different dynamics [of revenue]."

When asked if he had then given up on chasing a new title sponsor, Dennis said: "We haven't given up on the idea of attracting larger sums of money to our car, but what we don't want to do is put big brand names on at low levels of money.

"I feel a bit like Manchester United, which has had a run of crappy football games and gone down in the league. I still think we are Man Utd, I still think that we can come along and say 'will you sponsor us? We are still Man Utd'.

"The last thing you should do is suddenly start doing deals that are last place in the league table. That is maybe flawed, but I don't think so. That is the way I think."
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By darwin dali
#432969
The McLaren spent frustratingly long periods in the garage in Jerez as it worked through various issues and Dennis says that is because it is still finding a common understanding with its new engine partner.

"We are trying to think a lot. Instead of just jumping on a problem - especially with the cultural differences between us and the Japanese - we have to take the time to make sure we communicated correctly and have taken the right decisions. So probably every decision we are taking at the moment takes three times longer as we start to interface with people that have previously been in Japan doing other things.

"Their team is very new and their English is multiples better than our Japanese so we can't be critical that they can't completely communicate perfectly with us because they are speaking in our language so we just need to patient for them to get up to speed and get everything working properly."

Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... hJzZv03.99



When do the Japanese have elections?



Just befole bleakfast.
By CookinFlat6
#432999
Whats the best signpost to the red light district in any city?

A Japanese guy carrying a Nikon and sporting a hardon
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By darwin dali
#433003
Whats the best signpost to the red light district in any city?

A Japanese guy carrying a Nikon and sporting a hardon

Doubt one would see this w/o the aid of a magnifying glass... :twisted:
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By Jabberwocky
#433007
I saw a Mclaren logo's minibus on the M40 earlier. The driver of the minibus looked like I would imagine a mclaren employee to look as well.

All the windows where limo black as I did try and get a gander into who was in the back.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
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By racechick
#433099
McLaren believe Prodromou has designed a masterpiece in the 2015 car, but both Alonso and Dennis feel it will take some time to fully understand it.
http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/display/09868
By CookinFlat6
#433194
Not very good news from the filming day in Barcelona

McLaren still struggling to run 2015 car?

McLaren-Honda may still be struggling to make progress with their new 2015 car.

Exactly one month before Melbourne, the new British-Japanese works collaboration hit the track early in Barcelona, the scene of this week's second test before the 2015 season opener.

The official action does not kick off until Thursday, but Jenson Button was in action on Monday after McLaren booked the track for a 'filming day'.

The running of the MP4-30, captured by amateur photographs, seemed to confirm not only that the current silver livery with red flashes is staying for now, but that McLaren is entering another world championship campaign without a title sponsor.

"If you consider that title sponsorship is something like 40 or 50 per cent of your budget," team supremo Ron Dennis is quoted by Italy's Autosprint, "then for big budget teams it no longer exists as a concept.

"We have not abandoned the idea of attracting more money," he added, "but we do not want to put big names on our car at a low price."

Eyewitnesses at Barcelona on Monday also reported that the new MP4-30 is still struggling to run.

Spain's El Mundo Deportivo claims the car managed "barely half a dozen laps" during its filming day.

Another Spanish daily, AS, quoted observers as saying the car did "two laps all day", while Marca agreed that the 2015 car "showed no clear signs of improvement" since the troubled Jerez test.


Lets hope the feeling of deja vu whenever I hear Buttons involvement is just paranoia
By Hammer278
#433197
Will be interesting to see how long the Fonz could uphold his newfound positivism.
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By sagi58
#433280
 wrote:">McLaren 'took a calculated risk' with the MP4-30

Image

Going extreme with the new MP4-30 is a "calculated risk", McLaren supremo Ron Dennis has revealed. Although it has struggled to run amid early troubles with new works engine partner Honda, the British team's 2015 car has been hailed by management as the first 'size-zero' F1 car.

McLaren is referring to the tight integration of the chassis with the compact Honda V6 unit, and Dennis credits pulling if off to the team's high-profile signing of Peter Prodromou, a former Adrian Newey deputy at Red Bull. In developing the MP4-30," Dennis is quoted by Italy's Corriere dello Sport, "we took a calculated risk."

"But we know exactly what we have done and what we can achieve in the future," he added. The layout of the car is extremely compact," Dennis explained, "and first we have to deal with the consequences of that choice. But we have obtained a very high level with this car, and I have to thank Peter Prodromou for creating this masterpiece," he is quoted as saying.

Less clear is how long it will take McLaren-Honda to iron out the teething troubles and make the most of its new machine. The Spanish sports newspaper Marca has quoted Honda president Takanobu Ito as saying the Japanese manufacturer is eyeing success "immediately". "We are proud of our engine and its technology," he said, "and McLaren is a great team. By uniting our forces I hope we can get good results immediately."

Dennis, however, is urging at least some patience. "I think we will only fully understand the car after three races," he said, "but we are all optimistic and believe that we will be successful."
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By Jabberwocky
#433284
Like with most of the teams in pre season testing last year I can not understand how teams are so ill prepared.

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By racechick
#433392
There's a brief snip of the sound of the Honda engine here. Sounds different to the others to me, but I'm no engine expert :hehe:

https://twitter.com/mclaren_soul/status ... 7240521728
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By sagi58
#433402
, Andrew Benson wrote:">Fernando Alonso: McLaren driver crashes in F1 testing

McLaren driver Fernando Alonso has escaped without injury from a heavy crash in pre-season testing.

The two-time champion hit the wall on the exit of the 150mph Turn Three at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, one of Formula 1's most demanding corners.

McLaren said results of scans at the hospital to which he was taken showed the driver was uninjured.

But team boss Eric Boullier said the Spaniard would stay in hospital overnight.

Alonso's crash happened at 12:35 local time on Sunday, shortly before the lunch break on the final day of the second of three pre-season tests.

McLaren - who have given no information on what caused the accident - said Alonso "left the track at Turn Three, causing the right-hand side of his car to strike the wall" on the inside of the circuit. It is unclear whether Alonso made a mistake or something broke on the car.

His team-mate Jenson Button had been scheduled to take the car over for the afternoon session, but the team have decided not to run again.
By Hammer278
#433438
He suffered a concussion. I'd think that comes under 'injury'?
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