- 14 Nov 13, 10:17#380800
Other than picking a driver based on financial aspects, what's not good?
Pérez has struggled this year against a man who is largely considered to be fairly average in qualifying (having taken only a single pole position in his McLaren career); Hamilton out-qualified Button 16-4 last season, 13-6 in 2011 and I think it was the same in 2010, yet so far this year Sergio trails Jenson (currently 9-8 in the latter's favour). In races, Button has delivered almost twice as many points as Pérez has. It would be interesting to see a comparison of pace over race distances, though. Maybe if I can be bothered, I'll dust off what little R skills I have and do some graphs, if I can't find any online.
They took on the reigning WDC, who was the best available driver at the time, and he delivered. We all know that Hamilton was the faster driver, but they took a similar number of wins and points over three seasons together, helping the team finish second in the WCC twice and then third last year. Who else was available at the end of 2009 with the ability to bring them those kind of results? Alonso was signed by Ferrari, Kimi was on his way to WRC, Robert Kubica had been picked up by Renault, of course Seb was locked-in by RBR and Rosberg was heading to Mercedes. So their options, realistically, were Glock, Heidfeld, Trulli, Kovalainen for a third year or to try to pick up one of the best-of-the-rest from that year's GP2 season (Petrov, who ultimately ended up at Renault, or di Grassi who went to Virgin).
If it's the latter, I agree with you, it's a great idea. The first three ideas ....not good.
Other than picking a driver based on financial aspects, what's not good?
The firing of Perez?
Pérez has struggled this year against a man who is largely considered to be fairly average in qualifying (having taken only a single pole position in his McLaren career); Hamilton out-qualified Button 16-4 last season, 13-6 in 2011 and I think it was the same in 2010, yet so far this year Sergio trails Jenson (currently 9-8 in the latter's favour). In races, Button has delivered almost twice as many points as Pérez has. It would be interesting to see a comparison of pace over race distances, though. Maybe if I can be bothered, I'll dust off what little R skills I have and do some graphs, if I can't find any online.
The hiring of button?
They took on the reigning WDC, who was the best available driver at the time, and he delivered. We all know that Hamilton was the faster driver, but they took a similar number of wins and points over three seasons together, helping the team finish second in the WCC twice and then third last year. Who else was available at the end of 2009 with the ability to bring them those kind of results? Alonso was signed by Ferrari, Kimi was on his way to WRC, Robert Kubica had been picked up by Renault, of course Seb was locked-in by RBR and Rosberg was heading to Mercedes. So their options, realistically, were Glock, Heidfeld, Trulli, Kovalainen for a third year or to try to pick up one of the best-of-the-rest from that year's GP2 season (Petrov, who ultimately ended up at Renault, or di Grassi who went to Virgin).
why can we all see it but Whitmarsh can't? 
I know there's the 'disturbingly good looking' phrase, but that's just a tag to pin the whole bizarre situation on. This guy is a team boss! What really goes through his head?