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[andrew]

Xenophobia is defined as the "hatred or fear of foreigners or strangers or of their politics or culture"

Lewis is whole different kettle of fish than what Mclaren is used to... Remember Montoya?

Well done, you read the link I posted.

He's from the same country as McLaren. He is not a foreigner. Why would they be scared of their own countryman?

[Bubbie]

I definitely agree that the Ferrari engineers certainly seem to do the best from what we hear.

Rocky seems pretty good for Sebastian as well, but not up to the Red team's guys. I do like the Horner gets on the comms with his guys a little bit more than it seems the others do.

Contrast that with the McLaren engineer this weekend when he told button to box that they needed to retire the car. I was actually jarred into thinking that it was the most radio traffic I heard from McLaren in a long time. Maybe it is because we usually only hear the bad news from the McLaren engineers.

This is an interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up. I am definitely going to pay more attention from here on out.

[f1ea]

Being a race engineer is my dream job... hopefully in a few years if i work my arse off!

fingers crossed for you man! hopefully you land... or at least some other series. I assume you will keep posting here and bringing us cool insight no secrets or anything that'll get you spy-gated.... just interesting stuff

I thought it would be nice to talk about engineers and their relationships with their drivers. Smedley is easily my favourite. I wish he engineered Lewis!
I dont know much about Lewis' engineer but i dont find myself warming to him. Some of his requests seem a little lame.

I think the best engineer-driver relation ships are Webber and Alonso. All their comments and feedback ussualy sound very constructive and positive.

Even at the Valencia race (the one Racechick mentions ) Alonso and his engineer had a very positive communication. Also, during good races or difficult complex situations they keep their communications on the constructive side. Seems like they share very good mututal respect.

Massa and Smedley sometimes sound too condescendent... for example "Felipe, baby calm down" is much more condescendent and less directive than "Ok, there's nothing you can do about it; now focus on your race". "Batton was told-a to push like ell... so push like ell" hehe that one was funny.

The Macca guys are the opposite: too directive! and informative, and not very... "conversationally constructive"? or at least that's how it sounds.

Lewis is waaay too arrogant and this constantly surfaces during his pit conversations. Dont think this is a positive-constructive atmosphere. I dont care about Lewis and his engineer... but i think when things arent going 100% well things get pretty tense rather than constructive.

I am an engineer and ussualy have to deal with directives; those who can handle directives and exchange information respectfully, perform better, keep their jobs; those who like to arm-wrestle, get sent home where they can know-it-better as much as they please. Easy

[geetface9]

I couldn't be an engineer because I'd be too busy telling my driver to check out the tatas on the brunette in row 3 with the red shirt at the copse grandstand These are my priorities in life

[f1ea]

I couldn't be an engineer because I'd be too busy telling my driver to check out the tatas on the brunette in row 3 with the red shirt at the copse grandstand These are my priorities in life

I'd be "you've GOT TO get on that podium, 'cause I just saw the girls going up the stairs and they're HOOOOOT!!"

<see... i'ma much better engineer than you hehe>

[The Ram]

Being a race engineer is my dream job... hopefully in a few years if i work my arse off!

fingers crossed for you man! hopefully you land... or at least some other series. I assume you will keep posting here and bringing us cool insight no secrets or anything that'll get you spy-gated.... just interesting stuff

I thought it would be nice to talk about engineers and their relationships with their drivers. Smedley is easily my favourite. I wish he engineered Lewis!
I dont know much about Lewis' engineer but i dont find myself warming to him. Some of his requests seem a little lame.

I think the best engineer-driver relation ships are Webber and Alonso. All their comments and feedback ussualy sound very constructive and positive.

Even at the Valencia race (the one Racechick mentions ) Alonso and his engineer had a very positive communication. Also, during good races or difficult complex situations they keep their communications on the constructive side. Seems like they share very good mututal respect.

Massa and Smedley sometimes sound too condescendent... for example "Felipe, baby calm down" is much more condescendent and less directive than "Ok, there's nothing you can do about it; now focus on your race". "Batton was told-a to push like ell... so push like ell" hehe that one was funny.

The Macca guys are the opposite: too directive! and informative, and not very... "conversationally constructive"? or at least that's how it sounds.

Lewis is waaay too arrogant and this constantly surfaces during his pit conversations. Dont think this is a positive-constructive atmosphere. I dont care about Lewis and his engineer... but i think when things arent going 100% well things get pretty tense rather than constructive.

I am an engineer and ussualy have to deal with directives; those who can handle directives and exchange information respectfully, perform better, keep their jobs; those who like to arm-wrestle, get sent home where they can know-it-better as much as they please. Easy

I didn't want to say it here, but I am engineer too... and I try to be amicable to the people when I am supervising out in the field (Just like Alonso's engineer)..But If you don't wanna listen, I don't argue with you right away, I just shut my trap an let you mess things up, then I drop the hammer on your bottom And take over! That is just my style - the key thing for me is encouraging the worker/technician and letting him know that both of you are in it together. I find you get the best results when you do it that way. Now Hamilton's engineer on the other hand doesn't even care about empowerment of the driver, the most you will ever hear is a stark "that's good Lewis."

[f1ea]

I didn't want to say it here, but I am engineer too... and I try to be amicable to the people when I am supervising out in the field (Just like Alonso's engineer)..But If you don't wanna listen, I don't argue with you right away, I just shut my trap an let you mess things up, then I drop the hammer on your bottom And take over! That is just my style - the key thing for me is encouraging the worker/technician and letting him know that both of you are in it together. I find you get the best results when you do it that way. Now Hamilton's engineer on the other hand doesn't even care about empowerment of the driver, the most you will ever hear is a stark "that's good Lewis."

yeah, when the sress levels are high, an amicable atmosphere goes a long way...

I think the atmosphere in Mclaren is way too tense. Like i said, they are too informative-directive and not enough motivational. Gotta relax a little... maybe Lewis gets frustrated, or maybe the engineers arent quite sure how to get an ORDER accross decisively.

Knowing italians, I'm sure they spend a lot of time eating together and developping a bond. Fish n Chips gets eaten too quickly. No time for bonding hehe

[Hammer278]

Just before Lewis outbraked himself for Webber to overtake him, his engineer's words "You're doing well Lewis, you have a gap, keep doing what you're doing"...WTF? At this point it should be "Webber is right behind you, stay sharp!"

And right after, he braked late and Webber was past. After he took him back again, he said something over the radio back to the engineer but inaudible. My guess is "Which race are you watching you m****n!!"

[Ichabod]

Lewis said
"stop talking to me when I'm racing please"

[Denthúl]

"Batton was told-a to push like ell... so push like ell" hehe that one was funny.

When did this happen?

[vaptin]

I like Mercedes's engineers the best, "Magic paddle", plus to Schumacher and Rosberg they always seem to be right on the money. Telling them what is needed to be known, calming them down at other times whilst still keeping it amicable.

They're also doing a very good job with managing their two drivers (Schumacher's reputation versus Rosberg's ambition). They're still keeping Schumacher happy, whilst allowing Rosberg to push forward. Although maybe we should give Rosberg more credit, he gets a lot of negative image (that Barbie thing) but he handled the pressure with Schumacher as a team mate really well (when the comeback was still new and exciting) and is still keeping focused even though Mercedes have been pretty underwhelming.

[f1ea]

"Batton was told-a to push like ell... so push like ell" hehe that one was funny.

When did this happen?

That was in Monza 2010

Also, in case someone knows:

How does the engineer/mechanic/race engineer crew works?? how many engineers are working on each car/team what are their responsibilities and what are they doing during the race in order to transfer information back and forth to the pit wall?? (because all i see is the bunch of em sitting on the p its and only the race engineer looking a t telemetry on the pit wall).

I have an idea... but it would be interesting if someone knows the drill...

[bud]

Are you all privy to every team radio communication?

[f1ea]

Are you all privy to every team radio communication?

Its cool to know how it does work. Rather than how we think it goes...
We only get "select" radio communication, it would be better to know a bigger part of the pic

Maybe that would be good to ask Barrichello or some other driver on their Tweeter acct. Maybe they'll answer

[racechick]

Being a race engineer is my dream job... hopefully in a few years if i work my arse off!

Some of his requests seem a little lame.

If trying to help out the driver with his race is 'lame', well, erm.... you know where this is going.

A strong engineer/driver relationship is an incredibly important ingredient of success, when it's working they can motivate and guide the driver to a performance they maybe couldn't achieve on their own. On the flip side if a driver doesn't trust their engineer or work so well with them they''ll possibly be more prone to ignoring them (usually at their detriment) - several examples of that happening.

I dont think the 'lame' bits help at all, thats what I mean. I guess you wouldnt want to engineer lewis... but if you do I reckon you'd be more human than his current guy.