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[What's Burning?]

The Lewis to Merc deal is done and dusted. So, for me the really big question is if McLaren have jumped too soon in securing Perez as their replacement driver. My feelings is they should have been a little more opportunistic and waited a while. I would have contacted a few driver, yes, Perez included, and made it clear that they were under contention for the 2nd seat. Performance over the next few races would be a big determining factor.

Whilst Perez has had a really good year, he has, in reality only just edged his team-mate, who I rate nearly as highly as Sergio. Kobi is a huge talent and, has a little more experience. Head to head he is marginally ahead of Perez in Q and marginally behind in races. Another candidate surely must have been Di Resta - a driver I rate very highly and who is just improving in leaps and bounds each race. He is also a proven champion in very competitive competitions.

One things for sure, I will be watching with great interest the competition at Sauber between Perez and Kobi - Perez trying to prove to his new team that they made a good choice and Kobi trying to prove they didn't

I'm in agreement with you about Kobi... the thing that's hurt most and seemingly everyone has forgotten is that Kobayashi was on the front row at Spa and had his best shot at a podium taken away from him, where he could have easily been tenth in the driver's standings.

[racechick]

But Perz comes with money, and presumably McLaren may be less attractive to sponsors without Hamilton.

[PartsaS]

Here's the thing since I'm sensing a little love loss between the McLaren fans and Lewis fans...

Lewis made his decision based on what he felt was best for him. Fair enough and there is nothing to argue about that point, like it or not.

What a fan of Mclaren has to ask is why did Lewis make that decision and if it was something that was simply a perception by Lewis or a reality based on the way Mclaren implemented their management within the team, the policies dictating contractual driver obligations, or even the offer they made at the time of the contract renegotiation. McLaren have just as much responsibility for the outcome, and they set a value for him as a driver and obviously Lewis felt that value was less than his team mate. Ultimately this value (monetary and otherwise) led to the outcome we had. Why then blame Lewis for being greedy or a traitor or ungrateful or a spoiled brat or a poor driver unable to win another championship or whatever it is that's thrown his way without also holding McLaren to the same level of accountability for their failings?

In other words, McLaren says, it will be better without Lewis and they say the driver lineup of Button/Perez will be better for them than the driver lineup of Button/Lewis, or else they would have fought harder to keep the guy. McLaren fans have to accept that.

Does anyone think if Lewis today was contending for the lead with Alonso, (the haul of points lost due to the various issues) and the entire McLaren staff was coalesced around getting Lewis a WDC that he would have walked?

McLaren made a decision in this situation just as much as Lewis made a decision. We move forward and we'll find out who will benefit most out of those decisions in the short term. No one doubts that McLaren will be in the sport long after Mercedes leave again, no one doubts that McLaren will win another WCC at some point in the future, but McLaren made a decision, perhaps to gamble, not just by the monetary offer but by the support Lewis felt he was getting from the team.

McLaren let a guy who is arguably the best driver in the sport today walk away. We'll see how it all unfolds.

Fact is McL wasted energy trying to keep him happy, and now they can focus more to their purpose. He is free to decide his own future, and well done to him for being so brave, but why blame the team for that? they were the ones that gave him as a rookie equal treatment with F. Alonso? (He could replace Massa at Ferrari to see how other teams work ) If he doesn't like the way his team works he is free to leave... McL will survive...
A team -multiple n different personalities that work as a group- is always bigger than a driver and cannot be manipulated in the likings and habits of one driver (even if he is the best). the team has survived for almost twice the age of Lewis working that way...
A driver never overdrives a car, he is just driving it closer to it's limits.

[What's Burning?]

Fact is McL wasted energy trying to keep him happy, and now they can focus more to their purpose. He is free to decide his own future, and well done to him for being so brave, but why blame the team for that? they were the ones that gave him as a rookie equal treatment with F. Alonso? (He could replace Massa at Ferrari to see how other teams work ) If he doesn't like the way his team works he is free to leave... McL will survive...
A team -multiple n different personalities that work as a group- is always bigger than a driver and cannot be manipulated in the likings and habits of one driver (even if he is the best). the team has survived for almost twice the age of Lewis working that way...
A driver never overdrives a car, he is just driving it closer to it's limits.

It's a myopic argument to say that McLaren wasted effort trying to keep Lewis happy.

I agree that a driver can't driver beyond the limits of a car, but you can't argue that Lewis was able to drive the car closer to the limit than Button could ever hope to achieve, so I'm not sure what you mean by repeating that. There is no argument as to which was the better driver at McLaren and there is no argument that McLaren will need to produce a substantially better car in order for Button to win a championship than they would have had to produce in order for Hamilton to win a championship.

The only question mark is now how good of an investment is Sergio Perez.

[vaptin]

There is no argument as to which was the better driver at McLaren and there is no argument that McLaren will need to produce a substantially better car in order for Button to win a championship than they would have had to produce in order for Hamilton to win a championship.
.

I would argue if Mclaren produced a car that met Button's balance and tyre grip requirements, he would be fantastic in it, even with Lewis in the same car.

I agree with Perez though, how quick can he be.

But also, I still think McLaren may be producing cars a fair standard faster than Mercedes. Can't wait to find out either way.

[racechick]

I dont think they wasted energy trying to keep him happy at all. They wasted a fair bit of time and energy trying to find a balance in Button's car.

Lewis didnt like how the team worked and he has left. It is a brave decision when he's been at Mclaren since the age of 14 and its all he's known, but its time to move on, time to be his own person. A driver isnt bigger than any team, I agree , but it is an integral part of a team and a good manager should work with his drivers not antagonise one of them. Well its done now and I think the future is really exciting.

[PartsaS]

I admit he is a great talent and probably the fastest driver in F1, but McL was not the only one to lose, He lost too since he is going to a team that struggle to beat Sauber. Unless the main thing he wanted was money, then I guess he is a winner

[What's Burning?]

I would argue if Mclaren produced a car that met Button's balance and tyre grip requirements, he would be fantastic in it, even with Lewis in the same car.

You mean like Brawn did in 2009?

But also, I still think McLaren may be producing cars a fair standard faster than Mercedes. Can't wait to find out either way.

I wouldn't doubt that in the slightest, but if you looks throughout the season you'll see qualifying results where Hamilton out qualified his team mate by a fair standard, so perhaps they're going to be pretty evenly matched? Perhaps Mercedes won't need to spend time and resources trying to fix whatever button couldn't find in the car while Lewis was getting podium finishes?

I thought 2012 was great, I'm now eagerly looking forward to 2013!

[racechick]

It wasnt the money. He looked at his last five years and how he currently felt at Mclaren and needed a change. Mercedes have only been in F1 three years but Brawn has been building a team round him, he is aiming at 2014 when the reg changes and new engines come into play. Mercedes will have their own engines. Brawn has capitalised on this sort of situation before. This is what sold Mercedes to Lewis, to be incuded in, and working towards a period of domination by mercedes. He was clearly not happy at Mclaren it was written all over his face. He now has something to work towards, he will be motivated and so will the new team at Mercedes. It might turn out that McLaren build a rocket ship for Button, well so be it. It may be they continue for another ten years, there or there abouts, but never quite making it to the top. He's made his choice.

[What's Burning?]

You know what I think? That in the end, both Lewis and McLaren will have a more difficult time winning a title in the next few years.

[f1boy]

What I don't understand is why McLaren would favour Jenson over Lewis in the first place??
Like I said earlier, don't they want to win any championships?? Strange management not making your fastest driver the priority imo.


Good posts What's Burning?/racechick. 100% agree.

[vaptin]

I would argue if Mclaren produced a car that met Button's balance and tyre grip requirements, he would be fantastic in it, even with Lewis in the same car.

You mean like Brawn did in 2009?

But also, I still think McLaren may be producing cars a fair standard faster than Mercedes. Can't wait to find out either way.

I wouldn't doubt that in the slightest, but if you looks throughout the season you'll see qualifying results where Hamilton out qualified his team mate by a fair standard, so perhaps they're going to be pretty evenly matched? Perhaps Mercedes won't need to spend time and resources trying to fix whatever button couldn't find in the car while Lewis was getting podium finishes?

I thought 2012 was great, I'm now eagerly looking forward to 2013!

Brawn in 2009 where Honda spent ages working on that car (they could test it too couldn't they? In 2008), and some instances with McLaren too.

True Hamilton usually is some way ahead of Jenson in qualifying, but Jenson is usually still ahead of the Mercedes, Rosberg is fairly highly rated and Schumacher has started to out qualify him, so I'm not so sure how much faster Hamilton will be making the Mercedes go.

Points have been awarded for races, where Mercedes are usually swallowed whole but sometimes shaken apart, tyre degradation and reliability issues.

Signing Hamilton is a big sign of ambition, but this is F1, ambition doesn't get you to the top alone, I bet Ferrari are jerking themselves off at the prospect of an engine development race, I think it is fair to say, and generally accepted even on here that they have the best manufacturing department. Brawn is talented at team building, but it's not like Mercedes weren't telling us they'd be great before, like Caternham for the past few seasons they have been talking themselves up only to be disappointing - will it be different in the near future?

Maybe McLaren will hit a sweet spot, they clearly do have championship winning potential with their team.

Benson also wrote that McLaren will have parity on engines with Mercedes in 2014.

[andrew]

I don't get the thread title. What are McLaren's 99 problems?

[scotty]

It's a reference to that Jay Z song.

[andrew]

Ok, I don't listen to hippity hop music and P Duddly and wotnot.

So they haven't actually got 99 problems then? Just 3 or 4 which is normal for any F1 team.