FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[What's Burning?]

Maybe he's off to help Porsche win Le Mans?

[scotty]

The amount of speculation that goes on without anyone here knowing what really took place is remarkable.

Well, i know i have based my opinion (that he has been scapegoated) on what Haug has said himself, which is surely not that leftfield.

And I don't doubt there was some of that as well but the guy wasn't simply running F1 for Mercedes, he was VP of motorsports... all motorsports and they did have a pretty damned banner year in DTM so I think there's a lot of factors that all weighed in on the decision. So I do tend to believe that it was mutual. Obviously if he goes off to work with BMW or Audi next year it would imply a lot but as of now it's mostly conjecture.

But Haug's own wording (see the article posted further up by Andrew) suggests that this is more to do with him assuming responsibility for the lack of results in F1 rather than DTM (which is completely unmentioned), that's what my point is. I believe it was indeed a mutual split, in the idea that Haug accepted responsibility - even where it wasn't his fault.

[andrew]

Compared with DTM, F1 is the headline grabbing sport. I suspect that the Mercedes board would value success in F1 higher than success in DTM due to the amount of fans and viewers F1 attracts compared to other motorsports.

My thinking is that he's effectively taken a bullet for the rest of the team to maybe protect them a bit from the Mercedes board, who would have been hoping that Mercedes would have been challenging and beating the front running teams by now. I know this is speculation but if you read what Haug has said it does seem plausible.

[Jabberwocky]

Maybe Haug put his neck on the line when he was pushing to buy Brawn, 3 years on his head has been called for.

[myownalias]

So if Haug was the scapegoat; who are they going to blame next season for their poo performance; they'll probably start off well and fade as the season goes on. I just don't think that Mercedes has the hunger, in my view firing Haug is a great indication of that; Haug had the passion for motorsport; like all manufacturers with the exception of Ferrari solely use F1 as a marketing exercise for their brand. I just have no faith that Mercedes can pull it out of the bag like their predecessors, BMW, Honda, Toyota and Renault!

Sounds more like you want Merc to fail and its obvious to see why.

If you want to believe that I want Merc to fail for whatever obvious reason you see... so be it! But the reality is that I don't want any team to fail, I'd like to see Merc to do well and challenge the frontrunners. I am just expressing an opinion; given Merc's performance in the last few years; and getting rid of a key man in Mercedes just before preparations are just about to start; it doesn't bode well for the future. It's like all those football teams that sack managers, only to be as crap as they were before the managerial change!

Well if you chose to respond to that one line instead of my entire post, forget it.

All I can say is this is no regular sacking. Mercedes had plenty of opportunities to sack Haug during those stale years McLaren have had with Mercedes being an engine supplier but they didn't. This could be a part of further restructuring which is mutually agreed by all parties in order to make immediate improvements for the future. None of us know the full story, but in the end the cars will be doing the 'talking' on track and we shall see what Merc's response is staring March 2013.

I had nothing to say about the rest of the post; that was your opinion; and I had no counter argument for it; however I did take exception to your claim that I simply want Mercedes to fail!

[bud]

The amount of speculation that goes on without anyone here knowing what really took place is remarkable.

Well, i know i have based my opinion (that he has been scapegoated) on what Haug has said himself, which is surely not that leftfield.

And I don't doubt there was some of that as well but the guy wasn't simply running F1 for Mercedes, he was VP of motorsports... all motorsports and they did have a pretty damned banner year in DTM so I think there's a lot of factors that all weighed in on the decision. So I do tend to believe that it was mutual. Obviously if he goes off to work with BMW or Audi next year it would imply a lot but as of now it's mostly conjecture.

But Haug's own wording (see the article posted further up by Andrew) suggests that this is more to do with him assuming responsibility for the lack of results in F1 rather than DTM (which is completely unmentioned), that's what my point is. I believe it was indeed a mutual split, in the idea that Haug accepted responsibility - even where it wasn't his fault.

this is my thinking, obviously there was a time frame for results which were not met. Many members of the Daimler board do not want a works F1 team so to appease those people Haug fell on his sword instead of the team exiting the sport. Drastic but not so considering the mutterings of some of the board the past 3 years.

[Jabberwocky]

More worryingly is how long has Haug saved the team for? 1 season? 2?

[racechick]

They wouldn't be paying Hamilton a big three year contract if they were planning on quitting after one or two years.

[Jabberwocky]

That does not mean that the peron who signed him knows what the boards plan is

[racechick]

But surely the board wouldn't have sanctioned a three year multi million deal if they weren't fully committed.

[Jabberwocky]

What like Honda, Toyota, and BMW did

[racechick]

I can't remember what drivers they had contracted when they quit.

[bud]

Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello ring a bell?

[Jabberwocky]

Had they signed Rubens I thought they where still deciding on Bruno or not

[Denthúl]

They hadn't signed Rubens at the time they pulled out of F1. They had, however, just invested in bringing Ross Brawn onboard to move things forward, as well as poured somewhere around $400m into developing a car for 2009. If they can pull out after that level of investment then I suppose anything could happen.