FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[irons_4_ever]

The transition from Ron to Martin has hit a speed bump forsure and has anyone else noticed that we have heard nothing from Ron concerning this ordeal, I wonder why?

he isnt even in Maylasia

[Frosty]

The transition from Ron to Martin has hit a speed bump forsure and has anyone else noticed that we have heard nothing from Ron concerning this ordeal, I wonder why?

he isnt even in Maylasia

Yeah I think Ron wanted to show that Martin was the man in charge now by not going to Malaysia I will be very surprised if Martin quit because the only other suitable person is Ron.

[texasmr2]

The transition from Ron to Martin has hit a speed bump forsure and has anyone else noticed that we have heard nothing from Ron concerning this ordeal, I wonder why?

he isnt even in Maylasia

Ron does not have to be at the racetrack to interject his opinion/input I just find it kinda odd that we have not heard from the 'boss' thats all.

[MAD MAX]

Ron does not have to be at the racetrack to interject his opinion/input I just find it kinda odd that we have not heard from the 'boss' thats all.

Why throw more petrol on the fire. It just detracts from the job in hand. It is my honest belief that at the 'infamous' stewards meeting where L.H and his race manager Dave Ryan attended that it was Ryan that gave the answers that there had been no instruction to Lewis from the pits and Lewis said nothing, hence his admission at his press conference that he apologised for witholding information from the stewards. I could be wrong but thats what I think happened and I'm prepared to be corrected.

[texasmr2]

Ron does not have to be at the racetrack to interject his opinion/input I just find it kinda odd that we have not heard from the 'boss' thats all.

Why throw more petrol on the fire. It just detracts from the job in hand. It is my honest belief that at the 'infamous' stewards meeting where L.H and his race manager Dave Ryan attended that it was Ryan that gave the answers that there had been no instruction to Lewis from the pits and Lewis said nothing, hence his admission at his press conference that he apologised for witholding information from the stewards. I could be wrong but thats what I think happened and I'm prepared to be corrected.

Not trying to increase the size of the fire just making an observation.

[racechick]

Ah sorry I guess I missed that one, my bad , how about this?

MOSLEY: No Descision Yet On Further McLaren Sanctions

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIA president Max Mosley says he is awaiting reports from officials before deciding whether or not McLaren will be brought before the World Motor Sport Council to explain why it deliberately misled race stewards.

With the controversy surrounding McLaren's misrepresentation of a radio conversation between the pit wall and Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix still dominating talk in the Sepang paddock, Mosley has indicated that he remains open minded about the matter.

When asked, during a briefing with journalists at the Rally Portugal, whether Hamilton's apology for lying to the stewards was enough for McLaren to avoid facing sanctions, Mosley said: "I don't know. We haven't had the reports.

"There may be a report to the World Council. If there is, I will almost certainly be one of the people there to decide what happens. Therefore it would be completely wrong for me to discuss the rights and wrongs of the situation."

Further details about the McLaren team's specific involvement in the affair, and especially what happened in the days following the original stewards' hearing at the Australian Grand Prix, could be revealed during the team's regular press briefing which has been scheduled to take place at Sepang on Sunday morning.

Questions are being asked about why McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh was not aware of what Ryan and Hamilton had been saying to the stewards prior to the second hearing that took place in Malaysia on Thursday afternoon.

Even later that day, following the hearing and stewards' decision, Whitmarsh insisted that his team had not 'lied'.

The events have overshadowed the Malaysian GP weekend, and it is understood that relations between Hamilton and his McLaren team have been strained by all that has gone on.

Hamilton himself admitted during his emotional appearance at a press conference on Friday that he had been 'misled' - and was hurt that by acting on the orders of a team he had left him open to scathing criticism in the media for 'lying'.

"I've never felt so bad," he said. "Try and put yourself in my position and understand that, like I said, I am not a liar. I have not gone through my life being a liar or dishonest. And so for people to say I am dishonest and for the world to think that....what can I say?"

Mosley has insisted that despite Hamilton's disqualification from the Australian GP coming on the back of a number of penalties over the past 12 months, there was no personal vendetta against the British driver.

"We're trying to make sure everybody conducts themselves as they should," he said. "But you always have to remember with motorsport generally and Formula 1 in particular that it has all the complexities of any sport when there's one person or people against each other plus all the mechanical difficulties so it's very complex.

"Our system isn't perfect but we are doing our utmost to make sure everybody follows the rules. I wouldn't say we're stricter than in the past but maybe we've got better people doing it."

I personaly feel that Lewis is not to blame for this whole fiasco.

I agree with you. He did lie and will forever beat himself up about this. I can quite see how he would have considered walking away from it all and I dont expect him to race well today.This is not about having a stewards decision go against him, he's had that before.
If you've only ever seen Lewis as a spoilt, arrogant,cocky (insert in here other descriptors of your choice)little toerag, then you will not be able to conceive of how he is feeling about this now.

[texasmr2]

I agree with you. He did lie and will forever beat himself up about this. I can quite see how he would have considered walking away from it all and I dont expect him to race well today.This is not about having a stewards decision go against him, he's had that before.
If you've only ever seen Lewis as a spoilt, arrogant,cocky (insert in here other descriptors of your choice)little toerag, then you will not be able to conceive of how he is feeling about this now.

I honestly believe he is very disturbed by this situation. Just because I'm more of a Ferrari fan does not mean I dont like Lewis and think he is quite honorable, it is frankly a very very sad situation.

[racechick]

I agree with you. He did lie and will forever beat himself up about this. I can quite see how he would have considered walking away from it all and I dont expect him to race well today.This is not about having a stewards decision go against him, he's had that before.
If you've only ever seen Lewis as a spoilt, arrogant,cocky (insert in here other descriptors of your choice)little toerag, then you will not be able to conceive of how he is feeling about this now.

I honestly believe he is very disturbed by this situation. Just because I'm more of a Ferrari fan does not mean I dont like Lewis and think he is quite honorable, it is frankly a very very sad situation.

Yes it is.

[Robert182]

I agree with you. He did lie and will forever beat himself up about this. I can quite see how he would have considered walking away from it all and I dont expect him to race well today.This is not about having a stewards decision go against him, he's had that before.
If you've only ever seen Lewis as a spoilt, arrogant,cocky (insert in here other descriptors of your choice)little toerag, then you will not be able to conceive of how he is feeling about this now.

I honestly believe he is very disturbed by this situation. Just because I'm more of a Ferrari fan does not mean I dont like Lewis and think he is quite honorable, it is frankly a very very sad situation.

Amen to that.....its all spot on....thats called taking one for the team

[McLaren Fan]

It's not really surprising Hamilton is considering leaving McLaren. It's not as though he had much loyalty to the team anyway. He's been frustrated with the MP4-24's pace, thinking McLaren are no longer up to his standards, despite having provided him with world championship winning equipment in his two previous seasons in Formula One (and all of the other support he got in the junior formulae). Moreover, I'm not entirely convinced Hamilton did precisely as he was told by Ryan. Hamilton has disobeyed the team before, so why has he suddenly become such a mindless team boy?

[Gaz]

It's not really surprising Hamilton is considering leaving McLaren. It's not as though he had much loyalty to the team anyway. He's been frustrated with the MP4-24's pace, thinking McLaren are no longer up to his standards, despite having provided him with world championship winning equipment in his two previous seasons in Formula One (and all of the other support he got in the junior formulae). Moreover, I'm not entirely convinced Hamilton did precisely as he was told by Ryan. Hamilton has disobeyed the team before, so why has he suddenly become such a mindless team boy?

Whitmash has said he never considered leaving and Anthony has backed this up

Think its just media hype, where would he go?

[Denthúl]

It's not really surprising Hamilton is considering leaving McLaren. It's not as though he had much loyalty to the team anyway. He's been frustrated with the MP4-24's pace, thinking McLaren are no longer up to his standards, despite having provided him with world championship winning equipment in his two previous seasons in Formula One (and all of the other support he got in the junior formulae). Moreover, I'm not entirely convinced Hamilton did precisely as he was told by Ryan. Hamilton has disobeyed the team before, so why has he suddenly become such a mindless team boy?

This point has been raised in other places I've looked and whenever you say that Hamilton disobeyed orders from the team (Hungary 2007, mostly) everybody just falls back on the Alonso excuse. Hamilton's loyal image has never convinced me - trying to dump the team and sign for Williams to get him in to Formula One earlier than McLaren would give him a drive is always going to stick in my mind. Thing is, where is there for Lewis to go? BMW Sauber are going to want to keep hold of Kubica and, should they drop Heidfeld (I would hope they don't) then they would want a German driver in the other seat and that honour would go to Vettel initially, though if he refused then Glock and Rosberg would both make good choices.

Ferrari I'm not sure would be after him, but it's conceivable. I'd expect them to be looking at guys like Alonso and Vettel, though. Raikkonen also has the potential to stick around for a few years, as does Massa. Renault currently have Alonso, although Piquet is sure to get the boot soon. But I don't think that Hamilton would drive for Renault as long as Alonso is there. Red Bull seem happy with Webber and Vettel, who are both quick and consistent. Brawn will probably looking to sign Bruno Senna or Lucas di Grassi when they're a little more experience, although Barrichello could well hold on to the seat for next year. He and Button get on well and will push each other in races without getting foul about it.

Which leaves him with Williams. That could well be the place that he ends up, with Rosberg maybe going to McLaren, though with this year's Williams looking so competitive Sir Frank will probably hold on to Nico and if they want to keep up the Toyota engine supply, Nakajima will stick around.

Could you imagine Lewis in a Force India?

[Gaz]

http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3 ... 27,00.html

[McLaren Fan]

It's never the fault of the drivers and the drivers must always be protected at McLaren... The fact is there is yet another story circulating about Hamilton's disenchantment with the team. If it happens a couple of times, you can put it down to media spin, but when you consider it with Hamilton's history, it starts to look semi-credible. Even if Hamilton wasn't going to quit Formula One or leave McLaren because of the spy scandal, his relationship with the team is not brilliant, which has been the case since winter testing.

[McLaren Fan]

From autosport.com:

Whitmarsh admits to big errors

By Jonathan Noble Sunday, April 5th 2009, 06:16 GMT

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that his failure to stop the fallout from Lewis Hamilton's Australian Grand Prix disqualification snowballing out of control was a big misjudgement on his part.

Speaking on a weekend where his team has become embroiled in its biggest crisis since the spy affair of 2007, Whitmarsh confessed to having deep regrets about the way he has dealt with the situation.

In particular, he thinks it was a big error on his part not to cut short a post-Australian GP holiday he had in Indonesia so he could get to Malaysia and deal with the matter before it blew up into a major controversy.

"One of the criticisms against me is that I was on holiday, that I didn't arrive here in time," said Whitmarsh. "And I have got deep regrets about that.

"But clearly as I left Australia on Sunday evening I wasn't aware of an issue. An issue was started to be reported on Wednesday, which I was told about, but frankly I did not believe the scale of it nor the speed of it.

"I didn't know that the Australian stewards would be here and I hadn't imagined and again maybe [it was] a big misjudgement on my part but I hadn't imagined that there was going to be a stewards hearing here.

"I knew that there was an issue developing on Wednesday and that I had to speak to the people directly, which I did. Through to Friday morning Dave [Ryan] still held the view that he had not lied to the stewards, and that process I needed to go through.

"On Thursday night I left here with the feeling that this was a very severe and significant and embarrassing event for this team. Something which we have apologised for, I have apologised for and I apologise again to the media, to the FIA, to the World Motor Sport Council, to the president for what has happened."

Whitmarsh says his decision to suspend the team's sporting director Dave Ryan for his involvement in the matter was the hardest he has had to make in his career.

"I took a very tough decision, probably the most difficult professional decision of my life, to shatter a life of a very close colleague and friend and a huge part of this team," he said.

Whitmarsh also expressed regret about speaking to the media on Thursday, claiming his team had not lied to stewards, before he was fully aware of what had happened.

"I had a human instinct which was wrong probably, to defend colleagues, both Dave and Lewis and in doing that and jumping to that defence, I hadn't done the necessary homework for which I am deeply regretful of.

"But having spoken to Lewis, and Lewis told me on Thursday evening that he felt he had lied. Dave still did not, but I reflected on it overnight, and had to come to the view that I had to suspend Dave. I told the FIA what had happened and explained it to them, I explained it on Friday.

"Of course I have got a lot of regrets, I wish I had come straight here. I wish I had anticipated it. But in truth even if I was here on Monday, Tuesday and probably Wednesday, it wouldn't have made any difference because it wasn't an event that was unfolding or that we were aware of. And Lewis wasn't here either, he had gone on his own holiday somewhere."


Whitmarsh future in shareholders' hands

By Jonathan Noble Sunday, April 5th 2009, 08:02 GMT

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh says his future is in the hands of his companys shareholders.

In the wake of the fallout from Lewis Hamilton's disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix for deliberately misleading stewards, Whitmarsh has refused to rule out stepping down from the post he took from Ron Dennis on March 1.

But speaking ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Whitmarsh believed the matter would now be dealt with by McLaren's shareholders.

When asked if he was considering his future, Whitmarsh said: "Well it wouldn't be true if I said I wasn't, because at a time like this you think about what you got involved with this sport for and it wasn't for this sort of thing.

"You also think about what is best for the company and this great team. And it hasn't been a great experience for me. It wasn't what I started out 20 years ago to experience."

He added: "In the longer term I can contemplate my own future. Of course it is not self-determining, it's for the shareholders of this team to take a view and that's something they have to decide what's the best thing."

Whitmarsh said the team would return to its Woking base to decide on the next step following a remarkable week.

"I'm not resigning this weekend," he said. "We've made a commitment to look at how we arrived in this situation and we've got to learn from it and we've got to better in future.

"We will do a better job, I think therefore it is wrong to rule anything out, I've got to look at what is the best way forward for this team and how can we better in the future."

From F1 Live:

Vernie Ecclestone on Sunday said it is impossible to lay any blame for the 'lie-gate' saga at the door of McLaren Chairman Ron Dennis.

After decades in charge of the Woking-based team, Dennis handed over to his long-time deputy Martin Whitmarsh at the beginning of last month.

Ironically, Malaysia is the first race in living memory not attended by Dennis, who F1 Chief Executive Ecclestone believes would not have passed the buck to a junior official.

"Ron is an honest straightforward guy," Bernie said at Sepang. "He would always say 'the bucks stops here' and wouldn't expect Whitmarsh to do it. He'd do it himself.

"Ron has not been here so you can't blame him," the British billionaire added.

Interestingly, amid the likelihood of a World Council inquiry into possible further sanctions for the Mercedes-powered team, Ecclestone also said world champion Lewis Hamilton should not wear the blame.

"They have got an agreement with the team that he must follow team orders and he must not speak badly about the team," Bernie continued.
"I am sure the FIA will have a look at this now and see what they think of it. I don't know if McLaren should be punished. It is up to the FIA."

Whitmarsh told the media at Sepang that he would consider Dave Ryan's and his own future after returning to Britain following Sunday's race.

Norbert Haug revealed that engine and equity partner Mercedes will also be considering its position.

"I am in permanent contact with Stuttgart and of course we will sit down next week," the German said, insisting he has full trust in the team's boss.

Haug said of Whitmarsh: "He's a great guy and runs the team in a very good way."

Source: GMM
� CAPSIS International