Zoue wrote:
POBRatings wrote:
Chunky wrote:
Jenson is on his way out. I've been saying that ever since the Honda engine deal was announced. The one year contract pretty much confirmed it for me.
To my mind, it's madness. You need a mature, capable, analytical driver to help develop a new car, which is effectively what's going to happen next year at McLaren. The Jenson versus Kevin results illustrate that. Unfortunately, Daniel whupping Seb has pretty much contradicted that - people forget that Vettel was, is and likely never will, be anything but a very capable point and squirt driver.
One of next year's Macca drivers will be either Japanese, or from a country where Honda has a big presence or marketing opportunity.
Remember that Jenson was brought in by Whitmarsh, so Ron has no great connection there. Ron's just getting his post-event justification in early.
Agree with you about Jenson. Your last sentence seems to be the key: will Ron have more say than Honda, who have worked for years with JB. Sounds as if he's already undermining Jenson.
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Honda never showed any inclination to put a Japanese driver in before, either with Lotus with Senna in the early 80s, Williams when Piquet was there or McLaren/Lotus with Senna/Piquet again after that. They tend to associate with the big drivers as a policy. They are pragmatic and will be looking for a winner, not a nationality IMO.
I believe they will try very hard to get either Alonso or Lewis, as these two look the most likely to get the best out of a car even when it doesn't suit them. There are already rumours linking both to McLaren and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Honda were a driving force behind that. Jenson is a very capable driver IMO but doesn't appear to have that extra something to lift an average car. Thing is, beyond the two already mentioned I'm not sure who else would be a step up? McLaren have already tried twice at least to lure Kimi back and I don't think it will happen again; besides, he's also having issues at Ferrari. Vettel's a possibility but again he's being outperformed by his new team mate and doesn't look 100% comfortable, so would he be better than Button? Jury's out for me. Rosberg looks fairly set at Mercedes. Hulk can best be described as solid. Perez has been there done that (and is perhaps a little too erratic). Grosjean is not quite the finished article etc etc. Who else stands out that you'd say would be a definite improvement that Honda would insist on?
Completely agree. Additionally, if you look at what Jenson has done this season, race-by-race, he has done a perfectly fine job. He was disappointing in the race in Spain; he qualified well and his race pace was ok, but his start ruined his race. Austria is the only weekend where you can say he wasn't quick enough.
His performances in Malaysia, Bahrain (until the SC) and Canada were absolutely top notch - He ran ahead of arguably faster cars in all three races. In Australia he was fortunate McLaren executed strategy perfectly, but he was very quick when he wasn't in traffic.
Magnussen is roughly equal with him in quali, but I think that speaks more for K-Mag than it does for Jenson, considering Jenson matched Checo in quali last year.
Like you say, Seb and Kimi are demonstrating that their skillsets are relatively similar to Jenson; they struggle with cars that aren't suited to them. And we know that when Jenson had the fastest car and an inferior team-mate, he reached a level of dominance (in 2009) similar to that of Vettel in 2011/13 & Kimi in 2005.
It's clear that McLaren are looking for a true lead driver, a replacement for Hamilton, and Jenson does not represent that. But apart from Rosberg, Alonso and maybe Ricciardo, who does? Rosberg and Ricciardo are committed to their teams and there's no way Alonso will drive for Ron again. It seems to me the team are deluding themselves into thinking there's a Hamilton replacement available right now, just like they did in 2012.
If McLaren are smart, they will sign Jenson to a more cost-effective deal and they will do everything in their power to get Vandoorne into a smaller team for 2015.