planetf1.com

Yeah it was insane. Lewis drove a stellar campaign in 2012. Here is James Allen making it 110 plus Germany's puncture and Japan's rear suspension problems plus Silverstone's 13 points that he forgot.

We could say 'up to' 150 if you like but whatever the exact figure his driving margin over JB (who did have the Monza failure but not for so many points) was BIG. That won't have escaped Ron.

Ron for sure knows the car isn't great but he'll want all his ducks lined up and he'd need a Merc-sized car advantage to win with his current drivers, unless Kev's got a lot of improving to come (which he may have but isn't visible yet).

I'm not sure why it is thought, that Honda, will have any say whatsoever in whom McLaren chooses to drive for the team.
Surely Honda's role is to produce a power unit better than or at the very least equal to Mercedes full stop.

I do not see them in any position to dictate a Japanese or any driver to McLaren.
Therefore Jenson's supposed popularity in Japan is irrelevant, as is a Japanese driver coming to McLaren .

What Dennis wants is a fighter pilot who can wrestle with that car until such a time as they get it performing to McLaren's usual standard which is not midfield.
Whitmarsh, the pitstop crew, the engineers and now the drivers were/are all under performing and really as Ron says its not good enough.

In the drivers press conference for his home team, Silverstone, Jenson has stated that he is looking to Lewis to wow the fans because he does not believe, he has a chance.
If the "lead" driver is that demoralised what of the rookie.

Jenson has become invisible and thats not good for business. Jenson needs to find something to motivate him and fast or he's out of F1 next year.

So Chillton should have said he was looking for the win as well?

Jenson said they won't be at the front row, and Boulier said McLaren will struggle. did you really want him to say he was going to win the GP instead of what he said (that he will try his best but a win is more likely down to Lewis)

Jenson's response "A question to Jenson and Lewis. Murray Walker asked you two this question back in 2010 when you were still team-mates, that we had a colossal fortnight of sport, England’s out of the World Cup, Andy Murray’s out of Wimbledon, Britain is looking at you two, perhaps three of you, how do you feel about Sunday, are you afraid of history repeating itself. Would you like to give your 2014 answer to this question?

JB: I personally feel all the pressure is on Lewis!
LH: I think it’s the other way around!
JB: He’s in the best car, c’mon, make it happen! For us, for Max and I suppose a little bit for myself it’s going to be tricky to get on the top step of the podium and, yeah, it would be amazing to have a British victory. The crowd would go absolutely wild. So, I’d love to see that. For us, as I said, it will be difficult but Lewis has got a shot so hopefully that will be the case."

Lewis's Response ""Lewis, you feel a sense of responsibility?
LH: I was going to say exactly the same thing about Jenson, I think we should hand the baton over. No, at the end of the day we’re both, all of us, are going to do our utmost to try to represent and perform for the country. You never know how the weekend’s going to go, you never know how people have developed, improved – but of course, us as a leading team, hopefully we’ll have a good shot this weekend and I’ll do everything I can to bring at least a little bit of joy and add to the great success that some of the top athletes have.

I still don't see a problem. i saw the interview at full and i think his response was genuine. as i said even the Boullier said they will struggle and Lewis and Nico are the two most likely to win and even if they don't there is quite a gap of teams till McLaren so all Jenson said was that his win was unlikely.

I don't understand why you are saying his response is demotivated, i doubt any other driver will say different even the second best team (RBR) and race winner Ricciardo said he was hoping to trouble the Mercedes. McLaren are sadly not likely to win this, everyone knows that and Jenson just said that it will be difficult for them.


Did either Alonso, Kimi or Vettel (all WDCs) say they were going to win this or even be in a fight, or maybe all they said it is difficult and they are hoping for the best?

None of the drivers say they are going to win they all know anything can happen.

But does this sound like the same Jenson to you as when he was partnered with Lewis.

Jenson himself said his teammate needed to contribute more , he needs a teammate to bounce off of.
His decline started in 2012 (Lewis had mentally checked out of McLaren) he was worse in 2013 and this year he has resided himself and the team with him to midfield.

Do you really think that not expecting much this weekend is going to produce results.

Do you think that Ron Dennis, who is casting a discerning eye over the team as a whole to assess how deeply the rot has set in under Whitmarsh,
is going to be impressed with Jenson's lacklustre demeanour or any other team boss should McLaren not renew his contract.
,

Looks like the relationship is getting sour.

http://www.wheels24.co.za/News/Button-o ... t-20140704

And I am sure he analysed 2011 too.

They actually found something fundamentally wrong with Buttons car because he wasn't slightly off the pace he was struggling with the backmarkers and 1 second off the pace from Lewis. What's Lewis's excuse for being slower and doing consistently poor in 2011? Perhaps he was more bothered about JBs happy "Bubble" and used that as an excuse. And this is a driver who is considered to be one of the fastest on the grid. So when Button beat Lewis it was simply because Button did a better job.

You cant criticise a driver if your not willing to listen to the positives. We all know JB isn't consistently on his form but frankly find one driver who is. Even Alonso who is considered to be "the best" still got out qualified by Massa a few times a driver who isn't rated highly. If Button is a number 2 then frankly he is one of the best number 2s out there.

I don't think Ron has ever been a fan of Jenson. Ron IMO likes his drivers more insanely aggressive. He'll think in 2011 JB was a good No2, getting the same number of wins as Lewis but still more often running behind than in front then being there to pick up the pieces.

What Ron wants is someone better than Jenson. Yes JB can be great when his style suits the car and conditions. On his day there's no-one faster. But he's not Alonso or Hamilton, who are out on their own now with the exposure of Vettel.

Ron had Hamilton, after nurturing him for a decade, then Whitmarsh lost him. It must be very, very frustrating, and I daresay Ron is venting a bit of that on Button, who's in those rather large shoes now.

I think he is gone really, i would be surprised if he stays.

the question now is where to? I would absolutely love it if he partners Alonso in Ferrari although this would be harsh on Kimi.

Williams is the only other decent seat and potentially Lotus.

What do you mean think.

http://sport.uk.msn.com/f1/button-hits- ... s-comments

You don't say that to ron. Jenson HAs just committed McLaren suicide. Roh has kicked people out of the team for less

Why is Alonso 2015 McLaren hard to beleive? McLaren wants a faster driver and Alonso wants a faster car. There is a desire on both sides to engage. The unknown to us is Honda dyno numbers. If they are good Alonso can be enticed.

But he didn't say he was on the market. Crappy no-name source in plucking quotes from thin air shocker.

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I don't follow F1 so I don't know what I'm talking about

The problem here is ... Jenson is having a highly emotive weekend at Silverstone with the death of his father .
He also does not know the true nature of Ron Dennis , he is no Whitmarsh by any means their management styles are completely different.
Ron Dennis takes no prisoners he will not cover for anyone's mistakes as Whitmarsh would.

Jenson must know he's on shaky ground and should not have responded the way he did to Ron's careless remarks he should have left it at " I always give 100%.

He must now produce the goods from here on , or he's gone .
Hopefully he can dig deep and let this spat motivate him .

I respect Button for pushing back. McLaren have the superb Mercedes PU but seem to be the worst Mercedes powered team.

Button's back is against the wall and he is fighting. A noble thing for me. And given his career is mostly in the rearview mirror he has much less to lose by pushing back than a younger man.

I believe that was in 2005 when the drivers had to do the race on one set of tyres, Kimi was quicker because Montoya was leading and just looking after his tyres, i think he even said that Kimi's tyres had gone before the end of the race.

Mclaren's blame culture tends to start with the drivers

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PF1 Pick 10 Competition

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2014: Champion
2015: 3rd Place
2016: 4th Place
2017: 9th Place
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Wins: Canada 2018, Abu Dhabi 2017
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I read an interview with Garry Paffett were he let slip that Montoya was sacked

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PF1 Pick 10 Competition

2013: 5th Place
2014: Champion
2015: 3rd Place
2016: 4th Place
2017: 9th Place
2018: 7th place

Wins: Canada 2018, Abu Dhabi 2017
Podiums: (6)

I don't think they will either but they have in the past, they put Sato in the Honda team alongside Button

_________________
PF1 Pick 10 Competition

2013: 5th Place
2014: Champion
2015: 3rd Place
2016: 4th Place
2017: 9th Place
2018: 7th place

Wins: Canada 2018, Abu Dhabi 2017
Podiums: (6)

This is the key point here.

I've not seen it mentioned on TV either, and its a fairly big thing when you look at their car building history. But they've built the slowest car of all the merc powered teams. Its not what we'd expect from McLaren given their history.

Its all very well telling Jenson to hurry up, but he's in the 6th best car on the grid anything higher than 11th 12th in the race is an achievement

They're barely even developing the car now, so how they expect him to go faster I don't know.


Its a shame that Ron has decided to lay the blame at Jenson's door, when we all know that its mostly everything leading upto the driver thats the problem

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Warning: The above post may contain sarcasm.

True. I missed that(!). That experiment didn't work well for them so hopefully they'll have learned from the past. Mind you, even with that they had a good number 1 driver (Button, ironically) who consistently challenged for points, which is consistent with their previous strategy. I also can't see Ron having driver choice dictated to him. McLaren consider their rightful place to be fighting at the front of the pack: the current situation is an aberration as far as they are concerned. I think their driver policy will be determined by that belief and that alone.

If Jenson doesn't like the finger pointing and the blame culture, why was he blaming his team mate so recently for his inexperience?

well, well, well

Heh Heh

Thanks Ron

This seems to make sense: Montoya publicly in interview saying he walked, but Paffit letting slip that Monty was fired. I can imagine Ron after Monty collided with Kimi at that first (?) corner, Indy 2006: he must have gone ballistic.

Which does not auger well for the rest of the season with Ron's demotivating Jenson. But maybe JB will fight back harder on principal because of this? Hope so.

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http://grandprixratings.blogspot.com

It seems that Ron knows what to say to "fix" Jenson

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eeee

Maybe JB can pull that nineteen-year-old's stunt after his mother's 'motivational' comment, that knocked Nadal out of Wimbledon?

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http://grandprixratings.blogspot.com

He mustered up a pretty good response to Ron with his qualifying result today.

Obviously a dry track would have been preferable with that position.

It was almost as if Papa John smiled down on Jenson and gave him exactly the conditions he needed to remind Ron that he's not that bad when the playing field is levelled out a bit.

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Warning: The above post may contain sarcasm.

In the few years Dennis has been out of the spotlight we have forgotten what a tyrant he can be.

There's just no pleasing some people. Whitmarsh was castigated for being "too nice," and now when Ron shows a little bit of steel he's accused of throwing his weight around. And he's hardly been frothing at the mouth, either. I don't see that he's said anything controversial, personally

I agree, it was constructive criticism and stops Jenson getting complacent or hiding behind the car all the time. Jenson will be in the car next year as Alonso and Hamilton are not moving on promises and I don't believe Dennis would replace Button with anyone else as there is not a clear enough delta with other drivers. Dennis just wants Button to add some aggression to his style and frankly it would not do his long term legacy any harm at this late stage in his career to gain some reputation in that area. I heard it said that McLaren feel Button needs to be shown how much ultimate speed there is in a car before he rises up to the challenge (e.g. Hamilton) and Magnussen is not providing that challenge this year as Perez did not last year so Dennis wants Button to find that ultimate speed on his own as the lead No.1 driver. Like Button himself said he rises up to find the limit of adhesion rather than others who go over and come back and I think Dennis preference is drivers of the latter style. Anyway Button said more on this topic in the qualifying conference ...

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/93 ... conference

Q: (Chris Medland - crash.net) Jenson, you were asked about Ron's comments on Thursday, asking for a bit more from you. Does that make this perfect timing in response, this sort of result?

JB: He's watching this, I'm sure! One result doesn't mean anything. We've obviously talked since and yeah, I think there's mutual respect there but when we all want things to improve quicker than what they are, we maybe say things in the press that maybe we shouldn't. We have a really good working relationship and I hope that that continues into the future.

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Kimi: "Come on, get the McLaren out of the way!”

Now that's what I'm talking about ... Well done Jenson

Was thinking the same.

Hope todays fantastic result for Jenson has showed Ron that Jenson and Kevin is the driver combination to keep going into next season, it may just be coincidence that Jenson has had a strong result after this bit of motivation from Ron, I just hope Jenson keeps delivering performances like today Go JB!

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Team Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas and Button.

Jense was fantastic today. I hope that some top F1 team will retain him, we need such balanced characters.

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The end is near

I personally want him over to Williams for 2015 to replace Massa.

Obvious that SFW and JB have much time for one another and it would be fitting.

Besides its bloody obvious Williams are pi55ing all over Mclaren with a much smaller budget.

RD is a sugarplum, always has been always will be...

If only he got that podium today

He made sure not to let Alonso past him .

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Kimi: "Come on, get the McLaren out of the way!”

And that Ladies and Gents is why Ron Dennis is the man!

Brilliant response from Jenson today, chuffed for him. He needed that result

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2008
2014
2015

Keep Fighting Michael

I hope he can Carry on getting top 5 results. It's really the best we can hope for with the fairy cakes McLaren have delivered this year.

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Warning: The above post may contain sarcasm.

Dennis thought he could boot out the team manager replace him with Eric and all would be OK.However Dennis is interfering in Mcclarens come back finding it beyond his abilities to bring back success to the team and is desperate. Rons desperation is destroying everything that is good within the team and moral is very low due to this. Like Alonso Jensen has held this team together..it was very telling what his engineer told him at the end of the socchi race. 'Yet another smooth professional drive'!

JB is very talented but like all human failure you don't recognise what you have until its gone.....Dennis must now be squeesed out as he is not adding value here.