NewsOnF1 - Too many corporate types think they can "manage" a racing team

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Diagnosis & Prognosis
By the Heretic

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By the Quali-flyer

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Heretic: Good to hear from you again!
As usual, you are thoughtful and cool (as in dispassionate) and thorough in analysis. I, too, wish Jarno T. had been able to stay in the race. But not because I think he would have shown us anything about how good the Renault is. But because, if he had stayed in, my hunch is that the gap between him and Fernando would have been more than double the gap between Michael and Rubens. That is, assuming Fernando still finishes second and Rubens third, J.T. would have been seventh or eighth! (at best).
I believe your observations are more about the machines than the racers --and your analyses are a good balance for my racing excitement. But the thing is that the machine is ONLY as good as its driver --whereas a RACER is ALWAYS better than the machine he's driving even when it is the best machine. And what is making Mac look good right now is Kimi and what is making Renault look good is Fernando (or "Fred" as the announcer keeps calling him) and, as good as they both really are, neither Ralph NOR JPM is good ENOUGH to make BMW / Williams look good.
I'm less impressed with Toyota than you are, but that's because I fear they're going the way of Jaguar under Nikki, not Ferrari under Ross. And if Jag is doing O.K. with the Cosworth Ford (at last) and Eddie J. is pushing his cars around with the same powerplant, why are you not impressed with them? Do you think Eddie J.'s cars would underperform Sauber if HE had last year's big red Engines?! Not with Ralph and Fisi slinging them around the track!
I hope you're wrong about the disappearance of Minardi and Jordan (who cares --I mean, REALLY, WHO CARES WHAT HAPPENS TO BAR!!??!!).
And if Hyundai or Daewoo or Kia wanted to pay Eddie J. or Paul Stoddard to badge a decent engine and carry their colors along with it into the fray, why wouldn't that be a GOOD thing? I mean who really believes that Merc makes the Mac go? Those engines are as British as the London Bridge --and they're still outperforming the best the Hauptman's can come up with at BMW! (Same, of course, is true for Cosworth /"Fords". Paint a blue oval on it, call it whatever you want: just write the cheques and make sure they don't bounce.)
Alas, too many corporate types think they can "manage" a racing team.
Anyway. Good times or Bad. Let's see 22 cars on the grid and may the best man win!
At least, at the very least, their paint schemes would be better than BAR or Jag or (worst of all) Toyota! - Jim W - USA (Reference Heretic 5-07 - How good is the new Ferrari?)

The Heretic replies:

Jim,

It is good to hear from you again, too.

When I started writing this column I felt that my focus was around half on the cars and half on the drivers. Today, I confess, I believe that the cars make a far greater contribution to the outcome and, sad as it may be, drivers make a much smaller contribution.

That does not mean that I believe that the drivers are of little consequence but even there the emphasis has changed from flair, daring and skill to a much more cerebral skill set. Planning and controlled execution of the odds has become far more valuable than the ability to drive on the thin red line, like it was in my days. A good car will get a mediocre driver on the podium while a great driver will not finish a mediocre car in the points.

Having said that, I suspect that drivers like David Coulthard can semi retire in a good car and still look OK. Their car is so superior that it is not obvious that they are no longer putting in 100%.

I am really not impressed with Toyota, merely the fact that this team, that has managed to achieve so little so far, has eventually managed to pull away from the trailing edge. Their overall performance to date is close to pathetic. With their budget they should at least be ahead of the fund challenged teams by now. But, it was nice to see some progress.

I am not too sure that I am impressed with Jaguar either – sure Jordan does not impress me at all and that does get into the area where I do allow my emotions to get involved. There are drivers like Villeneuve, Button, and Fisichella that seem to keep on getting into the wrong car at the wrong time. Over time it destroys their careers. In my opinion Fisichella had the ability to do well and he may still have it, but he is likely to retire well below his capability through plain bad luck.

Jaguar deserved a good word because for once, as a team, they did not totally screw up. Jordan, with almost the same motor, looked pedestrian.

I am not convinced that Jordan’s only problem is the Cosworth in the back. Eddie has lost too many of his key staff and I think what we are seeing is the consequence of not having the skills pool to build the chassis they used to have.

Jordan could survive another year on their share of the takings for this year (thanks to Fisi’s win) but I suspect that Minardi are doing it too hard to even get enough points to survive. It will be a sad day as they have been responsible for bringing a lot of talent into the sport – not only drivers either.

I agree that BAR and Honda retiring will not affect anything, but where does Button and Villeneuve go?

Engines have no nationality. Ilmore may be built in Britain, originally owned by Brits, but the team working on them is as multicultural as the EEC. For years now it has only been a small group of experts that follow the biggest pay around Europe. Looking in from the outside I suspect that there are only enough of these to build three or four competitive engines and the learning curve for the rest is too steep. If the Japanese can’t catch up we’ll have to live with what we have.

Teams like Jordan and Minardi (and even Williams) will not survive as independents. Sooner or later a bad season will send them broke. At present, it seems that the only sponsors with deep enough pockets that perceives a benefit in being in F1, are the manufacturers. I don’t think it is bad, just different.

I agree, Toyota’s livery sucks.

Finally, although I agree with your observation that too many corporate types believe that they can manage a F1 team, I suspect that, again, there are very few that can and they are all spoken for. The sport has evolved to a point where virtually every job needs a lifetime of experience.

The Heretic