It seems to me that an obvious fact has been missed from F1 news headlines over the last few weeks, and has been over-shadowed by "regulation changes" and the British Grand-Prix. This subject has to be the incompetence of a certain Team Principle - Martin Whitmarsh.
Has anyone else noticed that Ron Dennis' presence at Grands-Prix has increased ten-fold over this season and I believe this is the result of several mistakes made by the McLaren team, and as a result the responsibility has to fall on the shoulders of Whitmarsh.
How many times over this season has Lewis had radio transmissions explaining that he needs to "slow down to conserve fuel" or have we seen errors by the team which leads to the team having to give-up a potential podium to "ease off the car a bit"?
It seems to me that under-fuelling an F1 car in a sport that is so technical is a basic and amateur thing to do if you actually asses the driving styles of your drivers lets have a brief look at the British GP.
Lewis Hamilton
The 2008 champion started on the grid in 10th position. Now, as a Lewis fan, and knowing what this man is like on the track, any comments from the team saying, "we didn't think we would be as competitive here and fuelled the car lighter" is utter tripe. Lewis isn't happy unless he is up the front of the pack and will do anything to get there - this takes a massive push for pace, and ergo, more fuel to drive to the maximum.
Just because Lewis starts in 10th he doesn't think, "ahh well I'll settle for a couple of points and just drive in circles for an hour and 40." In his head he is thinking, "Right, 9 cars to pass, and I have a very heavy right-foot, this should be fun."
The responsibility to get a driver as many points as possible lies with the driver and his Race Engineer (RE), but ultimately the team principle who will "OK" every decision made by both RE's because the car takes to the grid - an epic mistake was made by Whitmarsh on this occasion.
Jenson Button
Although we will never know whether JB had enough fuel to push until the end or not, it is my belief that his early pace was a result of light-fuelling the car and it was only a matter of time before he got the call to "switch to cruise" and risk further points.
The error made by the chief mechanic to release JB without a wheel-nut on the front right was one of massive proportions and was simply a school-boy error, I hope he was severely reprimanded by MW and the team for this mistake.
We all know the "official" reason why Ron Dennis stepped down as team principal was to "focus on the automotive side of McLaren," but any F1 fan knows the REAL reason was because he was pushed out after the spy-gate scandal. But, with Flavio Briatore and Pat Fry seemingly working their way back into the sport after a much bigger scandal, could Ron's presence at recent Grands-Prix be the start of something?
It is purely my opinion that Dennis needs to take the helm one again, as, in my eyes, Whitmarsh is no-more than a PR-expert, great infront of the camera, lacking on the pitwall.
Your thoughts?
Credit: The F1 Times (www.thef1times.com)
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