Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

ItΒ΄s simply an honour seeing Murray Walker analysis.
Thanks Murray and thanks Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ!!

Great race at the weekend, really enjoyable.

I am again left wondering how McLaren come up with the strategies they employ on race day. Since the beginning of the season, when the 'F-duct' was unleashed on the F1 world, I had been looking forward to Monza. With the huge straights, I expected the MP4/25 to dominate.
When I heard during the week there was a possibility of VMM removing their 'F-duct', I thought it was a wind-up. Then, on Saturday, Lewis had his removed from his car.
The set-up used by Jenson Button was clearly the way to go.
Up and down the pit lane, teams were either shaking their heads in astonishment, or laughing up their sleeves.

Many people said Jenson was onto a hiding to nothing when he signed to "Lewis' team", but from what I've seen in Australia, Turkey, to a lesser extent in China and now in Italy, VMM have been going too far in the direction of Jenson in a bid to make him feel welcome.

On another note. Mark Webber was totally justified in being a bit grumpy after the Hulkenburg saga. Cutting chicanes, weaving, you name it. Had Mark failed to pass him during the race, I'm sure a protest would have been in order.

Anyway, looking forward to Singapore. One of my favourite races on the calendar. Hopefully Lewis can come back strong!

I think we need to look at the two performances and mindsets of the two VMM drivers before we all sit here and say that the management is starting favour one or the other.
I think Button has shown nothing but maturity and class to achieve what he has so far this season, and he has done so through a world champions intellect and mind management. The races that he has won have been down to ten years in the sport and knowing when to make the right decisions. Button drives with his head and is in the mould of Michael Schumacher where he analysis key points of the race and adjusts his driving style to suit changing conditions. This was the key behind his early season and Monza successes.
Hamilton on the other hand has less knowledge to draw on and relies on his pure speed and the ability to wrestle an underperforming car round a circuit and still shows astonishing lap times.
Button will always shine but only when he feels that a car is perfectly set up for him which is why we have seen his performance drop off in the middle part of the season.
In the final part of the season you will find Hamilton drop his "all gun blazing" approach and start to use the telemetry to his benefit in order to make calm and concise setup decisions before he even steps behind the wheel.
McLaren have always been a "racing" team and they let there drivers fight fare and square. Just look back to the difficulty they had with Alonso when he thought he wasn’t given the Number one status in the team.
Redbull will return to form in the remaining 5 races and i think we will see both McLaren’s use the same setup as one side of the garage starts to learn from the other. Its only way they have a chance to catch now has to be a team that is operating with a "number 1" driver.

Just a comment on "McLaren have always been a "racing" team and they let there drivers fight fare [fair] and square".
This is a misconception.

In the Ferrari/Michael Schumacher glory days Ferrari had no problem announcing & admitting that they had a number 1 - in fact the team was built around him in a sense.

On the other hand McLaren were lying all along when they claimed that Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were "equals". They were not. We as fans could see clearly that Hakkinen always received preferential treatment and this was confirmed recently by David Coulthard himself that knowing now that he was number 2 took a huge weight off his shoulder.

mickmickmurphy - Monza is exactly the sort of track where the F-duct has little effect. At Monza most teams run skinny wings meaning running a F-duct has little effect other than allowing you to run with a big wing (ala Button) however this is actually a disadvantage on the straights as proven by the straight line speeds. The F-duct is never going to be as efficient at lowering drag as simply not having the drag there in the first place - which of course is not an option at most tracks, Monza being one of the exceptions.

The comments recently made by Coulthard on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ have to be taken in the context they were meant in. At the start of each season no driver was given the number one status in a team. The decision to put all there eggs in one basket was only made when it was mathematically impossible for one driver not to win the championship. It just happens to be that Mikka was the more talented driver and at the critical points in each of those seasons he was the outright leader in the team.

I’m not saying that team orders don’t exist as we all know that they clearly do. I’m simply saying that Button took on this role in the McLaren team knowing that the team held Lewis in such high regard I don’t think he nor the management would start to place preferential treatment behind to make him feel comfortable. Jenson is not Alonso; he has been through the tough times in F1 and knows how to handle himself without seeking an unnecessary upper hand in a team.

#6 - The most famous Coulthard incident where he pretty much pulled over to let Hakkinen pass was in the 2nd or 3rd race of the season.
Not at this stage or later I'm afraid.

In his own words:

"we had a gentlemans agreement, whoever came out of the first lap leading would be given the race by the final lap"

This wasnt enforced by the team, but it was allowed.