Daniel Ricciardo way overrated.

Mclaren never really recovered from Newey leaving. The 2007 spy scandal and subsequent loss of Mike Coughlan really didn't help matters. With RBR dominating early 2010s, Mercedes emerging and Mclaren losing the Mercedes money and being the Mercedes factory team was a huge blow. Ron Dennis foresaw that being a customer team wouldn't get them anywhere so approached Honda to reunite. The rules being as they where and how enormously complicated the engines would be, Honda agreed to enter but could only do this by 2016. This was unacceptable to Ron and demanded not only the engine be ready a year early, but also fit in the very tight "size zero" concept they had. Whilst Honda did agree, they couldn't guarantee a good result...We all know how that story ended with Mclaren dumping Honda and RBR picking up the project, first evaluating it's potential using Toro Rosso (no loss there really) and design freedom/cooperation from RBR/STR rather than demands, and when that went well RBR became the Honda factory team. We know how that's going.


Whilst Ron's vision was correct, a partnership with a dedicated engine supplier is absolutely necessary, the demands Mclaren had where impossible. This led to the downfall of Ron and Mclaren. Letting Ron go was wrong in the end IMO.

It's extremely unlikely that Mclaren (or anyone) will win a title being a customer team. I don't quite understand how they still don't see this and haven't pursued the Audi factor. Perhaps because Mclaren doesn't want to sell and Audi is chasing full team ownership (that'll be Sauber then), in which case I can see Audi-Sauber to challenge if not beat Mclaren in 2026...but they'll be behind Ferrari/RBR/Mercedes still.

 

Helmut, lol.. he can't get out of his own way. Lando may be a good driver but he's not a race car driver like Max, maybe over time but it wouldn't be at Mclaren

 

Williams never recovered from Newey leaving either.

 

With insights the impact this man made on Formula one history is just abysmal and disproportionate.
One can say biggest Montezemolo failure was not managing to hire him after the Brawn era..

 

Norris is under performing and Helmut Marko is a joke ... your analytical abilities are on par with the race strategist at Ferrari and Haas, great insight buddy!

 

Newey wants to have an input in team decisions, beyond his role as technical director.
That's what brought him into conflict with Frank Williams and Ron Dennis.
Newey left both teams, taking his expertise with him, and Williams and McLaren soon declined .
Dieter Mateschizt lets him have an influence at Red Bull; that's why he is still there, and the team is successful.
I doubt if LdM would ever have offered him the same leeway at Ferrari.

 

He even offered him to draw their next hypercar knowing it was a strong Newey wish,
Problem was Newley’s wife.
She didn’t want to go in Italy..

 

If Audi was to become owner of McLaren, they would close the road car production, just like Mercedes wanted when they were looking for a take over.
That's why the McLaren shareholders don't want to relinquish ownership.
Only Sauber, Williams and Haas were truly independent and ready for a take-over.

 

Yep; strange as it might sound to some, I read a few days ago a quote from Newey saying that he took his decision to leave Williams in 1996, when he learned that Damon Hill has been sacked; Newey had a great appreciation for Damon's ability in technical feed-back and disagreed on his sacking from a technical and personnal point of view.
He got tired of McLaren already in 2003-2004, but made an agreement with Ron Dennis not to leave before he had given the team again a very good racing car, something that happened in 2005, so he left then.
As for Ferrari, I seem to recall that there have been a number of discussions between the two, but Newey never was really interested.

Rgds

 

We don't need him, we have Rory Byrne, we just need to find some pace

 

Well...no offense to the man or to age, but Rory Byrne will turn 79 next January, so, especially considering that Ferrari might still need a few years to be at Championship level, it would be time to think about succession...
(I do know that Rory Byrne is only acting as a "consultant" nowadays...)

Oh, and I don't see the "solution" in Newey; in my post above, I was just saying that there had indeed be "contacts" between him and Ferrari, that's all.
The main "problem" with Ferrari is not a matter of technical direction, I believe...it lays elsewhere: as the saying goes, "Ferrari most potent ennemy has always been Ferrari""

Rgds

 

And those contacts between Newey and Ferrari were lucrative. Newey turned down Ferrari 3x. Why would Newey leave England for Italy to include his family??? And as you say, Ferrari is it's own worst enemy.

 

They should start with their race strategist department, it is frightening to see a Ferrari car loose a win again and again because of wrong pit wall calls, mistrakes you just haven't seen Red Bull do for years now, and Ferrari makes these mistakes in every or every second race.

 

Ferrari's last offer to Newey was insanely high (as much as 40m was floating around IIRC), and had to beat Mercedes out as well. Also opportunity to design the Ferrari road cars and whatnot, and this is at a time when Newey said he felt his efforts at RBR where wasted because Renault seemed totally disinterested in making an effort on their hybrid engine and was far more interested in the marketing side. The whole Ferrari deal fell apart when Di Montezemelo was sacked, and Newey was on a private jet to sign his deal in Italy. When Ferrari send Gino Rosato to handle the Newey, Newey got back on the plane and left. He felt that Ferrari sending out a glorified lackey (Gino at the time was Ferrari's ''fixer''), the new management wasn't taking it all very serious.

Newey has said after this whole saga he came close to retiring soon anyways, but was revitalized after he started to work with Verstappen and after that the Honda deal. I don't think any team can tempt him away anymore. Aston Martin tried recently with a huge offer as well but Newey flat out declined.

 

With the years slowly passing away, and for the "old f.rts" like me who started watching Formula One in 1971 - 72, we do see in retrospect how the formidable period of success of 1997 to 2007 was, in fact, an anomaly.
Fumbling and losing is their "normal state of matters", despite - sometimes - a good car; shooting themselves in the foot.
What Jean Todt did (funny to think that at the FIA he was lackluster) with the "dream team" (Schumacher, Brawn, Byrne, etc...) was remarkable; and let's not forget Luca Di Montezemolo, who handled the press, etc...all perturbation was pushed aside, to leave the dream team to win races. Come to think of it, Luca was also responsible of them bouncing back to sucess in 1974...

Rgds

 

I'm not even sure this would solve the problem. It is not the matter of a man, it is a matter of many "wrongs" in their organisation, among these accepting to much influence from the press, a culture of fear and always trying to find a culprit, etc, etc...
What they need first and foremost is focus and serenity; but being Ferrari, you have only to go once in Italy to see that Ferrari is a national matter, and that serenity is almost impossible.
The next worst thing would be Charles Leclerc losing courage. And it might not be very far. They managed to destroy so many drivers before that...
Actually, nothing new here: it has always be like that. Except between 1997 and 2007.

Rgds

 

Frank Williams probably never anticipated that sacking Damon Hill would completely destabilise his team and provoke its decline.

His next mistake was to refuse the BMW take-over, but that's another story.

 

I have a feeling Danny Ric is just waiting for Gasly to make the Alpine announcement before Danny makes his Alpha Tauri announcement.

 

He left Red Bull to go to Renault and now you think he will back to Alpha Tauri? I think that would be a very tough pill for him to swallow, if they even want him

So, your username, which Abarth do you have in your stable of cars? We have a 695C Edizione Maserati

 

Indeed, but that wouldn't be worse than going to Williams, which is another option that some think possible, wouldn't it?
Beggars can't be choosers...
(I don't believe that Gasly's move to Alpine is already a done deal, by the way)

Rgds

 

Sure, but I don't think Helmut Marko wants him back, and definitely not at the salary DR is expecting

Alpine - maybe or maybe not. Ferrari is cutting ties with Schumacher, so he is most certainly gone from HAAS, but Steiner would, like Helmut, not pay the salary DR wants

 

The price to stay in F1 is sometimes to accept a massive pay cut, and a seat in a "lesser" team.

Ricciardo is at the crossroad.

 

Had a 2013 base model. Loved it. Those mini Maserati rims are the best!

 

Ferrari have been down the path before with John Barnard where they gave him whatever he wanted (GTO facility in the UK ) which cost them a fortune and very little in return (bar the flappy paddles)

Like you say, it's not technical direction but rather management culture ........ we need another Jean Todt, an egalitarian persona , respected and a man with vision and another Ross Brawn to push the talent in the right direction

 

Honestly, mate...
I hate to say "another "Jean Todt" or "another "Ross Brawn" or "another "Luca Di Montezemolo", because I think that times change: the recipes that made success in the past may not work today anymore; people get older, etc...
But what we DO KNOW is that Ferrari need a different approach and different people RIGHT NOW: those in charge have been f.ck.ng the chances for the last seven years or so, and that's enough.
I don't know the exact quote in English, but Albert Einstein is supposed to have said something on the lines of: "you cannot ask from those who created the problems to find a solution to these".
A change needs to come, and fast. Out with the old guard.

Rgds