Personally I would not lay all the blame on RB's doorstep for lack of results, possibly more the corporate way things are done at Merc hindered rather than helped, in other words a director working on each corner of the car doesn't work.
He senna made the bet, (a big fan of fireman Franco with a 355..... not!.. I think the guy that got stung was Maxorido or something like that.
Ironic it would be: Ross starts a race team, wins a World Championship. Major car company buys the team, team can't win anymore Major car company kicks out Ross.
Everybody has their day, Ross had a very long run of success. It cannot run forever. First engine apparently on the dyno, all this spending ... Mercedes want results fast. The only negative of this is the pressure on the team. Pete
Just to be clear: When I said that RB didn't deliver in the last 3 years then that wasn't really a knock against him but more against the environment he is in. Enzo knew why he didn't want to work with/for Ford. Even a genius is only a small wheel in the cog of a corporate giant.
Franco was perma banned for his personal attacks and foul language. Had nothing to do with the 10k bet. He wasn't involved in that.
Enzo didn't want to work with/for Ford because they wanted control. And that is where it is at. If Mercedes are just supplying technical resources and funds then there will not be a problem, if instead they are trying to apply road car committee design philosophies to F1 car design they won't win. Mercedes have a good track record in motorsport (DTM, etc.). Pete
Their Le Mans victories were done by Sauber. Being good at DTM isn't that hard as there are only a couple more competitors.
Indirectly, this has been a long-curious subject for me as I wonder just how much the board is particularly involved to call the F1 team a 'Mercedes' product the same as a road car is their branded product. The board has to be involved at some level to call it a Mercedes product, but I can only hope their involvement simply means they are cutting checks. Many years ago with the 190E Cosworth, Mercedes' board did a brilliant job in essentially being very hands-off to the experts when preparing the 190E for track work. They stated what they wanted from Cosworth and AMG and that was that. Mercedes has been pretty hands-off with AMG so I hope to assume that is their paradigm with their F1 team. The team is pennies in the bucket ($70m is what Daimler pays, all else is huge sponsor cash) so I wouldn't think they would have to pay it too much mind.
Mercedes were heavily involved in continuing the C9 design to the evolved C11. But yes, the original design leading up to the C9 and its predeccors was of course all Sauber. I believe Merc pulled out shortly after and looked to F1?
Confirmed! Joe Saward's blog post today quoting Brawn as saying he's very much staying and in charge at Mercedes, also contained this nugget: Brawn talks about the future «
