Two of the most powerful men in Formula 1 have made bold proclamations this week.
Dietrich Materschitz, Mr. Red Bull has made statements to the effect that they will not "manipulate" results as Ferrari did in order to win the driver's championship. This all sounds very noble unless you consider how much the team is built around Sebastian Vettel, not Mark Webber and how Red Bull, via Helmut Marko has not been above demanding "team orders" for"project" drivers in lower categories.
Formula Renault 3.5 WSR for example, where Tech1 Racing incurred the displeasure of Herr Marko for not telling driver Jean Eric Vergne to let the other Red Bull project, Daniel Ricciardo past at the last series race in Barcelona. This resulted in Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin winning the title.
It's all posturing of course, advertising, of course there will be team orders if the results demand it, they will just say it was "the driver's idea" and frankly we have no big issue with it.
Speaking of posturing, Luca Di Montezemolo has proclaimed it "a scandal" for any Italian to cheer for Mclaren. While this was an offhand comment for internal consumption ( a politician from the independist "Northern League" had made cheering against all things Italian a comment against the government) di Montezemolo might consider how scandalously little Ferrari has done to help develop the careers of Italian driving talent throughout the years.
If there have to be team orders, how about: "let's develop a homegrown champion in the next 5 years"? Yeah, like Mclaren did, like Red Bull will undoubtedly succeed in doing, if not this year, soon.
Rant off
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Rant off
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Alonso will probably win it. I wish Webber would pull it out a victory but his own team has done an excellent job stacking the odds against him.
ReplyDeleteIt's Dietrich, not Dieter :)
ReplyDeleteOoops, I guess I was thinking sprokets..:)
ReplyDelete