This is all (red) bull
Firstly, McLaren have Coughlan, Prodromou and Tobazis in their aero team - each of them makes a Newey by himself nowadays. Tobazis in particular was snapped from Ferrari 2 years ago, just after he finished his military service (which is obligatory) in Greece. He was Byrne's No1 assistant and he was generally in charge of the MP4-20. Basically, he was the one who designed the car alongside Coughlan and Prodromou, with Newey playing a supervising role. McLaren have a tremendous structure as a team and have nothing to fear from Newey's departure. They days when one man had a brilliant idea and this idea was enough to win races and championships (eg carbon-fibre monocoque, ground-effect, fan-car, etc etc) are long gone. The name of the game now is evolution, and having the right procedures in place to analyze data and optimize your solutions. This is probably why Ferrari have excelled in the past years - because their organization and procedures were by far the best. And this is why they have failed in 2005 - not because the other teams came up with a sudden and brilliant idea, but because the mechanisms that Ferrari has failed to "read" the 2005 rules correctly and underestimated the effect that they would have on the car with relation to their competitors. Newey can go to McLaren, but McLaren will not suffer from it, and Red Bull will not become a front runner over night.
As for the 2006 situation, I strongly disagree with the opinion that Newey designed the 2006 car. This is very unlikely. McLaren knew about Newey's imminent departure long before we read about it in the websites. I believe that 3-4 months sounds about right, notwithstanding the talks that Newey must have had with the management throughout the season. It is logic to expect that Newey was gradually side-stepped in the designing process of the 06 car - the highlight being his abscence from the Japaneze and the Chinese race. This indicates that Newey has been on a prolongued gardening leave, and it only makes sense. People who used to wonder where Newey was in China and Japan (given the critical importance of these 2 races for the WCC) now got their answer.
So, those who worry that McLaren are going to fall back because of Newey's departure, can rest assured. Ferrari didn't fall back because Byrne had less say on the 05 machine, but because the Team failed to react to the regulation changes. If McLaren are going to fail in 06, it will be because of something similar, not because of Newey's departure.
Having said that, Newey's tremendous ability to read into rules will be missed, and it will be a welcome boost to RBR. It would have been a better thing for McLaren if Newey had stayed, for sure - but their reluctance to meet his financial demands (despite the fact that McLaren have increased their income by 100m$ in comparison to 2004!!), is an indication that Newey may be missed but they can just as well do without him.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2005 10:00AM by abulafia.