Shanghai China F1 GP ***SPOILERS***

lmao, from bbc:

MOTORSPORT: F1 official appointed to ensure Fernando Alonso treated equally to Lewis Hamilton in season finale. More soon.

Alonso needs a babysitter now?

I dont think there is any team in the paddock that would have treated Alonso as fairly as Mclaren have. After the spy saga i would have kicked 'nando out of the team if what ive read is true.

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Quite frankly I think we've all gone well past the point where we can take 'Honest Ron's' word on what Mclaren's staff are or are not up to exactly.

I think it's a positive step, because if he loses out through something odd in set up he won't be able to moan about it so much.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2007 02:32PM by Razorsedge.

On the contrary, I think this year has given me a new respect for Ron Dennis and McLaren.



RedSam
Winner: Not the Nickv Comment of the Year 2009
Due to the voting system in Germany, Governments are always made up of coalitions of different parties. At the last election, an almost unprecidented result saw the CDU/CSU (rough equivilant of the Conservatives) go into Government with the SPD (rough equivilant of Labour)

Ron has had a very stressful year and he has coped incredibly well with his team being booted out of the Constructors Championship and the generally negative press generated by the spy scandal.
He has my respect for keeping it all together and still having his two drivers 1 and 2 in the Drivers Championship despite their huge tussle for supremacy and the obvious discontent of Fernando in the team.

However i no longer believe he is as honest as he claims to be, various events this year has shown that he is capable of covering up and passing the blame and his constant harping on about integrity makes me cringe at times.

Still a Macca fan though but not as hard core as i was.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2007 07:47PM by mikef1.

i agree with this bit of Mike's post:

"However i no longer believe he is as honest as he claims to be, various events this year has shown that he is capable of covering up and passing the blame and his constant harping on about integrity makes me cringe at times."

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

I feel the opposite. I felt so sorry for Ron, because in my honest opinion, he seemed to know nothing about what was going on. He thought he was running the perfect team, yet most of the major figures in it have been whispering behind his back (whether intentionally or not) about matters far from sporting. I don't fall for sob stories often, but I genuinely felt his pain.

It looked at times as if he could drop dead at any moment. The stress and torment of it all was just oozing from him. To come through that while still showing personal integrity, and not openly lashing out left, right and centre impressed me no end.

I'd have either jacked it in and just walked away, or more likely be very, very bitter.

Should have been the perfect season for McLaren in every way, but it's just been awful in so many ways. I feel it's just Ron who can come away with his head held high for, if nothing else, his attitude through it all.

How far we've come to use the idiot defense wrt to Dennis' actions.

Especially when that man openly boasts about an organizational structure which has sharing of information and responsibility as 2 of it's important features.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2007 12:01AM by tripleM.

his major fault was to not question Alonso about the emails/information during the heated discussion on the morning of the Hungarian GP. Alonso said he had info and emails about Ferrari which he'll take to the FIA if Ron doesn't slow Hamilton down, Ron tells him to do it (calling his bluff in a sense), Alonso walks out and then Ron phones Mosley and tells him of Alonso's threat, but then dismisses it as lies and assures Mosley there are no emails or info.

that's why Mosley (understandably) accused Ron of lying to him, because it turned out there was Ferrari info and emails circulating in the team.

Fair enough Ron wasn't lying at the moment he made the call to Max, genuinely believeing Alonso was lying, but he shouldn't have jumped to the conclusion Alonso was lying without questioniong it further and conducting his own investigation first.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

It may be me, but i didn't find McLaren lashing out at the FIA to be impressive.

Similarly i don't find anything impressive in the way the matter was handled by McLaren between the 3rd of July and the hearing on the 13th.

But most of all i find the rules of Engagement between McLaren and Ferrari signed in Montreal on the 9th of June to be extremely hypocritical considering that Dennis was well aware that Stepney was a mole at the time of the signing.

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Yes the whole thing smells worse than a tramp's underpants. I just don't believe that Ron had no knowledge at all of what Coughlan and others were up to especially given that he is known by many to be a control freak.

Fair point, but how can you control something over which you have no knowledge, hypothetically speaking?

It's a fair comment. And I agree with where you're headed gav.
But the actions of Ron's employees has made him appear two faced. It's not fair, but it happened. Ultimately the extent of the teams innocence or guilt has been left to individual perception due to the nature of the evidence.

But one thing is certain...Mclaren aren't as clean as they wish they were.
and F1 has been hit full face by things we all knew existed but always ignored...favoritism within a team, and outright technical espionage.

I'll bet that was never in Lewis's imagination to be the legacy he would leave with F1!

Hypothetically speaking, does anyone here think that Dennis would not show interest in the information provided by mole who holds such an important post @ Ferrari?

Does anyone seriously think that when Dennis was told by Neale that Stepney was the "whistle blower" he decided to do nothing and distanced himself from the whole thing?

I'd really like to see these questions answered.

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You're not looking for an answer, you're looking for an opinion. The only people who know are a likely a very, very select few inside the team(s) in question. We can all go "well, I think..." until the sun goes down, but we'll likely never know anything more than what we do now. We'll probably hear some empty parting shots if Alonso leaves (or any of the other characters at the centre), and that'll be it, just parting shots.