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Race Engineers, who would you choose?


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#51 Dolph

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 19:44

Yeah, gotta agree about that Jo Ramirez. Hopeless. Bloody hopeless! Just like those "tail-end-Charlie" drivers he worked with.
Let's see, there was Gurney, Rodriguez, Siffert, Emmo, Reggazoni, Stewart, Cevert, Lauda, Prost, Senna(A), Mika, and DC.
WOW! Just imagine how many races they would have won if they had all worked with a decent race engineer! :blush:


Jo Ramirez was a race engineer for all those drivers!? I read his autobiography a year or more ago and this doesn't seem right. He was more of a manager and the runaround guy.

Edited by Dolph, 24 March 2012 - 19:46.


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#52 engel

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 19:49

Ramirez never engineered a single driver, he was a mechanic to begin with then moved on more towards "management" roles, coordinator, team manager etc

#53 Massa

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 20:02

Andrea Stella by far.

http://www.youtube.c...p;v=DQjdbfH5h30
http://www.youtube.c...p;v=YeSwOT6sT3M

Awesome

#54 MadYarpen

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 20:14

Rob Smedley
Posted Image
Someone would call me baby

#55 SpaMaster

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 20:14

I would like to add Chris Dyer to that list. An absolute top bloke, very meticulous and analytical race engineer. If someone like Schumacher likes him, he has to be very good. Mark Slade has had great relationships with the Finns, Hakkinen and Raikkonen, not the easiest thing to do to understand these Finns so well.

#56 zyphro

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 20:24

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

#57 undersquare

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 21:17

I wish we knew more about the RE's. I think this thread could be good for collecting snippets about them.

Smedders did have to explain to FB about exit speed, during a race.

MS I think got rid of Mark Slade. He is quite bossy I think.
I read that Chris Dyer and Massa didn't get on so they gave FB Smedley.

IMO Dave Robson seems great. Latham seems all wrong for Lewis. But both drivers said they weren't listened to at Barca and the engineers insisted on undergearing them both.


#58 BillBald

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 22:16

Jock Clear must be one of the best.

When Schumi first came to Merc, speculation was that he and Jock wouldn't be able to work together, and Andrew Shovlin was initially Schumi's RE, with Jock Clear being Nico's RE.

But clearly Schumi was very impressed with Jock, and he's now managed to get him onto his side of the garage. It may not be coincidental that we have since seen an improvement in Schumi's performance relative to Nico.





#59 zyphro

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 22:20

Jock Clear must be one of the best.

When Schumi first came to Merc, speculation was that he and Jock wouldn't be able to work together, and Andrew Shovlin was initially Schumi's RE, with Jock Clear being Nico's RE.

But clearly Schumi was very impressed with Jock, and he's now managed to get him onto his side of the garage. It may not be coincidental that we have since seen an improvement in Schumi's performance relative to Nico.

:up:

I agree. Jock has shown great professionalism.

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#60 Raziel

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 23:46

Phil Prew! Shame he is not Lewis´s RE anymore! Those were the days!

#61 midgrid

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Posted 24 March 2012 - 23:52

But the one I really don't want is Webber's one:
- can't pass team orders [Turkey]
- can't fix KERS
- can't dial lauch control
- can't draw a decent race strategy

The guy was finally replaced last year.


Ciaron Pilbeam? But I think he still holds that position.


#62 IceSkyrim

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 06:33

Ciaron Pilbeam? But I think he still holds that position.

I'm sure Mateschitz announce the replacement in the dawn of this year.

#63 AMG FAN

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 06:41

Sebastian's guy, Rocky, seems to be a calming influence and always on top of things, very good interaction.
Pretty much the same situation with Button.
Hamilton and Latham don't seem to get along so well, but that doesn't make Latham imcompetent.
I get a feeling from Hamilton and Alonso like to be in control more than they like to be told what to do, only Alonso is better at understanding a race.

I seriously don't know why Smedley is rated so high, he is friends with Massa, talks to him like a kid and this result in very funny comments at times but being funny, specially to us looking from the outside, isn't his job description (i'm not at all blaming him for Massa's performance, just don't see what makes him so special).

The teaching Massa how to drive thing is ridiculous imo, this things happen every race with several drivers, including Vettel and Hamilton "Sebastian we need you to take less speed into turn x to protect your tires".

it's harsh how everyone likes to laugh at Massa because of that,am sure he doesn't need anyone to tell him how much speed to carry thru a corner,he is an F1 driver after all,their profession is racing. the thing is Smedley has the data in front of him and obviously it would be better to relay that to your driver...i think with a better driver they would be quite good because Smedley seems to always be keeping his driver informed about where he is and where he is losing time.

#64 AMG FAN

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 06:47

for me it's Phil Prew though...

#65 LoudHoward

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 06:52

Ciaran Pilbeam is still Marks race engineer, he has had some chief engineer or mechanic replaced though. Not sure if it was "Crunch" (the guy Mark wanted on the podium at Silvy 2010)?

#66 IceSkyrim

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 06:57

Ciaran Pilbeam is still Marks race engineer, he has had some chief engineer or mechanic replaced though. Not sure if it was "Crunch" (the guy Mark wanted on the podium at Silvy 2010)?

Well... then that's it.

#67 HoldenRT

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 06:58

I agree very much with the original posters impressions of the race engineers.. especially Rob Smedley with Massa.. :lol: and also how many times he's been shown on the pitwall frustrated or face palming. :lol:

Very much agree about Lewis' guy as well.. sounds too scared of Lewis to give him the information he requires in "crunch time" high pressure situations.

Don't really know which one I'd want.. maybe Rocky I guess.. but yeah, agree very much with your impressions. Team radio is always interesting.

#68 MacLarenV6

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 06:59

Phil Prew! Shame he is not Lewis´s RE anymore! Those were the days!

:up: Phil Prew was the best. Too bad he got promoted...

#69 MaxisOne

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Posted 25 March 2012 - 07:51

Obviously. You can tell that from when he delivered the pivotal message in germany 2010, he wasn't pleased with ferrari management at all.


Dont know what your on about.

Im commenting about massas dismal performance and Smedleys reactions to that. Not Ferraris management. Germany 2010 did not factor into my comments at all.