I cannot imagine how this article was allowed to be printed... totally ignores the injustice done to Trulli plus lying is played down to being 'economical with the truth'. What a load of horse droppings! This piece by Dodgins reeks of nothing more than a Mclaren PR.
Autosport should be ashamed to allow such garbage into print. I thought your standards were higher than this.
Australia hadn't been great by McLaren standards. As it had suspected, it went from the front almost to the back but still managed to salvage fourth place, which became third when the stewards awarded a 25s penalty to Jarno Trulli for re-passing Lewis Hamilton behind the safety car, having previously run off the road.
McLaren's sporting director, Davey Ryan, was cross with himself for not reacting quicker and telling the owner of the calm, unflappable voice you hear on the radio (Richard Hopkirk, team tactician for Lewis Hamilton) that it wasn't necessary for Lewis to allow Trulli back past. Lewis was cross that they'd needlessly ceded a podium. So in the stewards room they made out (lied) that Trulli had re-passed of his own accord, that Lewis had not slowed to allow him by.
But media interviews given by Hamilton when he got out of the car and before he went to the stewards room didn't square with that and once the FIA listened to the radio transmissions it was all too obvious what had happened. McLaren was in the mire.
But none of this was known on Sunday night (If no one else but Ryan & Hamilton knew on Sunday night, that was two to many) when everyone left the Melbourne paddock. To get the whole show ripped down and reassembled, spick and span in Malaysia 72 hours later is some effort in logistics."
McLaren's sporting director, Davey Ryan, was cross with himself for not reacting quicker and telling the owner of the calm, unflappable voice you hear on the radio (Richard Hopkirk, team tactician for Lewis Hamilton) that it wasn't necessary for Lewis to allow Trulli back past. Lewis was cross that they'd needlessly ceded a podium. So in the stewards room they made out (lied) that Trulli had re-passed of his own accord, that Lewis had not slowed to allow him by.
But media interviews given by Hamilton when he got out of the car and before he went to the stewards room didn't square with that and once the FIA listened to the radio transmissions it was all too obvious what had happened. McLaren was in the mire.
But none of this was known on Sunday night (If no one else but Ryan & Hamilton knew on Sunday night, that was two to many) when everyone left the Melbourne paddock. To get the whole show ripped down and reassembled, spick and span in Malaysia 72 hours later is some effort in logistics."
Really, Trulli/Hamilton was a nothing incident (until Ryan & Lewis lied to the stewards resulting in Trulli being disqualified). Every time two drivers are called before race stewards anywhere they have a different version of the same event. Sometimes, one is the truth. And in the McLaren radio transmission to Lewis itself, the team talks about "doing it by the book" even if, as was evident, they weren't quite sure what the book says.
Questions have been asked in the not so distant past about whether McLaren has been fairly treated by the sport's governing body. But if you suspect, rightly or not, that someone is out to shoot you, best not hand them a gun. Which is precisely what they did by being economical with the truth.
But nobody burned the school down. At worst it was a bit of chewing gum on teacher's seat. Best sorted out behind closed doors by a cuff around the ear. For the press though, it was wilful lying, (yes it was) involving the world champion! Predictably, the media centre moved into overdrive. Davey Ryan was a senior member of McLaren and he'd made an error or judgement because he was annoyed at himself and trying to seek the best outcome for his driver. But as McLaren's name was besmirched once more it became an error with a consequence entirely disproportionate to its actuality."
Questions have been asked in the not so distant past about whether McLaren has been fairly treated by the sport's governing body. But if you suspect, rightly or not, that someone is out to shoot you, best not hand them a gun. Which is precisely what they did by being economical with the truth.
But nobody burned the school down. At worst it was a bit of chewing gum on teacher's seat. Best sorted out behind closed doors by a cuff around the ear. For the press though, it was wilful lying, (yes it was) involving the world champion! Predictably, the media centre moved into overdrive. Davey Ryan was a senior member of McLaren and he'd made an error or judgement because he was annoyed at himself and trying to seek the best outcome for his driver. But as McLaren's name was besmirched once more it became an error with a consequence entirely disproportionate to its actuality."