Its strange how this guy is so highly rated among the paddock yet he acheived so liitle in any role he was involved. Not sure how i feel about his departure though i believe its for better,
To debate seriously now, I have to say that keeping Williams among the top teams was always too much of a task at the time, Sam Michael or no Sam Michael. If I am not mistaken, Frank & Co have retrospectively admitted they put too much responsibility on Sam's shoulders. But the problem with Williams was that they lost works (BMW) engines, became a privateer team and their budget dropped significantly compared to previous glory days. There was not much Michael could do about it. Maybe if Williams had someone like Newey onboard, they could have fared slightly better, but the period from 2006 onwards particularly was always going to be an uphill struggle.
Actually I think some of Michael's cars were not that bad. Like the 2009 one, built by Williams as a genuine privateer midfield team at the time. But they pulled above their weight and raced against works and other big teams (RBR) pretty well. Or 2007, when they beat Toyota, their engine supplier.
As for McLaren. I do remember the bad pitstops of 2012, but haven't the pitstops been pretty good and quick recently? Don't remember so exactly.