92 replies to this topic

[Tsarwash]

I'm sad enough to quote myself from the other thread.

Oh Dear, poor Sam. Joins Lotus, they promptly go bust. Jordan flourished while he is there, then joins Williams, they enter their worst period in their history, is forced to resign. Joins McLaren, they suffer their worst few seasons for over twenty years. Who would hire him now ?

[Maustinsj]

If he did resign in March, that explains why he had a face like a smacked bum when I saw him at the MTC on 31/3/14.

[Rinehart]

Was instrumental in the decline of Williams.

 

He then moved to McLaren to drag them down the grid.

 

Incredible.

If Schumacher had moved to Williams in 1997 and then to McLaren in 2009, his career would "look" like Sam's. 

There's a lot of fate associated with long term decisions. 

[Fastcake]

Ah Sam Michael, he will always be continually blamed for things that were clearly outside his control.

 

From the wording of the announcement, it very much sounds like this was Michael's decision to go back to Australia, rather than the team telling him to spend more time with his family. As fate would have it, I have no doubt McLaren will now improve, and Sam will gain no credit.

[charly0418]

Who the hell are we gonna blame for everything now?

[Owen]

i reckon he'll be missed. A sharp mind. Good luck to him.

[Timstr11]

Sam Michael is Sporting Director at Mclaren. Can those who blame him for the lack of performance explain what his role has to do with this?

I think he's a Martin Whitmarsh man and he could not gel with Dennis and Bouillier. Possibly.

[nosecone]

Who are we going to blame then?

[bogi]

Who are we going to blame then?

 

Whitmarsh>Michael>Neale>Goss>Button

 

[muramasa]

Who are we going to blame then?

(Honda)

[ElDictatore]

Who are we going to blame then?

 

Might be the drivers' turn now.

[nosecone]

Might be the drivers' turn now.

Well i heard already somebody say that the drivers are to blame for everything. The car is good and the only problem are the crappy drivers...

[Mat13]

I heard Perez designed this year's car, with help from Button/Magnussen, depending on which one leaves.

[AvranaKern]

I used to run a blog, publishing Onion-like pieces about Formula 1. Here is what I wrote when Sam Michael went to McLaren.

 

Sam Michael adamant McLaren lose everything

 

After leaving Williams following a disastrous campaign in Formula 1 2011 season, former Williams technical director Sam Michael is now heading to Woking based team McLaren to work as the Sporting Director.

Having being worked at Williams from 2001, Michael had been appointed as Technical Director in 2004, from which team had won only one race with the courtesy of Juan Pablo Montoya at Interlagos. During seven win-less season, Frank Williams eventually understood that something is wrong.

"We are very happy to finally get rid of Sam Michael. He's like a virus spreading everywhere withing the team. After he came to the team, Pablo left us. Mark didn't make it and went to Jaguar. We hired a guy named Nakajima for the money, which was in turn spent to repair his car. We are doomed. This is the turning point for us. We are sending our weakest chain to our main competitor... oh wait, once our main competitor. Now we are racing with Lotus. No offence," said Frank Williams in Williams FW14 trying to turn steering wheel.

Sam Michael didn't comment on the comments from his old boss.

"I don't want to comment further. He is now my competitor. I mean, not that competitor because they are fighting with Lotus. No offence. From now on I want to talk on the track, on the factory and hopefully on BBC. We are a winning team and that mentality must change. We have to miss the taste of victory, so that we can be thirsty for wins and championships. That's my approach to racing. At McLaren each year one of our drivers wins a race or two, which is ridiculous. I am determined to change that fate."

"We first wanted to give a gardening leave for Michael but Williams didn't accept it," said Whitmarsh. "We didn't want to spoil our design team with the lousy philosophies of Michael but this is the situation we must accept. Sam is now part of our team so we can do nothing about it. I hope no one listens to him."

Sam Michael is 40 years old and believes Trulli overtook Hamilton under yellow flag.

 

Edited by ali.unal, 22 October 2014 - 17:53.

[LORDBYRON]

He was the demise of a few teams and sadly wont be missed 

[scheivlak]

So what will happen to Australia now he returns?

[BARHonda006]

I love how one guy comes in for so much flack. Most of it unfounded.

Quite often it's the good work that goes unrecognised.

[LuckyStrike1]

So what will happen to Australia now he returns?

 

Probably just the usual. Australia has a long tradition of receiving outcasts from UK. 

[george1981]

I love how one guy comes in for so much flack. Most of it unfounded.

Quite often it's the good work that goes unrecognised.

I think he played a role in Williams downfall. According to Barichello Sam Michael was being asked to do too many tasks and wasn't able to focus on his role. This could well be true. There did seem to be some very poor engineering/team management decisions towards the end of his time there. There was talk that aerodynamic parts that hadn't been through the wind tunnel were made and bolted on the car and tested in free practice sessions. An attitude of chuck it on the car and see what it does.

[Juan Kerr]

Ahhhh so that's why they've had an upturn in form and started doing better pitstops because Sam Michael is leaving! The guy is a jinx, we've been through this before on this forum, as soon as he leaves McLaren will be liberated.

[pdac]

I think he played a role in Williams downfall. According to Barichello Sam Michael was being asked to do too many tasks and wasn't able to focus on his role. This could well be true. There did seem to be some very poor engineering/team management decisions towards the end of his time there. There was talk that aerodynamic parts that hadn't been through the wind tunnel were made and bolted on the car and tested in free practice sessions. An attitude of chuck it on the car and see what it does.

 

Or it could be that he was asked to do the right amount of tasks, but couldn't handle them all. Not claiming he's one of them, but I've worked with people who seem quite capable but end up talking a lot about what needs doing and don't actually get things done because they're too busy talking and writing proposals and reports.

[SerratedEdge]

Long overdue, cant see what he brought to the team, seemed McLaren went backwards after Michael joined and wonder if mere coincidence that a struggling Williams team with Michael involved improved after he left?

[P123]

He had different rolls within Williams and McLaren, so whilst you can attribute a chunk of Williams underperformance to him I'm not sure you can fairly do the same with McLaren. He was a Whitmarsh signing....

Edited by P123, 22 October 2014 - 22:38.

[maverick69]

I think he's clearly a talented guy - despite his unfortunate knack of being at places when they turn to ****. Despite this, I know he's very, very highly rated in F1 circles.

 

If there's one thing that I think you could perhaps criticise SM for - then it's that he is so blunt with people, when sometimes it's better to show a bit of tact.

[hollowstar]

Now I am hopeful again for McLaren. 

[Tsarwash]

 

If there's one thing that I think you could perhaps criticise SM for - then it's that he is so blunt with people, when sometimes it's better to show a bit of tact.

I don't subscribe to the point of view that Sam is the kiss of death to the teams that he joins, my earlier post was tongue in cheek, but I also don't think that being blunt with precious drivers and engineers and mechanics of this level is going to cut it. These guys know that they are cut from some of the best cloth around. Treating them like standard plumbers and sparkies just isn't going to work. We're talking diva's here, and not just the drivers. 

[teejay]

Good riddance, saw no improvement during his tenure with the team despite promises of the other.

[andysaint]

Blimey a lot of uneducated people round here.

Wrong place wrong time after Williams lost world class drivers and the engine due to investment issues of course they could not keep up with the big boys.

Mclarens issues are down to the infighting between Dennis and Whitmarsh and rivals hiring their designers and losing Mercedes.

Best wishes to Sam

[Dalton007]

Unless you worked at the team, you have no idea what influence Sam had on the inner workings. 

[LuckyStrike1]

It's always wasy to single out one person to be responsible for everything wrong but it's hardly ever true. 

 

The collective wisdom here on this forum is that Martin Whitmarsh and Sam Michael independent of each other are single reasons for failures. 

 

Well they are both gone now  .... 

[HoldenRT]

You can't just pinpoint at someone's role.

 

Chemistry within a team goes beyond that even when it's working well.  For the same reason, that it's very hard to prove that someone is the direct cause of something, unless they are volatile or it's blatant.  Ferrari have had a bad chemistry for years but that doesn't mean that every person in their job isn't very well qualified or good at their jobs.  A lot of this stuff is like understanding why tyres work or don't work.   A lot of it is like a black art.  The easiest way is when something is working (to see it) or when it isn't.  The reasons why are like religions.. and every culture in human history has had their own way.  Their own take on it.  Some prefer scientific method, some prefer the more airy spirituality.. but it's all explaining the same sort of thing.  Just different ways of explaining the same thing.  Same with team chemistry IMO.  Very hard to prove anything or disprove anything and everyone has their own interests or biases at play.  People can have completely polar opposite views and it's hard to prove or disprove one or the other.  However.. whether it's life, the universe or in this case team success.. you can't argue with results.  Or lack of.  F1 is a competitive world and most people's reputations are defined by their success and results.  Flavio is a good example of someone who doesn't know anything about anything and questionable morals.. but he got results.

[mclarensmps]

The first point I'd like to make is this: Just because forumers know the name of certain individuals in a team, it doesn't mean that this person is responsible for whatever you can think of in the team. 

 

The second point I'd like to make pertains specifically to Sam Michael in his TD role at Williams. Not only, as has been mentioned in this thread multiple times, was Sam responsible for too many things, making it difficult to focus, you have to remember the circumstances under which he took over that role. Williams was still clinging on to the ancient methods of running an F1 team. Patrick Head (and Frank Williams) were having a hard time letting go of their authority and responsibility in the team. Then, all of a sudden, Patrick Head finally decided that he is going to take a backseat and handed over ALL of his responsibility to Sam Michael.

 

There was no transitional period whatsoever. One day Pat, a man who knew the inner workings of the team, was there, and the next he was not. Though Sam had been with the team for some time, he was very young, and very inexperienced for such a role, with all the extra responsibility. I understand that one can argue that he shouldn't have taken the role if he didn't think he could handle it, but if you were in his position, would you turn it down? I know I'd have a hard time doing it.

 

Just want to put this into perspective. The team must have seen something in him to have selected such a young and inexperienced guy to run the technical department of the team. Sure, it didn't work out, but that doesn't mean he's a talentless muppet. 

Edited by mclarensmps, 23 October 2014 - 13:44.

[pup]

I don't know why anyone is suspecting that SM was fired - there's no indication anywhere that he was.  Had he been, they'd have downplayed his departure by including it as a footnote in their impending larger restructuring announcement that we've been hearing about.  It's never good PR to announce that you're having to fire someone, regardless of how unpopular that person may have been.  Not something you want to draw attention to.

 

Anyway, getting the housekeeping out of the way signals that the larger restructuring announcement is likely coming up, perhaps at the USGP?

[Timstr11]

You guys are seriously deluded if you blame Sam Michael for mclarens downward spiral which has been going on for at least 3 years. Especially since his department is not about car design and engineering.

Edited by Timstr11, 23 October 2014 - 16:31.

[ForeverF1]

I don't know why anyone is suspecting that SM was fired - there's no indication anywhere that he was.  Had he been, they'd have downplayed his departure by including it as a footnote in their impending larger restructuring announcement that we've been hearing about.  It's never good PR to announce that you're having to fire someone, regardless of how unpopular that person may have been.  Not something you want to draw attention to.

 

Anyway, getting the housekeeping out of the way signals that the larger restructuring announcement is likely coming up, perhaps at the USGP?

Sam tendered his resignation back in March of this year but stayed on to see the season through.

[tomjol]

Several posters have mentioned that it's been acknowledged by Williams that he was spread too thinly, he had effectively too many roles.

 

While this is often not  the fault of the individual, I know from painful experience that the individual can be part of the problem. A few of my colleagues are insistent that they can make X, Y and Z while everyone else thinks they're crazy. Inevitably it's all too much and the result is that you get some of X, a bit of Y, almost none of Z, and the various bits you do have don't really work properly.

 

In other words, if you are overloaded, you have a part to play in terms of making people aware when you simply can't cope, and some people are seemingly incapable of or unwilling to do so. However, of course we have no way of knowing if this is the case with Sam Michael.

 

EDIT: I suspect the idea that he was "a Martin Whitmarsh man" is accurate.

Edited by tomjol, 23 October 2014 - 16:38.

[charly0418]

You guys are seriously deluded if you blame Sam Michael for mclarens downward spiral which has been going on for at least 3 years. Especially since his department is not about car design and engineering.

 

no one is doing that, we're sarcastically mentioning it as it was a custom thing to do in this forum

 

sorry for having fun

[Ferrari_F1_fan_2001]

I wonder what his salary was?

[Force Ten]

no one is doing that, we're sarcastically mentioning it as it was a custom thing to do in this forum

 

sorry for having fun

Many are and have been. That's the sad thing.

[Raziel]

Thank God! McLaren has a bright future again!

 

I´ve never liked him and I was so surprised when they signed him...

[charly0418]

Many are and have been. That's the sad thing.

 

oh crap lol, well I was just saying it as a fun thing to do lol

[BARHonda006]

If I was a McLaren employee, I think I'd be pretty peed off with some of the comments on here.

[SanDiegoGo]

http://sniffpetrol.c...n/#.VEkKfMlRq5c