21 replies to this topic

[Ivan]

The only way David will win the championship is if Mika crashes out and David just happens to win. If Mika is in the race RD will find a way for Mika to beat DC. And that is a shame!

[Grano]

And in what way did MacLAren favour Mika this race that was not totally normal? Mika was leading the race when the safety car came out and therefore he had the opportunity to pit first. David had noone but himself to blame for that, a better start and Mika would not have passed him from fourth on the grid.

[Ivan]

Most teams give the first pit option the the pole sitter. Mika himself concurred this fact in the press conference.
Trust me I do believe that was a bonehead move by Coulthard at the start of the race.

[Nikolas Garth]

Why in hell does Ron Dennis hate David Coulthard?

Perhaps Cubehead's personality.;)

[Ray Bell]

In the end, I would think it's in McLaren's favour to have DC win the title. They then have two world champs on the team, which nobody else has, and they won their titles with the team, which nobody else has. Better value for sponsor-chasing, better press, makes the team look fairer.
But I don't have the same values as RD, obviously.

[arcwulf7]

Since 1998 the vaunted McLaren's NO TEAM RULES, before someone is out of contention for the championship, seems to have been skewed toward Mika. When it was Mika to the first corner, it was he who was given the team priority to win, when it was Mika on the pole, then the pole position was the determing factor, when it was during the race it would be either who was in the lead or who was on pole (depending on where Mika was) who got the nod, team instructions always to seem to be 'garbled' to David when a critical situation existed between the two. I would characterise RD's and MH's mutual understanding bordering on the mystical. David walked out of a team meeting when RD tried to impose some 'rules of engagement' in his usual calculating manner in Austria. Who knows what kind of behind the scenes advantages have been installed. Still David did himself no favours by chopping Schumacher on the start, that started a chain of events that certainly cost him second, and maybe the race.

[Ray Bell]

I frankly didn't believe the story he told about not getting the message right.. I think he was covering up his disappointment at how he'd been treated. He was playing the team line down to the end... as a good team member does.

[Arale]

Thanx Nick ,I can feel a "Top-ten" list is not far from the corner.

And I doubt RD is the only person who doesn't like DC

But I don't think the pit stop in this race had too much to do with the favourism suspected towards Mika (although saying nay would also be untrue).. it was more to do to the fact that Mika was in the lead up to the point of the safety car, thanx to DC's rather amateur demonstration of Schumi-wannabe-Chop .

[Ricardo F1]

What the hell are you guys on?? Personally as race leader I would expect Mika to be called in first - as it was DC was and explained pretty bloody clearly that he couldn't hear in the stadium complex. Judging by the amount of noise that you could hear just on the TV I would think that's not implausible.

Give us frigging break with these conspiracy theories, and yes Ray, I agree it would be far better for McLaren to have two WDC's driving for them.

[Williams]

arcwulf, I think that the "team orders" issue at McLaren is fairly simple. Once the lead of the race is sorted out, the McLaren's do not race each other. This avoids aggravating reliability issues. Once one driver is mathematically eliminated fronm the Championship, then of course team orders will be issued to maximise WDC points.

In the past where DC has been asked to step aside for MH, there has been a special circumstance. For Mika's first win, DC had already had a couple of wins for McLaren, so RD decided to unlock Mika's potential by giving him the taste of a race win, which was a smart move on his part. In the second case, MH had already had the lead in the race, but had lost it due to a silly mistake, either by Mika or the team. In any case, it was kind of an exceptional circumstance.

In other cases of team orders at McLaren, I believe that RD follows the policy I described above fairly consistently, and it is not as complicated, nor as biased, as you describe. Mika has been on the short end of team orders as well as David.

[HappyDude]

OK somebody explain something to me here... I'm not being facetious, I just want to know:

Supposedly DC was called in first right? But he didn't go in cause he couldn't hear over the stadium noise. But then here's where I get confused. Mika was ahead of DC and he pitted first. So... how did Mika know that DC wasn't going to pit, since he would have to wait until he was past the pit entrance to see that DC had missed it?

Did I miss something obvious?

And some other questions:

Since the safety car was out about half a lap before then, don't you think they would have instructed the drivers to pit a little earlier than when they were right in the infield before the pit?

Also, doesn't anyone else find it odd that in the post race interview DC said that he didn't hear the call... Well how did you know that David? Certainly between the post-race excitement, the weighing, the podium celebrations, and then heading to the interview I would think they wouldn't have much time to sit down with RD and figure out what went on, and it's not the sort of converstation you'd have over the radio during the race. Sounds to me like DC was just reacting logically ( by assuming he missed the call) to Mika's comment (which came first) that said DC actually had the first spot. But then back to my first point, how did you know Mika?????

[Ricardo F1]

Good point Happy, at a guess when DC didn't respond on the radio they probably put the call out to Mika. Not that we'll ever know for sure so we should probably drop it before the conspiracies fly futher!!!

[HappyDude]

Yes, I know it sounds a little silly - and I normally follow the "when in doubt accept the obvious answer" approach rather than looking for skuldudgery, but this one just seemd a little odd.

Looking forward to a DC-MH falling out by the end of the year though, that kind of pressure has to crack something or someone.

[Blade]

I think that DC was lying as not to hear anything from the pits... just imagine the engine must be louder than the noise from the motordome... and the fact he said he couldn't hear anything because of the motordome give us a hint that the team doesn't really call him in... you can see his hand gesture to the McLaren pitcrew when DC pitted AFTER he was stuck behind the safety car.. he is really pissed off... ..

Anyways, this RD guy is a loser..

[HappyDude]

Sorry to keep harping on this, but I just checked, and the safety car was out and the McLaren mechanics were out in the pitlane a full MINUTE before the two McLarens arrived at the pitlane. You're only near the grandstands for about 5 or 6 seconds tops before you hit the pitlane. MH was about 1.5 seconds ahead of DC and he just dove straight into the pits. Draw your own conclusions.

Only thing that works against the conspiracy theory thing is: wouldn't it have been easier to just say "Mika was leading the race so we brought him in first"?

[PDA]

DC should have just followed MH in (a la RB in Canada), he would have lost much less as a result.

[Mobile_Chicane]

McLaren's policy in a race has been to pit the guy who is in the laed first almost always.

At Silverstone this was the case for DC who was infront. This time it was Mika infront.

No favouring one over the other at all.

[Dsilence]

Why in hell does Ron Dennis hate David Coulthard?
let me refrase that:
Why in hell should Ron Dennis like David Coulthard?

GO SALO!
.D-Silence.

[tifosi]

Uh...
Grano, Mobil_Chicane and others. According to McClaren AND Mika Hakkinen it is the pole sitter who gets priority at pit stops.

So according to you guys:

1) Ron Denis is either a lying sack of ****

2) Ron Denis will do anything at all to screw David Coulthard

3) 1 & 2 are correct.

[Smooth]

Martin Whitmarsh: ....When we let David go ‘round for one more lap it cost him places on the track – ultimately, that handicapped his race.....


The team decided to bring Mika in, and leave DC out. Play it however you like... McLaren are no different than any other team out there. They exercise team orders.

[TheDestroyer]

Hap,

It's my understanding that the lead team car has dibs on going into the pit first, thus Mika goes first.

I agree with you that it seemed like everyone waited too late to go into the pits... It's a 4+ mile long track and there were an awful lot of cars still on the backend of the track when the pace car came out... I don't think the teams were thinking quickly enough...

Leave it to Ferrari to bring Bari in for a quick splash and dash at the right time...

[samuelse]

Why?
Because wRONg Dennis use David Cube-thard as a pawn just like how he managed to fire-up Cube-thard to block MS at start. wRONg is the cun't'ning fella here - so Mika takes into his career record book for having the best "jump" start.