F1: 2019 thread
 

If there is one already I could not find it....

ARRIVABENE fired, Binotto replacing him at Ferrari. Apparently the team principal was not well liked in the press nor in his own team, being a bit of a bully... The idea being that less scared employees might produce more innovations... A bit late for this car/year, but probably a good move!

Mark Hugues:
"Maurizio Arrivabene’s dismissal from the role of Ferrari team principal was logical. He was not the right man for the job – and was of less value to the team than Mattia Binotto who may well have been lost to Ferrari if Arrivabene had stayed on as his boss.

What did Arrivabene do wrong? He lacked the ability to lead and inspire. What he saw as leadership, many of those around him took as bullying. He had a similar relationship with the media, deploying an outright offensive manner that gained him few friends there.

So we eventually arrived at the position in 2018 where the worst race team was running the best car

He covered up his lack of detailed understanding with dismissive and aggressive responses. He didn’t seem to even understand what it was he was not understanding. At first I took it as a language barrier, but in time I came to know that it wasn’t – and that he expressed himself in much the same way in his native tongue. He appreciated questions from those around him about as much as he did from the media.

He was an autocrat to those below him but without the inspirational qualities to compensate. He was a ‘yes sir, three bags full sir’ guy to those above him.

Arrivabene was in the wrong job – something that Sergio Marchionne had come to realise after having plucked him from Philip Morris.

The late chairman had planned the exact change that has just happened and had informed the board of it. Hence Elkann is only doing what Marchionne had planned (just as with the hiring of Charles Leclerc in place of Kimi Räikkönen), even though he wasn’t beholden to it after Marchionne’s sudden passing."

1) I figured it would either be Arrivabene or Vettel who got the boot.

2) They had a strong car last year. While this won't change the car that shows up to the first race, it may make for some better improvements throughout the season and some better strategy calls during races if employees feel empowered to speak up.

This describes my boss in Atlanta to a T. I can tell you that everyone that worked for him was preoccupied with either avoiding or managing his bullying. Getting work done was like a tertiary concern and the quality of the work was a concern below that. Turns out the best strategy for avoiding his wrath was just not to do any work. I had no desire to persist in such a dysfunctional environment and started plotting my escape about one month into working for him.

Maurizio Arrivabene sounds like a made up name for a novel or James Bond movie about the Italians. He seemed overwhelmed for the task, and a great car was wasted on some bad race decisions. With Vettle making bonehead moves as well, they really had little choice.

Hopefully the new boss will do better. I am ready for F1 to start up.

Me too. Kimi in decent sauber, Leclerc in a Ferrari, hopefully Honey badger in an improved renault and Sainz in a better MacLaren, Honda power in the redbull (still hoping it blows up just to piss off Max and Helmut), and we get to see if Stroll was worth losing Ocon for... should be an interesting one (but I am under no illusions and Lewis will win the WC again)

Thanks for starting the new thread!

This article on Autosport came out shortly before the Arrivabene announcement:

After a very enjoyable 3 yrs of doing stuff other than F1 I'm back in the game ;)
Too many calls from too many teams, kept saying 'sorry no, not available, I'm building my house :cool:' but the devil on my shoulder kept whispering 'go on, you're a sucker for a tough challenge, go on have a go see if you've still got it' :D On my 4th week now and I might just get away with it, again!

As for 2019 F1 news I'm going to make a few assumption's on the Ferrari news.

Simone Resta well respected ex-Ferrari Chief Designer left the team to be Technical Director at Sauber.

The move when announced struck me as a strategic move to strengthen/rebuild Sauber to put the team in a position to boost Ferrari's own car/team/personnel development rate. I'm also assuming Simone will be back to Maranello very soon to take over Mattio's old Technical Director position

Won's article is spot on, analogy I've used a few times when trying to describe the experience of being shot at and seeing people shot at a team like Ferrari or any other big F1 team when the shooting starts from the top down is....

Every single person in a F1 team is running, running as fast, sometimes even faster than their legs can go while either trying to stay in front or trying to catch up the competitors.

If someone trips over and is shot, everyone else in the team see's this and slow's down their pace just a bit in fear of being the next person to be shot, eventually after more shootings the running pace has slowed down a bit and any championship ambitions are gone.

If on the other when someone trips up, other are there to pick them up and dust them off then everyone will try and run as fast as they can knowing there will be someone to pick them up.

Only Ferrari's weak management would let them get into a false logic of "who's more valuable, Arrivabene or Binotto, Binotto therefore, put him IN CHARGE OF THE TEAM".

The entire reasoning is stupid, naïve and primitive. It's like they think he's a good tech guy, therefore his Merlin like magical powers will make him able to fix their management problems next. Never mind the fact that he is not experienced at the politics of running an entire team, let alone doing battle with the FIA, nor the fact that now they are weaker technically since he will not be running the car design. Next, they'll compound their mistake with another mistake by firing him when the car loses a place or two in the rankings, letting Red Bull and Renault pass them up. This is an example of Ferrari being "too Italian" to win the world championship.

Interesting article, Won. I remember when “continuous improvement” was the latest management mantra, say 20 years ago at my prior aerospace employer. It is good to see that your team is getting positive results from actual implementation.

Love the analogies, Captain, dark to be sure.

An interesting take on the Ferrari. Perhaps not up to Captains and Wons tolerances, but cool nonetheless.

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That's cool! And the tolerances look just about right :D

This guy scratch built paper models of Red Bull F1 cars, got noticed by the team and did an internship there. Isn't that the ultimate dream? Who here didn't make paper/plastic/Lego models?

https://paulsf1.wordpress.com/about/curriculum-vitae/

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What a great story! That paper RB7 looks phenomenal.

As an F1 fan, I just see the teams as a whole. Any opportunity to learn about the individuals is really cool.

Very cool and Rob Marshal, Red Bulls chief designer is a top guy!

Another positive step forward for Mick Schumacher , making him come up through the ranks/feeder systems vs. just giving it to him because of name will make him a better driver . I wish him the best .


https://www.yahoo.com/sports/ferrari-adds-schumacher-f1-junior-143219478.html

very interesting.....

https://sports.yahoo.com/true-cost-f1-2019-entry-180329082.html

Somehow, I don't think the FIA charges brand new teams or teams that failed to score points $0 for the next season...

A good read:

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.how-i'll-remember-it-by-brendon-hartley.6ZehXRpFTCG7FGBHEuHwlL.html

Thanks, good read and very obvious he's got broughtupsy :cool:

That was a good read. I like Hartley and was disappointed to see him getting his walking papers.

What is “broughtupsy”?

I see Sauber is changing its name to Alfa Romeo racing , my guess is there is $$$ driving the name change .

Sauber did some things such that they are not a company name that sponsors would be as happy to associate with.

New connections, new people, new name. Maybe it will work out better providing they don't cheat people again.

Toro Rosso is run like a little team that was eaten by a big team. Their expectations for the drivers are that they must be ready from Day 1. No driver development time. You're either quick or you're out. I imagine there must be a similar type of standard for race team and engineering personnel.

When it comes to drivers, if there isn't turn over, how do you find the new talent?

Its the chance of a life time, the greatest will make it.

Don't understand this comment :confused:

That's circular reasoning. You need to fire drivers because you need to replace them, right?

As for finding new talent, that's what Formula 4, Formula 3, Formula2, Formula Renault, etc etc etc etc are all about.

Taking sponsors money, then not honoring the contract and putting what the sponsor paid for on display.

2014/2015 issue IIRC.

Not an ethical move to make. Took a long legal game to bring about somewhat of a restitution.

My impression at the time is the execs behind the decision shouldn't stay, tainted team.

Maurice Hamilton has an article on a Peter Sauber on ESPN, sounds like a guy who overcame a lot to succeed. No mention of any impropriety. Maurice would know, been around forever

Don’t know if you can blame Peter Sauber for that. Monisha Kaltenborn was the Sauber team principal at that time.

Yes, but still it was the company name.

Money was paid for a particular space for one of the cars.

Sauber double booked, took money from two different sources for that same space.

Then they dragged it out in a helluva legal process.

Not the greatest of PR stunts for potential future partnerships involving money transfers to Sauber.

The name change can help them "walk away" from that piece of history.

Not long before we start to see the new cars!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Silver is so last season... 👌<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WelcomeW10?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Welc omeW10</a> <a href="https://t.co/daTy26Tivd">pic.twitter.com/daTy26Tivd</a></p>&mdash; Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) <a href="https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/1092838417241726977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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A lot of work in a front wing, hope you're making good progress on the first race wing and by the end of the year you'll have designed so many of you should be quite good at it ;)

At the end of many new car designs I'd invested so much time, effort, stress and my life into designing new parts/assemblies I sometimes only felt resentment with occasional twinges of pride and was glad to see it leave for the first test.

Always made sure I had fun along the way too so it wasn't all bad :D

Won, sounds corny but make sure you take time to reflect on and absorb where/how/what and who is around you :cool:

That. Is. Very. Cool.

Thats great Won! Given the new regulations, your front wing is more important than ever.

I like the look of the new Haas cars very clean looking with a little John Player Special look from the past . I am hoping for a very competitive year from Haas and Alfa Romeo .


https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/g26233940/2019-f1-cars/

interesting take on the upcoming season

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/46911169

I am also going to cheer for the Silver Arrows, too. First time in a number of years.

Williams livery

https://e2.365dm.com/19/02/768x432/s...ry_4574732.jpg

So far the new Williams looks like the old mercedes, The new Haas looks like the old Lotus-Renault, the new Toro rosso looks exactly like the old toro rosso, and MacLaren is bringing BAT back.
"plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose".

There is no way that's the real front wing of the Williams. And the new Toro looks like the old Red Bull.

I can't wait to see the new McLaren, and the new Merc. I am hoping Williams come back strong too.

Williams, my favorite team, that front wing, the outside uprights, ugly. Good luck!