Coulthard publicly absolves McLaren

[KC]

Even though DC absolved McLaren in the post race interview in the most politically correct way he could, according to the race commentators he was reaming out McLaren on the radio for pitting MH instead of him. According to team rules, the highest qualifier among the teammates decides the best time for pitting when the two drivers are on the same strategy. When the safety car entered the track McLaren called in MH and serviced him instead of DC. This ended up costing DC a chance at the win. So DC is forced to abide by team agreements but MH is not. MH has always stated that he would help DC after he was gifted a win at Melbourne but so far has failed to live up to his word. McLaren were at fault on this issue and it looks very much like they are supporting MH at the cost of DC. In the end it ended up costing both a chance at the win when RB and Ferrari just plain kicked their asses with a superior drive.

I do not understand why the team must feel obliged to favor one driver over another. If one driver is seriously outclassing the other I would understand. But they are now tied in the points. McLaren should be working with both drivers to secure the best possible outcome for themselves and the team. Instead they play games and encourage the team to support one driver over the other to the detriment of the team itself. If MH or DC fail to win the title this year it will be more the fault of McLaren than either driver. I, for one, have had enough of the teacher's pet syndrome that is so prevalent in F1 these days.

[Jay]

Agreed. Although I think McLaren is one of the few teams that actually has to talk about this sort of thing.

Ferrari, BAR, Benetton, etc all have their obvious favorites.

[angst]

I'd go along with that KC. I was going to say that if DC had anything about him he would make his own move to another team, but there's not that many competitive drives ou there, and too many teams seem to have 'teachers pet' syndrome going on anyway.

[Schume]

KC, I would agree with you 100%. McLaren, by using their current team orders/rules, that do or do not exist, and usually favour MH, are in danger of giving the WDC and WCC away to Ferrari. They had an easy 1/2 in the bag, and gave it away, all be it to a good drive by RB.

Quote below from ITV-F1:

"Ron Dennis has insisted the spectator who walked on to the track during the German Grand Prix cost McLaren the win.

But in the ensuing chaos, the team’s lost its time cushion and David Coulthard dropped to sixth.

Dennis said: “We had flexibility in our strategy but not enough sufficient to accommodate the deranged spectator wandering on to the circuit and not only costing us the race but also endangering his and the lives of the drivers.”

He said: “It was a somewhat frustrating outcome to a very unusual race.” "

So according to Ron, their strategy could accomodate a normal SC incident, but not one caused by a nutter on the track??? That statement is a bit lost on me, what's the difference to a well prepared team?

DC was obviously diplomatic in public, but the gesture he made after he drove off from his pitstop said it all.

[Danielsun]

Originally posted by Jay
Ferrari, BAR, Benetton, etc all have their obvious favorites.

So too do McLaren, as has been clearly witnessed at the past two races... and we all know exactly who that is...

The Championship of 2000 will be won by a driver who is already a double-winner, I think that's the pretty clear message we're being sent by the two leading teams out there...

[Liz]

Well, Murray and Martin's entire retirement pensions are riding on Mika winning, as they routinely award him the win after 4 laps of any race.

Anybody who doesn't know by now that Mika is Uncle Ron's baby boy has been watching some other series.

[Valve Bounce]

Common guys, lets look at this from a sensible viewpoint. Obviously, both cars should have come in at the same time, with the second car only losing about 10 seconds in this case. The sensible way to do it will be to bring both cars in, in the order they are running. This would minimise the time loss for both cars in the pits. To instruct one car to slow down so that the pole placegetter can pass him to come in would be silly, especially if the pole getter may have been 15 or more seconds behind (I admit in this case, DC wasn't). The confusion, not to mention any extra time loss is not worth this strategy. Take the case where the pole place getter may even be 40 seconds behind if he has had a ten second penalty, or if he had pitted just before the rain hits, while the other car has not. What a mess it would make to bring the pole man in first. The team manager must be able to think on the run, make snap decisions, and no arguments be made. In this case, the correct strategy would be to bring both cars in the order they were running into the pits, with the second car just queueing up behind the leader.