Oastler's role at Jaguar?

[Scott75]

Just wondering what people think of Malcolm Oastler, is he good enough for F1? The new Jaguar R5 (Oastler's 1st design with Jag) is looking extremely slow and quick bad. When you compare it to when he was at BAR they struggled and now that he has left there improving out of site. Any thoughts?

[Mr V]

Let you know in 10 months time

[twig]

When did he join? If it was late in the R5 development stages, then, well, you can really blame him.

But then again, look at Geoff Willis. He left Williams and they have improved, but he also joined BAR and they started to improve as well.

[Skam85]

hmmmm....... hope the jag performs...

[twig]

yeah same, i know testing is testing...but, compare the speed of this car to last years. Remember how relatively more impressive it was than this car?

Pizzonia set the Valencia lap record with the R4 for gods sake, whereas now, Webber is pretty much consistantly in the bottom half.

[Jukebox]

Tests on any particular circuit at this period of time does not only emphasize on lap records. There are so many other things that needs to be looked on for the whole duration of the GP season.

[Scott75]

I just hope that they are still bedding things in, otherwise it's not looking too good. I'll be wrapted if I'm proven wrong, maybe we'll see some potential while they test at Valencia.

[Irv the Swerve]

Teams are at different stages of the development process and are testing different things for different reasons. Its a cliche, but testing postions really do mean nothing. I all but ignore them. The only true indication will come in Melbourne. F1 is one of the most exacting working environments there can be. If Malcolm Oastler was really to blame for a succession of bad cars, he wouldn't be there.

[Super Tourer]

I've edited the thread title to reflect that it is a question being asked, not a statement.

Before we swing the axe to wildly, Oastler isn't the lead designer on the Jaguar. The heads of department at Jaguar are as follows.

Ian Pocock (Director of Engineering) Ben Agathangelou (Head of Aerodynamics), Rob Taylor (Head of Vehicle Design), Dr Mark Gillan (Head of Vehicle Performance), Dr Ian Pocock (Head of Engineering)

Malcolm Oastler's role is Chief Engineer, which IIRC is not a design role, but a pure engineering role. In other words, a race engineer works with the design that has been produced and aims to get the best out of it. His role at Jaguar is to improve the reliablilty and working efficiency of the car.

http://www.jaguar-racing.com/frame.cgi

[Super Tourer]

Originally posted by Irv the Swerve
Teams are at different stages of the development process and are testing different things for different reasons. Its a cliche, but testing postions really do mean nothing. I all but ignore them. The only true indication will come in Melbourne. F1 is one of the most exacting working environments there can be. If Malcolm Oastler was really to blame for a succession of bad cars, he wouldn't be there.

The BAR were poor cars by current standards, Geoff Willis' first comment was that the designs were some way behind current F1 thinking.

At Jaguar MO is an engineer, not a designer, which is a different discipline and one that he will probably fill well, without the pressure of actually producing a car.

Anyone who has worked with a skilled race engineer, will know that very good ones have an almost magic touch and their input can transform a car, and general working practises on it.

[Jordi]

Still, the BAR 002 and 003 were reliable enough to score points regularly...

[NiceGuyEddie]

I dunno. Wirdheim was in a R4 quicker than Webber in a R5 today at Valencia......

[Greg Cummins]

Funny Scott75. I was just thinking about this myself this morning. He was out of his depth at BAR, didn't seem adaptable to the way F1 was changing at the time.

I am yet to be convinced otherwise since his move to Jag. And given that they've had a few testing sessions now and are still at least 2 secs off the pace I have no reason to think this has changed.

My answer is an emphatic NO! He's not up to F1. I think the designer of Thunderbird 2 has a better chance of coming up with something quicker.

[PaulSands]

Originally posted by NiceGuyEddie
I dunno. Wirdheim was in a R4 quicker than Webber in a R5 today at Valencia......

That's another reason not to get too excited about anything we see in the times yet...I was under the impression that the changes to the 2004 cars was supposed to make them a touch slower than the '03 versions.
Once everybody is running in the latest cars then maybe we can have a better idea about each teams potential for the season

[DriverT]

Originally posted by PaulSands
That's another reason not to get too excited about anything we see in the times yet...I was under the impression that the changes to the 2004 cars was supposed to make them a touch slower than the '03 versions.
Once everybody is running in the latest cars then maybe we can have a better idea about each teams potential for the season

Not sure they are supposed to be slower. Technically, if they had everything the same except for the changes, then yes. But considering they've improved the design, chassis, aero, etc. they should be pretty disappointed if their new car is slower than the old one.

I am shocked by how Jaguar could produce such a slow car, after last years' being quite good. There is the thought that testing means nothing, but surely everyone is not saying that Webber is doing huge long runs with lots of fuel. His latest run was 55 laps, which was in fact less than most. I wonder how much Webber's stock will fall as a result of this car.

[Super Tourer]

Originally posted by Greg Cummins
Funny Scott75. I was just thinking about this myself this morning. He was out of his depth at BAR, didn't seem adaptable to the way F1 was changing at the time.

I am yet to be convinced otherwise since his move to Jag. And given that they've had a few testing sessions now and are still at least 2 secs off the pace I have no reason to think this has changed.

My answer is an emphatic NO! He's not up to F1. I think the designer of Thunderbird 2 has a better chance of coming up with something quicker.

Oastler is not the designer of the car, he has joined Jaguar as an engineer, not a designer.

[Greg Cummins]

Thanks ST. I picked up on that just after i posted. Much to my chargrin.

In saying that, I think the engineer of Thunderbird 2 has a better chance of coming up with something quicker .

Of course, this is really just me expressing a desire to see forward sweeping wings in F1 regardless of their aerodynamic efficiency.

[Super Tourer]

Originally posted by Greg Cummins
Of course, this is really just me expressing a desire to see forward sweeping wings in F1 regardless of their aerodynamic efficiency.

Welcome to 10 Tenths - enjoy!

ST