Should Martin Whitmarsh stand down

[Born Racer]

I think John that Lewis has mostly been consistent with the exception of a lot of 2011. Button has had less incidents, but he has been far less consistent on pace and ultimately, it's the old "you can make a quick driver have less crashes but you can't..." thing.

[Knowlesy]

The inconsistency thing with Lewis is exaggerated really.

He has had inconsistent machinery which is the bigger problem.

Ignoring 2011, when he was utter dog**** for a half season, he has dragged consistent results out of cars that aren't consistently fantastic and probably only Alonso has bettered him in his regard.

People seem to think his 2010 season, for instance, was defined by Monza and Singapore for some reason. Ho hum.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

he has dragged consistent results out of cars that aren't consistently fantastic and probably only Alonso has bettered him in his regard.

I concur on both points.

Re: Mr Whitmarsh, to elaborate on what I mentioned before, I doubt the majority of us are in a great position to make a call on how well he's doing in the sense that team principals have diversifying and varied responsibilities throughout the teams. It's difficult enough to say how a driver is doing given the trouble in assessing the relative merits of the cars (we all have a good go on here, don't we?!), but even more difficult for team principals due to the aforementioned reason.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

The inconsistency thing with Lewis is exaggerated really.

He has had inconsistent machinery which is the bigger problem.

Ignoring 2011, when he was utter dog**** for a half season, he has dragged consistent results out of cars that aren't consistently fantastic and probably only Alonso has bettered him in his regard.

People seem to think his 2010 season, for instance, was defined by Monza and Singapore for some reason. Ho hum.

Exactly.

[dirtymacca]

I heard that Martin did not agree with Lewis's choice of earings, they had a spat and threw handbags at 30 paces... the outcome is obvious!

[John Turner]

As I said, I wasn't criticising Lewis; and I agree that neither the car nor the teamwork has been consistent, I just don't see him as being anymore consistent than Jensen over the 3 seasons that they have driven together. I still think that they are the best driver pairing on the grid, and both have had their share of bad luck.

Oh, and in respect of the original thread question. Absolutely not, MW should not stand down.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I've never heard of a team principle leaving the job because one of the drivers goes to another team. Imagine if that were the case, there'd be a team principle silly season as well as a drivers.

[fourWheelDrift]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I've never heard of a team principle leaving the job because one of the drivers goes to another team. Imagine if that were the case, there'd be a team principle silly season as well as a drivers.

Smacks of the sort of thing we see in football where the manager is often sacked every time there are a couple of bad results. In any sport there will be ups and downs and if your leader is any good it is well worth hanging on to him through the lows some of which you will have just in the normal course of events. I think in football it's often to appease the shareholders and I'd hate to see the same sort of behavior creeping into motorsport.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

The inconsistency thing with Lewis is exaggerated really.

He has had inconsistent machinery which is the bigger problem.

The same could be said for Jenson's machinery too.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Mr V

The same could be said for Jenson's machinery too.

The only thing that you could really say was a real difference between them was qualifying. But anyway, it all seems to have added up to there just being a handful of points difference between them over three seasons.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Marbot

The only thing that you could really say was a real difference between them was qualifying. But anyway, it all seems to have added up to there just being a handful of points difference between them over three seasons.

Indeed. Not the whitewash that many expected to happen.

[Knowlesy]

The big thing that has brought them close together has been Hamilton's diabolical second half to the 2011 season. Let's make no bones about it, that was awful for him and one of the worst half seasons from anybody I can remember. He just didn't turn up.

The statistics up to now between Button and Hamilton have been pretty largely in favour of Hamilton. Qualifying, it goes without saying, has been a one sided affair. In 54 race weekends, Hamilton has outqualified Button 39 times to 15 which can be amended to 40 vs 14 if we assume Hamilton had the pace in Spain before being relegated to the back of the grid (a pretty safe assumption frankly). it is a staggering gap and testament to the sheer, god given raw pace Hamilton possesses.

Races are, of course, where Button comes into play far more with his patient and intelligent style. Hamilton has outraced Button 30 times to Button's 24.

Delve a little deeper, and you can also see that Button retired with mechanical failure whilst ahead of Hamilton just the once, whilst Hamilton has suffered the same fate four times (or five, if we want to count a rampaging Pastor Maldonado as a mechanical failure , but that is possibly a bit far). So the gap could be a lot bigger in terms of Hamilton finishing ahead of Button, certainly in probability. You're looking at a 33/34 to 21/20 in favour of Hamilton.

The fact is clear, despite a half season where he was subbed by his brother Nicolas, Hamilton has still been comfortably superior in terms of performance. Which was as expected really. And Button has driven really well in the face of it, not being flustered at all. It's a credit to both drivers.

Button pretty much has McLaren to himself now. Expect him to thrive further in 2013.