Ron Dennis: What a Prat!!!!!!

[LucaBadoer]

McLaren boss Ron Dennis has been forced to eat his words after wrongly accusing David Coulthard of stalling before the parade lap got under way.

Dennis said: "Based on an initial analysis we felt that David was responsible for stalling on the dummy grid, but closer scrutiny confirmed that a glitch in the software was at fault. His recovery from this and a first-corner incident gave him two well-deserved points."

Earlier Dennis had told reporters that DC had messed up the start. He said: "I am afraid to say that David had a bit of a brain fade on his part."

When told of his bosses comments DC responded angrily by suggesting it wasn't him that had had brain fade. The Scot said: "I think Ron has suffered a brain fade. He has not spoken to me or to my engineers yet. I was putting the system on in the way we practised, though I did not put it on at full power because I had Michael (Schumacher) in front of me."

"It had not happened in practice and we will have to look at what caused the problem. Hopefully it is just a case of the boffins changing a few numbers. The car just stalled and we're scratching our heads because it should not have happened."

[EERO]

Nothing quite like throwing your support behind your driver. Makes me wonder if he would have said this if his boy Mika had stalled before the warm-up lap. At least he had the decency to publicly retract his statement, but it does raise the question (again) about how much support DC gets (and has gotten) from the team.

[R]

It was really very unprofessional of Dennis to make such a statement before he had spoken to DC. Retracting it later was the only decent thing to do, but fact remains he shouldn't have made such a comment in the first place. Good on David to hit right back at him, I say.

[Tristan]

Plonker.

[Minardi fan]

Couldn't agree more.

[Faster]

Ron Dennis is the biggest ******** that ever existed in F1!!!

[Murph]

Ron Dennis made his comments in the heat of battle. He took responsibility for his "mistake" when he realized that he was a tad hasty in his remarks. We've all done it (said things we later regret)in our past.....and will do so again sometime in the future....

I saw this on the Autorace.com site earlier today. Adrian also absolves David of blame but does mention that David didn't follow whatever the procedures were to the exact detail.


"Newey comments on Coulthard's troubled start

David Coulthard stalled on the formation lap on Sunday, demoting him to last on the grid for the start of the race. McLaren boss, Ron Dennis retracted his accusation made earlier about Coulthard suffering from "brain fade" and stated that it was because of a software glitch.

Technical director for the team, Adrian Newey, said that it was a lack of familiarity with the new systems, but added that it was unfair to blame Coulthard. Autosport quoted him: "It's a situation that perhaps we hadn't properly rehearsed. Something happened which we hadn't properly envisaged, which caused the problem. David did something slightly differently, but I have to say that the system probably should have coped with it, so there's no point in allocating blame. It's a problem associated with the change of regulations."

take care, all
Murph

[Valve Bounce]

This was entirely Mclaren's fault, and they should have rehearsed the procedure until both drivers were thoroughly familiar with it. However, They should have clammed up rather than air dirty linen in public. The point I want to make is that even if it was David's fault that something happened, the team should stand together behind their man and back him up. Or at least say nothing.

[EERO]

Exactly, Bouncey!!!

[Don K]

Over the last 12 months I seem to remember

• one occasion on which DC jumpstarted, giving him a stop-and-go penalty,
• one occasion on which DC started moving early, and had to brake just at the moment the other cars were starting,
• one occasion on which he stalled his engine and needed help from his mechanics to restart his engine during the last moments before the start, giving him another stop-and-go penalty,
• and one occasion on which he stalled his car at the start of the formation lap.

How many problems did Mika have during that period?

Don K.

[Peter Mallett]

Hmm,

God points Don but you seem to have forgotten Brasil.

However, even though MH is faster and more reliable (in terms of starts etc.) I detect a lack of aggression in him, which even counting the errors, DC does seem to have this year.

I couldn't understand what Ron was thinking when he made that statement. Surely after five races, the only McLaren driver who will be anywhere near the championship by October must be Coulthard. It must be time to get behind him now?

[renault110]

DC did make a mistake trying to turn the launch control off. He made that clear in the ITV interview. However, his performance was excellent (i'm no DC fan).

MH threw away the lead. Two or three laps from the end of the race the pit board came out to Mika "P1 easy". He still carried on banging in laps time that were nearly 5 secs faster that MS.

In my view both drivers made crucial mistakes. Ron Dennis chose to public dig out DC.

Ron has no faith in DC and wants him out.

[Dooly Tilly]

WELL SAID ROM WANTS NOTHING TO DO WITH MEDIOCRITY

[Liz]

John Watson said it best, that Ron Dennis believes he created Mika and therefore even if he doesn't score another point all year, I believe Ron will still consider Mika his no. 1 driver.

If DC is a strong man, he will rise to the pressure and show the rest of us, even if he can't prove it to his boss, that he is the go-to guy at McLaren now. If Ron continues to back Mika as his no. 1 in the face of this, it will only show the error of having your pilots ranked in the team.