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Button joins McLaren, Doh! Done it wrong again Dad!


just john
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I am with Tony on this I just find it incomprehensible that individuals are paid so much money a la bankers and let us say footballers. But it is not envy it is simply the market place.

My first love is cricket but look behind the so-called English players and the Chairman of one so called English player is of course Sir Ian Botham. When you hear Sir Ian commenting upon one let us say South African but now English player you can see where the motives are. I say marketing the player who was not even born in the UK.

Once upon a time to play for Yorkshire you had to be born within the county boundaries.

As in Brian Close Geoffrey Boycott et al.

However what do I know I am old and past it .

Why should I complain.

In Wales we even have had in the past New Zeland South Africans and others playing for our national Rugby side. Thus we traded off the success of the Welsh side (not in the 70's or 80's) for some of the successes of the last few years.

Still what do I know
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Well for what it's worth I reckon Jenson has done the right thing. His Brawn car ceased to be competitive right about the time their chief designer left (June 25th). Coincidence?? I think not......How good will next years Brawn be without the wizard who designed this years car having an input?

Also I'd like to see him race Lewis on an even footing, I'm not a big fan of Lewis and his recent "Jenson may have won the title but I'm still the best in F1" comment I thought was a little misplaced and arrogant, just when I was beginning to warm to him a little.
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I rate the designers (but they all need a tuned driver), Jenson too, but he has made some iffy decisions in the past, going to McLaren will put him in the newcomer slot, and like all those before him, Prost, through to Alonso find themselves uncomfortable, at least while he is at Brawn/Mercedes he should be supported by the crew he knows.
It looks like it's not over yet Brawn says stay with us. Bernie agrees[8-|]

 

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Having read http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2009/11/what_mercedes_buyout_of_brawn.html I think I'll retract my earlier statement about him doing the right thing.  Playing second fiddle to Lewis in a car designed around Lewis' driving style (polar opposite to Jenson's style) maybe isn't such a good move...............

Jenson's in Selfridges tomorrow night - maybe I'll go tell him.........[:D]

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[quote user="Tony F Dordogne"]

I'm just amazed at how much interest and concern there is about F1 when the whole thing is so contrived and just a game for rich people to play.

[/quote]

Perhaps because this is the sole remaining sort of manufacturing industry left?

John
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It's not a ball or gameboy sport true. It does combine many challenges, from serious finance, aerodynamics, through mechanical and electrical engineering, and finally a guy physically takes the machine there through the competition, more exciting than watching grapes grow, (my other passion if you're interested.[:)])
As for national achievement, Britain does quite well at producing these talents [:P]

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Pity Britain doesn't reap more of the financial rewards.

The drivers and other high earners concerned are all resident outside UK to avoid paying tax. Most of the mechanicals are sourced from Germany, Japan or France. And England even has trouble persuading the wonderful Bernie to allow it to stage a GP, which then costs a small fortune for Brits to attend.

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Mercedes F1 engines are built by Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd at Brixworth, Northampton. That company was formerly called Ilmor Engineering, but today's Ilmor Engineering is an unrelated company making engines for racing in the USA.

McLaren-Mercedes F1 cars are built at Woking, Surrey.

Brawn F1 cars, now to be called Mercedes Grand Prix are built at Brackley, Northampton and  have Mercedes HPE engines.

The Toyota F1 cars and the engines used by Toyota and Williams were built at Cologne, Germany. Toyota has now withdrawn from F1.

Renault F1 cars are built at Enstone, Oxfordshire and their engines are built at Viry-Châtillon, near Paris.

Ferrari F1 cars and engines are built at Marenello, Italy.

BMW-Sauber F1 cars were built at Hinwil, Switzerland with engines built in Munich. The team has been sold and, if it competes in F1 in 2010, will use Ferrari engines.

Williams F1 is based it Didcot, Oxford and will use Cosworth (based at Northampton) engines in 2010.

Red Bull F1 cars are built at Milton Keynes and use Renault engines.

Toro Rosso F1 is based at Faenza, Italy and uses Ferrari engines.

Force India F1 is based at Silverstone, Northampton and uses Mercedes HPE engines.

2010 should see the appearance of four new teams in F1 - Lotus , based in Hingham, Norfolk, Manor, based in Dinnington, Yorkshire, Campos, from Spain and Team US F1, from USA. All four of these teams will use Cosworth engines.

I think it's fair to say that most of the mechanicals in F1 are from the UK - part of a UK motorsport industry which turns over £6 billion and supports 38,500 full and part-time jobs, of which 25,000 are qualified engineers.
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''These guys just suck all the juice out of racing'' I think Gregg Henry says this about the Munns as team bosses in the 1979 Film Hot Rod.

My understanding is that Brawn expected Jenson to stick around and wait for the Mercedes takeover to be complete and then take whatever he was offered with the ability to control his own merchandising on top.
Mercedes want Rosberg and Vettel as soon as they can get him; Button, No1 & 2 on the cars and the possibility of a back to back champion does not to appear to be on their radar. Having dumped McLaren into the bargain and bought Brawn you could say that they weren't showing a lot of loyalty to Button either. The dealing here doesn't do much for their integrity in my opinion and I understand him jumping ship and wish him well despite the difficult integration into a new team, It would be nice if they could whoop the Silver Arrows, 1966 all over again[8-|]

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I was lucky enough at the end of Jenson's first season with Benetton to be given a private guided tour of the factory (which is now the Renault factory) by one of the mechanics. The work that goes into each car is astonishing, I can well believe the 38,500 jobs supported by this industry.

I was even shown some of the wee 'rule bending' antics at the time which was fascinating too, such as Jenson's spring loaded pedals.
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[quote user="just john "]The dealing here doesn't do much for their integrity in my opinion and I understand him jumping ship and wish him well despite the difficult integration into a new team, It would be nice if they could whoop the Silver Arrows, 1966 all over again[8-|][/quote]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does the reference to 1966 mean?

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[quote user="RicandJo"]He's referring to the possibility of an all English team beating an all German team.........

I read today though that Raikkonen is talking to Merc about Button's now vacant seat......[/quote]

But Mercedes Grand Prix is not "all German".

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[quote user="RicandJo"]I was lucky enough at the end of Jenson's first season with Benetton to be given a private guided tour of the factory (which is now the Renault factory) by one of the mechanics. The work that goes into each car is astonishing, I can well believe the 38,500 jobs supported by this industry. I was even shown some of the wee 'rule bending' antics at the time which was fascinating too, such as Jenson's spring loaded pedals.[/quote]

I too had a tour when it was the Renault factory, courtesy of a mutual printer, (great lunch, still have the renault brolly), spent most time fascinated watching a guy whose sole employment was bending and making up the exhaust manifolds.

[quote user="Cjlaws"]
But Mercedes Grand Prix is not "all German".
[/quote]

Technically not as we know, but if their desire is to name the team Silver Arrows after the previous Mercedes owned team, running ''Mercedes'' engines and using German Drivers then thats close to being a 'German' team for the PR guru's. Hence the Jingoism regarding the 'English' drivers for McLaren I guess, not my preference, but that seems to be the projection. 

PS for me all this is a bit of a non event compared to watching how Lotus  do in their comeback.[8-|]

 

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