Sam Michael to leave McLaren at the end if this season

[entropy]

jsf said:

The biggest mistake they made on the pitstop crews when Sam joined was try and run before they could walk, rushing out new procedures and equipment in race environments before they were fully fleshed out, making some monumental cockups that cost them race wins as a result. They may have been achieving the fastest stops when it worked, but that's pretty useless if you screw up more in the ones you don't get right. It's pretty basic common sense.

To be fair other teams were aiming for super quick 'stops - Horner kept banging on about wanting to break the 3sec barrier.

[suffolk009]

Sniff's at it again:

http://sniffpetrol.com/2014/10/23/sam-michael-to-l...

[RogerVulva]

You can't trust anyone with two first names.

[-crookedtail-]

RogerVulva said:

You can't trust anyone with two first names.

Ricky Bobby #shake&bake

[dr_gn]

dazm said:

Sam is actually a very intelligent guy and - despite all the nonsense on here stating otherwise - he's actually very good at his job. He's certainly the most grounded and approachable senior figure in the team and always has time for the staff on the shop floor. In fact he (along with Eric now) is quite a breath of fresh air at Mclaren and it's a shame to see him go.
All this crap about him being responsible for poor performance is thoroughly undeserved. It's quite sad seeing the lack of respect for him on here. He's most definitely one of the good guys

It was probably the painful tv interviews he did in the 00's that influenced uninformed opinions of him. He came across as po-faced and totally humorless.

[Smollet]

Never really warmed to the man when he was at Williams. I'm sure Mclaren's poor performance isn't solely down to him but I have to say he never struck me as Mr Motivator.

[Beer Man]

I think we need a "Glossary of McLaren speak"

For example, in this report,

"categorically denied" = "How did you find out about that?"

"They are not leaving and there are no plans for them to leave." = "They haven't been sacked.......yet"

"completely untrue" = "absolutely bang on"

"resigned' = "sacked"

"it was agreed at the time that he would continue in his role with the team for the rest of the season" = "He left it too late for us to be able to do anything so we had to put up with him destroying the team for yet another year"

"McLaren are undergoing an internal reshuffle" = "Ron is resigning a lot of people"

And other more general ones:

"It's been a disappointing weekend" = "There will be lots of people being 'resigned' on Monday"

"It was a good result for us" = "Can't believe we're happy with one point from a weekend"

"We have not discussed any driver changes" = "Both seats will be occupied by new drivers next season"

"We have signed a contract with XXXXXXX for next season" = "Ron had a pint with the guys manager after the race"

[rubystone]

Beer Man said:

I think we need a "Glossary of McLaren speak"

For example, in this report,

"categorically denied" = "How did you find out about that?"

"They are not leaving and there are no plans for them to leave." = "They haven't been sacked.......yet"

"completely untrue" = "absolutely bang on"

"resigned' = "sacked"

"it was agreed at the time that he would continue in his role with the team for the rest of the season" = "He left it too late for us to be able to do anything so we had to put up with him destroying the team for yet another year"

"McLaren are undergoing an internal reshuffle" = "Ron is resigning a lot of people"

And other more general ones:

"It's been a disappointing weekend" = "There will be lots of people being 'resigned' on Monday"

"It was a good result for us" = "Can't believe we're happy with one point from a weekend"

"We have not discussed any driver changes" = "Both seats will be occupied by new drivers next season"

"We have signed a contract with XXXXXXX for next season" = "Ron had a pint glass of Barolo with the guys manager after the race"

sorted the last one for you to ensure 100% accuracy

[Beer Man]

does he like Barolo then? Just gone up in my estimation (not that that's difficult, he couldn't exactly go down).

[rubystone]

Beer Man said:

does he like Barolo then? Just gone up in my estimation (not that that's difficult, he couldn't exactly go down).

Seemed to like it in Forlino when I was there a couple of years ago. Had good taste in ladies too.

[Beer Man]

Though I think if he'd had a pint glass of barolo he'd have gone up even more

[rubystone]

Beer Man said:

Though I think if he'd had a pint glass of barolo he'd have gone up even more

He was on his second bottle when we left to avail ourselves of the free Mumm on the rooftop bar...no pint glasses in evidence though

[Beer Man]

The pansy. Proper drinks come in pint glasses

[oyster]

Mezzanine said:

'Unexplainable' improvement in McLaren race results in 2015 then!

Sixpackpert said:

Mezzanine said:

'Unexplainable' improvement in McLaren race results in 2015 then!

Quite, I have never seen a team do well with him involved!

_Batty_ said:

Mezzanine said:

'Unexplainable' improvement in McLaren race results in 2015 then!

Just about to post this.

scubadude said:

Mezzanine said:

'Unexplainable' improvement in McLaren race results in 2015 then!

:-) T'was also my first thought, I can imagine Honda executives are getting blind drunk celebrating right now!

IN51GHT said:

I said to PH when SM had been made Tech Director at williams it was a mistake. Got told I was wrong......

DanielSan said:

The curse is over at last

Lincsblokey said:

Woo Hoo, pit strategy that works, sensible team management, all coming to Mclaren in 2015....

woof said:

Mezzanine said:

'Unexplainable' improvement in McLaren race results in 2015 then!

Agreed !

fatboy69 said:

So that's good results & wins for McLaren in 2015!!!!!!!

I see the armchair experts are out in force again.

Shame none of you know enough to comment from a position of expertise within F1 instead of from your armchairs.

[DanielSan]

Sense of humour failure? Mind you, to go to the trouble of quoting all those posts just to jump on your high horse would suggest a man who lacks a lot more than a sense of humour.

[HDM]

oyster said:

I see the armchair experts are out in force again.

Shame none of you know enough to comment from a position of expertise within F1 instead of from your armchairs.

So can you comment from a position of expertise?

[dr_gn]

HDM said:

oyster said:

I see the armchair experts are out in force again.

Shame none of you know enough to comment from a position of expertise within F1 instead of from your armchairs.

So can you comment from a position of expertise?

If he was as useless as everyone seems to think, it's unlikely he would have got a job at Williams after leaving Jordan, let alone another 'chance' at McLaren. These were all teams with nultiple wins, and F1 is probably a very small pond in terms of key personnel.

[IN51GHT]

oyster said:

I see the armchair experts are out in force again.

Shame none of you know enough to comment from a position of expertise within F1 instead of from your armchairs.

I was unfortunate to have worked with Sam first hand, so no, actually, not an armchair expert. when I said about saying to PH he wasn't right for the job, the PH in question was Patrick Head. So ner ner ner ner ner!!!!!

[Roverload]

Praise be to Jeebus!

[revrange]

IN51GHT said:

I was unfortunate to have worked with Sam first hand, so no, actually, not an armchair expert. when I said about saying to PH he wasn't right for the job, the PH in question was Patrick Head. So ner ner ner ner ner!!!!!

owned i think!

I do remember a few years ago when SM joined Mclaren a few PH who had worked around SM came out and said he wasn't all that.

His impact at mclaren, hard to say, he was in charge of the sporting side, so how the team went racing. And well i wouldn't say they have blown anyone away would you? I don't mean in terms of pace of the car, i mean clever tactics to turn that 9th place into a 5th etc, fastest pitstops, no errors etc. I wouldn't say that is what mclaren are known for the last few years (much the opposite) so i would say he didn't exactly do a great job.