Mclaren Sign Alonso for 07
Discussion
Briatore has always made it clear - and at least the guy is up-front about it - that to him motor racing is only business.
Assuming that Renault continue as a constructor, which seems by no means to be certain, it is questionable whether they would have paid Alonso the market rate when his current contract expires. According to the press, in '05 Raikkonen made $24M and Alonso made $9M.
If you're Briatore and you can see that it's very unlikely that you'll be able to sign Alonso for '07, either because you won't have the same team or because you can't afford the extra $15/year, then the next best thing for yourself is to place Alonso with a team that can pay him a huge wage, of which your agent's cut will also be huge.
With respect to who might get the chop from McL., I'm not aware of any reliable public disclosure of the size of the Vodafone funding. If it's similar to West's, however, then perhaps McL. would have difficulty paying two guys $25M/year each, unless the acquisition of Vodafone and Alonso were to make it easier to secure additional new, substantial backers. In addition to Montoya, who doesn't come cheap ($17M, apparently), McL. have in the wings Gary Paffett, who seems to have done quite well in his recent F1 testing, and Lewis Hamilton, who in two-three years' time could be ready.
We've all heard the plausible speculation about Raikkonen/Ferrari, and for sure F. will now feel more pressure to sign him. One does wonder whether, for near-equal money, KR might be tempted to stay at McL. in order to compete directly against FA.
Assuming that Renault continue as a constructor, which seems by no means to be certain, it is questionable whether they would have paid Alonso the market rate when his current contract expires. According to the press, in '05 Raikkonen made $24M and Alonso made $9M.
If you're Briatore and you can see that it's very unlikely that you'll be able to sign Alonso for '07, either because you won't have the same team or because you can't afford the extra $15/year, then the next best thing for yourself is to place Alonso with a team that can pay him a huge wage, of which your agent's cut will also be huge.
With respect to who might get the chop from McL., I'm not aware of any reliable public disclosure of the size of the Vodafone funding. If it's similar to West's, however, then perhaps McL. would have difficulty paying two guys $25M/year each, unless the acquisition of Vodafone and Alonso were to make it easier to secure additional new, substantial backers. In addition to Montoya, who doesn't come cheap ($17M, apparently), McL. have in the wings Gary Paffett, who seems to have done quite well in his recent F1 testing, and Lewis Hamilton, who in two-three years' time could be ready.
We've all heard the plausible speculation about Raikkonen/Ferrari, and for sure F. will now feel more pressure to sign him. One does wonder whether, for near-equal money, KR might be tempted to stay at McL. in order to compete directly against FA.
D_Mike said:
Just a reminder that JPM had the advantage of Raikonnen for at least the last 1/3rd of this season... I think we will be consistently faster next year.
until he breaks another arm on a bike or trashes another back marker in a sorry excuse to lap them! JP will do much of the same in 2007, sorry, I like the guy I really do but he was not fast enough this year and made too many errors. Like Webber he is a good driver but not world championship material, somehow though, others seem to see something that i can not. he can put in fast laps and some great races but not 17 times a year.
But Juan Pablo was consistently faster in races and in qualy than Raikonnen in the 2nd half of this season, so how come you said KR was faster?
I think JPM is one of the most exciting drivers in F1, purely becuase he is a racer. Not enough of them around in F1 nowadays.
edit: I think you'rw wrong about Webber too!
>> Edited by D_Mike on Monday 19th December 16:46
I think JPM is one of the most exciting drivers in F1, purely becuase he is a racer. Not enough of them around in F1 nowadays.
edit: I think you'rw wrong about Webber too!
>> Edited by D_Mike on Monday 19th December 16:46
pablo said:
Like Webber he is a good driver but not world championship material, somehow though, others seem to see something that i can not. he can put in fast laps and some great races but not 17 times a year.
Sorry, one last thing - What about 2002 (I think) where JPM got 8 or 9 or something consecutive poles in that williams. Seems pretty consistent to me.
D_Mike said:
But Juan Pablo was consistently faster in races and in qualy than Raikonnen in the 2nd half of this season, so how come you said KR was faster?
I think JPM is one of the most exciting drivers in F1, purely becuase he is a racer. Not enough of them around in F1 nowadays.
edit: I think you'rw wrong about Webber too!
>> Edited by D_Mike on Monday 19th December 16:46
lookng at the results of last season qualifying and the finishing postions how do you make the claim on montoya being faster than kimi?
Was pretty shocked to hear the Alonso news, but if Kimi stays to team up with Alonso that would be by far the most talented combo since Prost and Senna. I still cant get the Japanese GP out of my head when i think of these two - they utterly rinsed the field!! Sadly, I dont see it happening, my bet is that Kimi will go elsewhere (Ferrari) and we will never get to answer the question of how they would compare.
Sayin that, Alonso/Montoya would be pretty damn interesting too!!
Sayin that, Alonso/Montoya would be pretty damn interesting too!!
D_Mike said:
Like Webber he is a good driver but not world championship material, somehow though, others seem to see something that i can not. he can put in fast laps and some great races but not 17 times a year.
Sorry, one last thing - What about 2002 (I think) where JPM got 8 or 9 or something consecutive poles in that williams. Seems pretty consistent to me.
But how many of those poles did he convert in to wins?
JPM unfortunately only seems to be able to win when his main opposition has been hobbled in some way.
When the Vodafone transfer of funds to McL was announced I thought it might be an image thing since the possibility that KR might join Ferrari in 2007 was doing the rounds. Whilst MS seems quite capable of chatting endlessly when required to, KR would seem to be a less obvious choice of icon for a mobile phone company.
So if KR goes to the dancing donkey team Voda might want to be elsewhere. McL seemed like a good idea and with FA on board (he can talk a bit) it might be an even better one. (I wonder if Voda are about to re-brand and change their red motif, hence the desire to drop teams strongly associated with the colour red?)
BTW flemke, I seem to remember I saw a figure of £28 million mentioned - I assumed per annum - for the Voda/McL deal though whether that was the real figure only a few people will know.
Ah, just got around to reading the other thread on a similar topic and spotted that others have had the same thoughts about taciturn icons. So, great minds think alike then!
>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 19th December 22:14
So if KR goes to the dancing donkey team Voda might want to be elsewhere. McL seemed like a good idea and with FA on board (he can talk a bit) it might be an even better one. (I wonder if Voda are about to re-brand and change their red motif, hence the desire to drop teams strongly associated with the colour red?)
BTW flemke, I seem to remember I saw a figure of £28 million mentioned - I assumed per annum - for the Voda/McL deal though whether that was the real figure only a few people will know.
Ah, just got around to reading the other thread on a similar topic and spotted that others have had the same thoughts about taciturn icons. So, great minds think alike then!
>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 19th December 22:14
One has to presume that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye, otherwise the conflicts of interest that Flavio has are mind boggling; he manages a manufacturer's team and this year's world champion, and lets the latter leave to go elsewhere, presumably taking a nice percentage of a higher salary. Would not like to have to explain that one to the Renault board unless something else is happening, like Renault packing up in F1.
mutt k said:It's no more of a conflict of interest than his being allowed to hire two of "his own" drivers for the only two driving slots on his team.
One has to presume that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye, otherwise the conflicts of interest that Flavio has are mind boggling; he manages a manufacturer's team and this year's world champion, and lets the latter leave to go elsewhere, presumably taking a nice percentage of a higher salary. Would not like to have to explain that one to the Renault board unless something else is happening, like Renault packing up in F1.
First he gave a platform to his driver Alonso, who at the time was barely tested. That has worked out, but of course things could have turned out very differently. Then he gave the other prime spot to his driver Fisichella, but who's to say that other drivers wouldn't have been better?
Then you have the outrageous situation a year ago, when Briatore declared that he would not allow "his" drivers Fisichella and Webber (another client) to drive for the same team. How can the manager dictate to "his" drivers for whom they will be driving, especially when he has an interest in seeing that any drivers who don't drive for his team to do less well than they potentially could?
Max the Manipulator could do a lot more for the sport by prohibiting all these indefensible conflicts of interest than he does by playing junior engineer with the technical regs.
I think it might have somthing to do with Flav wanting somone quick on the "cheap". When does Webber's contract with Williams expire? As Webber is managed by Flav it wouldn't surprise me if we saw him at Renault in 07. The only reason he wasn't at Renault before is because Flav said he didn't want two drivers under his managment on his team. Webber was on 8m Australian this year.
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