Mike Rutherford makes everyone on here look like Alan Henry.
Discussion
He's vastly superior to Kevin Garside, here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formul...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formul...
Kevin Garside of the Telegraph said said:
F1 knows how to survive a crisis. It is managed by the most successful impresario sport has known and governed by a political genius.
So now we know why Honda left F1. It wasn't because of the global financial crises, nor the fact that their main market, the USA, was not being serviced by F1. No, it was, according to Rutherford:
"Honda . . . took [my advice] lock, stock and barrel.
So they read what some hack in a minority newspaper said and decided; 'This bloke, who knows, by his own admission, bugger all about F1 somehow knows where it's at. We've got to follow what he says and go immediately.'
Rutherford should have stuck to films, acting as Miss Marple.
"Honda . . . took [my advice] lock, stock and barrel.
So they read what some hack in a minority newspaper said and decided; 'This bloke, who knows, by his own admission, bugger all about F1 somehow knows where it's at. We've got to follow what he says and go immediately.'
Rutherford should have stuck to films, acting as Miss Marple.
And there's not even a hint of irony either!
Is it wrong that I get extremely irritated that berks like Rutherford are earning a living writing dross like this, and I can't even get a job as a journo at the moment?!
In fact, sod that, there's at least five or six people on the GM board who could do a better job than him! Why aren't we getting paid?!
Is it wrong that I get extremely irritated that berks like Rutherford are earning a living writing dross like this, and I can't even get a job as a journo at the moment?!
In fact, sod that, there's at least five or six people on the GM board who could do a better job than him! Why aren't we getting paid?!
Garside's suggestion that BCE redistributes that wealth is interesting though - how would he do this - subsidise the European races?...how would that go down with the ME and ASPAC regions currently filling CVC's coffers?...and Garside also ignores the fact that CVC need that income to service their debt....that is a bit of an omission by a journo - rather convenient....
rubystone said:
Garside's suggestion that BCE redistributes that wealth is interesting though - how would he do this - subsidise the European races?...how would that go down with the ME and ASPAC regions currently filling CVC's coffers?...and Garside also ignores the fact that CVC need that income to service their debt....that is a bit of an omission by a journo - rather convenient....
There does seem to have been some suggestion that Bernie has this pot to share out differently. I don't know where people think this pot of gold is hiding.I very much doubt CVC are going to say "F*ck our liquidity, lets give the teams more cash" any time soon.
kevin ritson said:
Isn't Rutherford a failed Clarkson? Shouldn't he do the right thing and commit suicide?
You obviously don't read the Telegraph regularly.Rutherford has a different agenda to Clarkson, Rutherford has always banged on about value for money.
True, motorsport isn't exactly something he knows all to well about but in years gone by he's praised Audi and now Peugeot because endurance racing is far more cost effective and relevant technologies to the general public.
rubystone said:
Garside's suggestion that BCE redistributes that wealth is interesting though - how would he do this - subsidise the European races?...how would that go down with the ME and ASPAC regions currently filling CVC's coffers?...and Garside also ignores the fact that CVC need that income to service their debt....that is a bit of an omission by a journo - rather convenient....
Unless CVC sell it to an outfit that both does not need to borrow to fund the purchase (and one would be interested to know CVC's terms, and the permanence of their funding), and that potentially could add value to the show.CVC were amongst the genre of the worst possible buyers: they had to borrow to pay for it, and they had absolutely no way of enhancing its value. Their game plan had to be some version of bleeding it dry.
One is really glad that the organisation that had veto power over the purchase - the FIA - did such a fine job of looking after the sport's interests.
bordseye said:
Well maybe you wise old men of F1 would explain to me whats wrong with the article other than the inevitable journo exaggeration (like doesnt he know what a billion is?)
Deep breath....Rutherford said:
In the first sentence I urged the Japanese firm to “pull the Formula One plug.” By the second I advised that Jenson Button must not wait to be sacked/paid off by his employer, but should instead resign with dignity and acknowledge his part in Honda’s catastrophic F1 downfall.
Button had nothing to do with 'Honda's downfall', they only have themselves to blame for that. Widely mulled-over decisions such as getting rid of Richards and Willis, employing Fry as Team Principal and insisting that a motorbike designer with no F1 experience designed their car.Rutherford said:
This, remember, is a man that has lost more than 99 per cent of his races over the last decade. But despite this extraordinary failure rate, Honda still paid him at least $1million and possibly as much as £1 million for each race he competed in during 2008. In return he gave his team a total of three lousy points for the whole year. Or to put that another way, he earned about seven million per point!
An epic demonstration of a complete lack of F1 knowledge.The expression "lost 99% of his races" is so wildy irrelevant is doesn't even warrant a comment.
Lewis 'lost' 73% of 2008's races, and yet he still became champion.
Rutherford said:
Dozens of readers responded via email, post and phone. Some congratulated me for hitting the nail on the head. Others claimed that I don’t understand F1 (not true), that I’m an F1 nobody (true), that my proposal that Honda should gracefully exit the sport was a “pathetic piece of journalism” (not for me to say).
He doesn't understand F1, otherwise he wouldn't be writing this dross. Rutherford said:
Significantly, Honda did not complain about or dismiss my advice. Instead, they took it lock, stock and barrel.
Oh come on! Like Honda could give a flying fig what some pikey moron has to say about a half billion dollar operation.Rutherford said:
Not only has the company immediately pulled the plug on F1 as per my suggestion. It has also effectively rid itself of Jenson, who referred to his Honda race car as a “dog” or “undriveable” at the very time his employers were paying him one of the highest salaries in the F1 paddock.
Yeah, because it was a an undriveable dog - he was not the only person saying it and, if they were taking offence they would have told him to keep schtum.Rutherford said:
Like Jenson, I’ve been flown out to Tokyo and warmly greeted as a humble guest of Honda enough times to know that it’s just not the done thing to publicly insult such a proud, well-mannered and notoriously traditional Japanese host. Silly boy.
Blah blah blah blah blah.Rutherford said:
Don’t believe for a minute that the company has walked away from F1 solely because of the global financial crisis.
Why bother employing Brawn then? Rutherford said:
Honda has lost face and that’s a hugely under-estimated factor in this sorry F1 saga. Also, the company is seething that it spent billions, but was still nothing more than an also-ran with cars and drivers that usually languished at the back of the field in ’08.
Cars, not drivers. Rutherford said:
Jenson was third from bottom and the Honda team second from bottom at the end of this season. Therefore, if you’ll forgive the football analogy, they were both in the relegation zone.
No, I won't forgive the football analogy actually. The two sports have nothing to do with one and other and the analogy itself is complete nonsense.Rutherford said:
So failed and embarrassed Honda graciously accepted defeat and did the honourable thing by demoting itself from F1.
No, they did the gracious and honourable thing and stopped spending half a billion dollars on sport having just announced that they would be laying off hundreds of workers at its Swindon plant, because it wasn't making enough money to justify keeping it running.Rutherford said:
And at the same time it took Jenson’s allegedly “undriveable” race cars away from him, forcing him to seek alternative employment or, more likely, early retirement.
If he's such a twerp, why has the only team with a spare seat offered him an unconditional race seat over several new, younger, cheaper GP" graduates?Rutherford said:
It turns out that I was right when I went out on a limb and argued that Honda could and should throw in the F1 towel.
Fluke.Rutherford said:
But that’s where my predictions end.
Good.Rutherford said:
Will other teams follow Honda’s example and walk out on the sport? Nobody knows at the minute. Not even the teams themselves.
Funny, all five remaining manufacturers have said they're committing to the sport for the foreseeable future. Rutherford said:
Having said that, why would serial winners such as McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari give up at this point, after investing countless years and billions getting to - and staying at - the top?
And now that wealthy BMW Sauber and even wealthier Toyota are closing the gap on the top two, they’d be daft to call it a day. Besides, the giant that is Toyota would be guilty of emulating the comparative dwarf that is Honda if it too divorced itself from F1.
Something correct!And now that wealthy BMW Sauber and even wealthier Toyota are closing the gap on the top two, they’d be daft to call it a day. Besides, the giant that is Toyota would be guilty of emulating the comparative dwarf that is Honda if it too divorced itself from F1.
Rutherford said:
If you’ve ever purchased a tiny can of Red Bull at a colossal retail price, you’ll know that this company/team isn’t short of cash and can also afford to continue in F1.
And a stunning return to form!Rutherford said:
Renault might walk - partly because it has bigger financial problems than other top- flight teams and partly because it’s French and unpredictable, it’s run by a notoriously emotional Italian and its number one driver is a famously sulky Spaniard.
Nice bit of casual racism.Rutherford said:
The rapid decline of the once great Williams team from world champion to back of the grid no-hoper, together with the advancing years and health issues of its proprietor Sir Frank, is a worry. He’ s now of retirement age and the team will surely get worse, not better, when he accepts the free bus pass he’s entitled to.
Eurgh, basically.Rutherford said:
In 2008 Force India was like a broken pencil - pointless. If it copies Honda and refuses to show up for the 2009 season, hardly anybody will notice…or care.
This bloke is, to be extremely charitable, a t
t who doesn't understand the complexities and nuances of F1 - he seems to thing that if you're not winning every week, your endeavours are pointless. I'd like to see him to a better job.Edited by MrKipling43 on Monday 8th December 17:02
He has some good dirt on someone, somewhere to keep in motoring circles because it sure as hell isn't to do with his journalistic abilities (I'm stretching the concept of journalism here).
He is to Motoring journalism what Nick Knowles is to DIY; erroneously possessed of an enormous self belief that he is a "salt-of-the-earth-everyman" he is actually an overly coiffured ponce with seemingly little knowledge of what he writes while every other person on the planet sits and thinks: "What a cockwomble"
He is to Motoring journalism what Nick Knowles is to DIY; erroneously possessed of an enormous self belief that he is a "salt-of-the-earth-everyman" he is actually an overly coiffured ponce with seemingly little knowledge of what he writes while every other person on the planet sits and thinks: "What a cockwomble"
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