The F1 thread

fretmeister

It's official.

Ron has gone.

Still has his shares and seats on the boards though.

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

It's official.

Ron has gone.

Still has his shares and seats on the boards though.

About time .. he was well passed his sell by date.

fretmeister

BBC are reporting that the likely (believed by the paddock) reason for the Ron Dennis / Mansour Oijeh dispute can't be printed.

err, anyone know more? By PM obviously!

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

BBC are reporting that the likely (believed by the paddock) reason for the Ron Dennis / Mansour Oijeh dispute can't be printed.

err, anyone know more? By PM obviously!

I'll ask my son to ask his friend .. see above.

stickyfiddle

I'll see if my cousin knows anything - he works in the roadcar factory.

I'm surprised Ron's gone but it's probably not a bad thing for the F1 side at least. They've been uncompetitive for years now.

fretmeister

Heartfeltdawn

fretmeister said:

BBC are reporting that the likely (believed by the paddock) reason for the Ron Dennis / Mansour Oijeh dispute can't be printed.

err, anyone know more? By PM obviously!

From what I remember, there was reports that Ron's divorce didn't go down well with the Ojjehs as the then Mrs Dennis and Mrs Ojjeh were very close friends. 

Fretwired

Heartfeltdawn said:

fretmeister said:

BBC are reporting that the likely (believed by the paddock) reason for the Ron Dennis / Mansour Oijeh dispute can't be printed.

err, anyone know more? By PM obviously!

From what I remember, there was reports that Ron's divorce didn't go down well with the Ojjehs as the then Mrs Dennis and Mrs Ojjeh were very close friends. 

But that was in 2008 ... didn't Ron try a coup to take control while Oijeh was in hospital?

If the dispute can't printed it's usually something to do with sex .... has Ron been chasing Mansour's wife .. ;-)

mikeyrob73

More likely chasing Mansour ;-) 

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

But that was in 2008 ... didn't Ron try a coup to take control while Oijeh was in hospital?

If the dispute can't printed it's usually something to do with sex .... has Ron been chasing Mansour's wife .. ;-)

He dumped Whitmarsh whilst Ojjeh was in hospital after a double lung transplant. But this has always been public and discussed. I remember a piece somewhere on Joe Saward's blog where some of the comments below talked of the closeness between ex Mrs D and the Ojjehs and how there were definite sides taken there. On Joe's current piece on Dennis, a comment provider asks if the Whitmarsh sacking was linked to RD going. Saward says no and he's usually pretty much on the money when it comes to the F1 grapevine. 

https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/ron-dennis-and-mclaren-2/#comments

Fretwired

Jenson Button has announced his retirement from F1 saying Sunday's Grand Prix will be his last. A year off was never going to work ... great driver. No doubt he'll end up doing something else.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38092740

ESchap

Good luck to him, I'm sure he'll be good at whatever he does next, different formula or working in media.

gavin_axecaster

I wish the Hamilton haters would stop trotting out the trite "Button outscored him in the same car" rubbish.
They were teammates 3 years (2010/11/12) and Hamilton finished higher in the Championship in 2010 and 2012. In 2011 Hamilton lost the plot and drove (and acted) like a dick, finishing 5th in the championship while Jenson had arguably his best ever season* and finished 2nd.

* yes, better than his championship season, which if we are all honest was mostly down to the car/technical innovation.
In 2011 he showed that he was not only a good time trialist who could only drive a perfectly balanced car but could also be a good racer.

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

Jenson Button has announced his retirement from F1 saying Sunday's Grand Prix will be his last. A year off was never going to work ... great driver. No doubt he'll end up doing something else.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38092740

It's clear he still wants to drive though. Le Mans is an obvious possibility but I would put some cash on him taking part in the Aussie V8 Bathurst 1000 next year. 

Heartfeltdawn

gavin_axecaster said:

I wish the Hamilton haters would stop trotting out the trite "Button outscored him in the same car" rubbish.
They were teammates 3 years (2010/11/12) and Hamilton finished higher in the Championship in 2010 and 2012. In 2011 Hamilton lost the plot and drove (and acted) like a dick, finishing 5th in the championship while Jenson had arguably his best ever season* and finished 2nd.

* yes, better than his championship season, which if we are all honest was mostly down to the car/technical innovation.
In 2011 he showed that he was not only a good time trialist who could only drive a perfectly balanced car but could also be a good racer.

Button finished 24 points behind Hamilton in 2010. To do that in your debut season for a team that was built around Hamilton was pretty impressive. 2011 Button did outscore him. 2012 Hamilton was ahead by a mere 2 points with LH taking 4 wins to JB's 3. 

Hamilton did lose the plot when he had a decent car in 2011. For all the people slating Vettel for whining this season, 2011 was the Hammy whiny season. And let's be honest here, considering he's never had to drive anything as crap as the Honda RA107 that JB had in 2007, he's come out with some great whines over the years. 

Putting Button's title win down to car/technical performance when Hamilton's last two title wins have been in a car even more dominant than the Brawn is strange to me. The Brawn did indeed have a head start but there were still 6 different race winners in 2009 spread over four teams. In 2014, three winners and two teams. Same again in 2015. 2016, four winners, two teams thus far. The Mercs now have been as dominant in a single season as the McLarens were in 1988 and they've managed to sustain that dominance far longer than the McLarens did in that era. 

What JB showed is that there are different ways to win a title. Senna and Prost were very different racers, Hakkinen and Schumacher likewise. It's to JB's credit that he decided to test himself out against one of the best in the same team and he wasn't found wanting at all. 

ESchap

Good summary @heartfeltdawn  ; I for one will miss one of the few grown-ups on the grid.

stickyfiddle

Completely agree with @Heartfeltdawn. JB isn't one of the absolutely best multi-title guys, but he's been a bloody good driver throughout his career and absolutely deserved the title he got. 

He's not quite an Alonso/Hamilton - the kind of driver who can wrestle results out of anything and will dominate in a great car, but he's great driver.

I'm a bit gutted not to be going to the AD this year. The tickets are expensive and after-race concerts shitty but I'd have gladly queued several hours to shake his hand this weekend.

Fretwired

Heartfeltdawn said:

Fretwired said:

Jenson Button has announced his retirement from F1 saying Sunday's Grand Prix will be his last. A year off was never going to work ... great driver. No doubt he'll end up doing something else.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38092740

It's clear he still wants to drive though. Le Mans is an obvious possibility but I would put some cash on him taking part in the Aussie V8 Bathurst 1000 next year. 

He's said he wants to do Le Mans ... he's said he'd like a go at rallying in the past. Didn't his dad do something like that?

Paul_C

Fretwired said:

He's said he wants to do Le Mans ... he's said he'd like a go at rallying in the past. Didn't his dad do something like that?

I love the squeaky voice

sinbaadi

Heartfeltdawn said:

Putting Button's title win down to car/technical performance when Hamilton's last two title wins have been in a car even more dominant than the Brawn is strange to me. The Brawn did indeed have a head start but there were still 6 different race winners in 2009 spread over four teams. In 2014, three winners and two teams. Same again in 2015. 2016, four winners, two teams thus far. The Mercs now have been as dominant in a single season as the McLarens were in 1988 and they've managed to sustain that dominance far longer than the McLarens did in that era. 

What JB showed is that there are different ways to win a title. Senna and Prost were very different racers, Hakkinen and Schumacher likewise. It's to JB's credit that he decided to test himself out against one of the best in the same team and he wasn't found wanting at all. 

Quite.  One can easily argue that the RBR was the dominant car for the season as a whole.  A more experienced RBR team and a more experienced Vettel would probably have made a different story of it and Button's drive at Interlagos to seal it with a round to go was one worthy of any F1 champion.