Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is delighted to announce that Sam Michael will join the team as Sporting Director from the 2012 season onwards. With 18 continuous years in the industry, Sam is a hugely experienced Formula 1 professional.
Looks like this might not be so far fetched after all (From Whitmarsh Must go Thread).For sure, British news media has not faired well of late! But major surgery of the Williams GP type may prove necessary going forward. In strange way a rather youthful Technical Director freed of his burdens in Grove, may discover his libido in entirely new surroundings at Woking.
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raymondu999 wrote:Really? McLaren for Sam Michael?
His role: "specific responsibility for the development and management of the team's trackside operations." That COULD mean McL will slowly integrate him into a technical role. Certainly seems an evolutionary change for McL -- not revolutionary. No one would ever ID Michael as another Newey.raymondu999 wrote:His role is sporting rather than technical so right now I don't think he'll be designing anything. Maybe he'll talk of how he made the Williams gearbox with Tim Goss or Neil Oatley over lunch or something but not much else.
To be fair to Sam, it appears a lot was asked of him at Williams and he may have spread himself too thin, so he may yet surprise in a better resourced team. McL's race strategy always seems to be wanting, spending a lot of time outsmarting themselves in a very 'mission control' sort of way. As far as the way it has been structured from the outset under Ron, it is 'The Team', so fingers crossed that he will plug the brain fade that seems to occur all too often on race day.Sawtooth-spike wrote:I am sorry but Sam has not doing anything at williams to set the world alight? They are currently only above the "new" teams. Not that i am saying this is all his fault, but clearly in his current Williams role he has to be the one responsible for the poor form of his car.
On the flipside, maybe he can explain how to gear a car for Monza.
