Mclaren Mercedes 2014

[Pierce89]

And what the situation with Peter Podromou?

1.1.2015. Or earlier if it's possible. Fingers crossed.

Personally, I feel Prodromou will never get to Mclaren. Red Bull has so much time to romance him that they'll eventually come up with an offer that keeps him at Red Bull.

Guess I was wrong .

[adrianjordan]

Regarding Fallows

https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/stat ... 5227318272

McLaren are screwed on that one. It's been fought several times in court, and decided many times in the same direction - a company can not force someone to work for them, or stop them from working for someone else, ever. No matter what the contract says.

Does it not also follow then that Red Bull cannot stop PP from starting work for McLaren??

[beelsebob]

Regarding Fallows

https://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1/stat ... 5227318272

McLaren are screwed on that one. It's been fought several times in court, and decided many times in the same direction - a company can not force someone to work for them, or stop them from working for someone else, ever. No matter what the contract says.

Does it not also follow then that Red Bull cannot stop PP from starting work for McLaren??

Yes it does. The likely reason why PP is not starting for McLaren is that he himself has a vested interest in not breaking his contract. e.g. having some bonus structure that requires him to stay for a certain length of time.

This became a major issue in my sector (computing), where companies started adding non-compete clauses to their contracts. Where they stated that you could not move to a competitor after leaving your job for at least 6 months (or in some cases several years). This effectively denied the employee the right to make a living, and has been found repeatedly to be completely unenforceable in the UK.

[Paul]

Isn't it usually different with F1 employees than a non-compete clause? I was under the impression they are under contract with a team and receive a salary, but are barred from being on premises in advance of their contract actually running out not to be aware of the latest developments.

[Pup]

The issue for Podromou is his noncompete, and perhaps also the term of his contract with Red Bull. For Fallows, it's only his contract with McLaren. Two completely different situations.

Podromou is bound by his noncompete because a) RB can prove that they'd suffer a loss if he went to a competitor early; and b) he's received something in return (his salary). Fallows has yet to receive anything (unless he took a signing bonus), so he can't be bound by any noncompete, even if it's in his McLaren contract. Even if he did get something from McLaren, they'd have to prove some loss, and that would be difficult to do. Perhaps not impossible, which is why they might be able to keep him from working for Red Bull. That's at an extreme end of what's possible, of course.

He is bound, however, by whatever contract he signed, and the wording of that will determine what McLaren can get as compensation. It probably has specific clauses about what happens if he reneges, and one of those clauses could say that he has to sit out a year. Whether they could hold him to that is a different matter.

Regardless, McLaren would surely benefit more from getting Podromou early than they would either from money or from keeping Fallows from RB for a year, so I think it's a sure thing that's what they'll be after.

[beelsebob]

RB actually could not prove that they'd suffer a loss. The clause regarding this is bounded by the condition "excluding competition". That is, the loss has to be something other than "my competitor would gain an advantage".

The reason why it's likely that these are being respected is that the teams likely have agreements with each other to respect non-compete clauses, because they all know that it will at some point be beneficial to them to respect them.

[Pup]

Podromou has knowledge of RB's secrets, etc. which is enough for them to prove loss. The only reason F1 engineers aren't bound by longer noncompetes is because they have successfully argued previously that can't be kept out of their profession for longer.

[Juzh]

Podromou has knowledge of RB's secrets, etc. which is enough for them to prove loss. The only reason F1 engineers aren't bound by longer noncompetes is because they have successfully argued previously that can't be kept out of their profession for longer.

They can be held on gardening leaves for 6 months maximum if I remember correctly. Timing seems just right in Podromou case.

[mclaren_mircea]

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/for ... 8--f1.html

Here you can find good informations about Mclaren's actual situation. Jenson says that all the targets set for the winter were achieved and they have a driveable car which is well balanced and reacts in the way it should to all the set up changes. The next step is throwing downforce packages on it. And more important. The correlation between wind tunnel, simulator and track is even better than what they had in 2012. If this is true, correlated with what Boullier said about updates to every race, Mclaren should go forward towards the sharp end of the grid. We have to see if it's an realitic target to catch Mercedes this year, as a customer. I personally don't think so, only a beast Honda PU next year can make it happen. I really hope I'm wrong for this year

[Pup]

I guess Button has forgotten that the reason they scrapped the 2012 design was that they couldn't figure out why the aero was working better on track than in the tunnel.

[mikeerfol]

I guess Button has forgotten that the reason they scrapped the 2012 design was that they couldn't figure out why the aero was working better on track than in the tunnel.

I don't think so

"The correlation between the wind tunnel and reality is also very good, probably even better than 2012 because it's actually working.

[Juzh]

I guess Button has forgotten that the reason they scrapped the 2012 design was that they couldn't figure out why the aero was working better on track than in the tunnel.

I don't think so

"The correlation between the wind tunnel and reality is also very good, probably even better than 2012 because it's actually working.

Actual track results outperformed wind tunnel calculations and they couldn't figure out why. That's why they think now it actually works as it should.

[Emerson.F]

I guess Button has forgotten that the reason they scrapped the 2012 design was that they couldn't figure out why the aero was working better on track than in the tunnel.

I don't think so

"The correlation between the wind tunnel and reality is also very good, probably even better than 2012 because it's actually working.

Actual track results outperformed wind tunnel calculations and they couldn't figure out why. That's why they think now it actually works as it should.

yeah thats why they came up with the 'amazing' Mp4-28

[Juzh]

Actual track results outperformed wind tunnel calculations and they couldn't figure out why. That's why they think now it actually works as it should.

yeah thats why they came up with the 'amazing' Mp4-28

mp4-28 was started from scratch because mclaren felt they peaked with the development of 27 and somewhere something obviously went wrong. Possibly because the wind tunnel and track weren't correlating properly, which worked in their favour in 2012 and the other way around in 2013. Main thing is, they didn't know why that happened, but they apparently do now.

[Paul]

I think Pup's point was that achieving better correlation than in 2012 isn't really much of an achievement. Low bars and all that...