Ground Effect wrote: ↑02 Jul 2019, 20:28
I’m a bit surprised they can’t make it work with Fry on board. McLaren at a certain time had Goss, Prodromou, Fry, Lowe and Newey (It’s actually mind boggling) all together and kicked on. It was kind of like the Beatles, where everybody was a drummer, bassist, guitarist, singer and song writer.
That did NOT work great at all. Most cars were hit & miss really like the MP4-17, MP4-19 & MP4-21. Especially the 19 where Newey & Prodromou insisted that they solve the aero problems plaguing the car while Lowe etc argued that mechanical improvements would suffice, vetoing his designs thanks to Whitmarsh's Matrix system. We all know how that turned out. The car was an absolute dog, taking the team from almost winning the championship by 2 points in 2003 to dead last. Needless to say, when the aero solutions were introduced in Spa the car won that very weekend, with a bit of fortuitous assistance obviously. It would continue to be a front runner from that point onward.
Even after Newey left the team remained under familiar haze. Too many cooks! Every year marked by novel concepts such as the MP4-26's sidepods, their departure in 2012 and then a camel mimicking concepts around the grid in 2013. Heck, even the Mcl33 seemed like a product of internal dispute, exaggerated COG & chassis philosophies blotched with agricultural aero concepts.
Their was no leadership and it could not be more obvious.
It goes without say though, such isn't the case in 2019. Pat Fry probably was just a stopgap till Key's arrival who seems to have a penchant for engineering responsibilities. I think this arrangement would dovetail nicely with Peter P's group.
