The Jenson Button effect on sponsorship
Discussion
I was thinking about the lack of a major sponsorship deal for McLaren and wondering when a main team last ran with so little and (Brawn excepted) the one I thought of was the Honda Earth Dreams car. So the connection with Jenson? It was his fifth year of driving for BAR/Honda when they didn't get a main sponsor so used the Earth logo and this year is Jenson's fifth with McLaren.
If the pattern continues at the end of next year McLaren will pull out of F1 to concentrate on environmentally friendly road cars and Eric Boullier will buy the team and in 2016 Boullier GP will win the drivers and constructors championship!
If the pattern continues at the end of next year McLaren will pull out of F1 to concentrate on environmentally friendly road cars and Eric Boullier will buy the team and in 2016 Boullier GP will win the drivers and constructors championship!
woof said:
What isn't public knowledge is that young kevin magnussen has 30million of sponsorship money funding his drive.
He has a Danish backer that is paying for it all.
Still 30 million is still a long way short of how much Mclaren are spending but it helps.
Ahhh. That explains a lot......He has a Danish backer that is paying for it all.
Still 30 million is still a long way short of how much Mclaren are spending but it helps.
woof said:
I have no idea what's going on with Mclaren. Every year is just gets worse
But I do think they've lost focus. The car division has done an amazing job and is already running in profit and perhaps that path has taken them off their F1 strategy.
You may be right, hopefully now the automotive division is set up and working pretty well there will be the resource to get the F1 team back to the front of the grid and on the top step of the podium again.But I do think they've lost focus. The car division has done an amazing job and is already running in profit and perhaps that path has taken them off their F1 strategy.
I don't understand McLaren's situation. I thought going back to push rods would be the silver bullet in their handling issues- it wasn't. The car still looks stiff and fidgety and the drivers still complain about traction and difficulty bringing the front tyres in. They've their own wind tunnel but they have persistent issues with correlation. Among the biggest budgets of the lot of 'em and yet the lowest placed Mercedes powered car. I'm beginning to wonder if Jenson has been leading the team down a blind alley in terms of his feedback and how this effects the development of the car. I hope Magnussen can breathe some fresh air into the team and lead the development from his side of the garage.
DanielSan said:
They have the money, but what they don't have are the people... All the best staff seem to have gone to Red Bull or Mercedes.
This about sums it up for me too. Ferrari are in the same boat as it happens with the added complication of trying to get staff to move to another foreign speaking country.
I think Jenson the PR man is pretty near perfect for any sponsor to be very happy. I have aways thought that Jenson the driver was the issue, as did Flavio and Frank.
I thought his whinge in Spain was telling, he was saying that KMag's inexperience was holding the team back. The implication seemed to be he missed Lewis's input into how he should set up his car.
I thought his whinge in Spain was telling, he was saying that KMag's inexperience was holding the team back. The implication seemed to be he missed Lewis's input into how he should set up his car.
Sadly as a Mclaren fan i think they would have a lot more success if they had kept with Kovi. Bringing Jenson in has had a destabizing step for the team .
As i understand it to placate Jenson about equal rights status they gave him Lewis,s Engineer and key mechanics straight away which i should not think Lewis was over the moon about.
Jenson has been very good at gradually gettin the upper hand in the team dynamics as apposed to Lewis going with the flow in his earlier years, Plus was there not some ill feeling about Paul Dresta dropping Hamilton senior in favour of Jensons management team.
But the biggest problem was that the car development has gradualy swung to JBs driving preference which was totally different to Lewis. It worked for a while as Lewis could drive around it .
Jenson is super fast if the car is 100% as he wants it , But falls apart when it is not.
By not concentrating on Lewis not only was there championships lost but we lost the best Driver we have had for years and he took Paddy with him.
As i understand it to placate Jenson about equal rights status they gave him Lewis,s Engineer and key mechanics straight away which i should not think Lewis was over the moon about.
Jenson has been very good at gradually gettin the upper hand in the team dynamics as apposed to Lewis going with the flow in his earlier years, Plus was there not some ill feeling about Paul Dresta dropping Hamilton senior in favour of Jensons management team.
But the biggest problem was that the car development has gradualy swung to JBs driving preference which was totally different to Lewis. It worked for a while as Lewis could drive around it .
Jenson is super fast if the car is 100% as he wants it , But falls apart when it is not.
By not concentrating on Lewis not only was there championships lost but we lost the best Driver we have had for years and he took Paddy with him.
rdjohn said:
I thought his whinge in Spain was telling, he was saying that KMag's inexperience was holding the team back. The implication seemed to be he missed Lewis's input into how he should set up his car.
Exactly what I 'heard' from this comment. Without Lewis in the team pushing the limits Jenson was no better than Perez last season, and KMag is proving to be just as good this season. I like Jenson but he isn't the best and helping the team build the fastest car, and the car isn't getting any more competitive like it did with Schumacher/Ferrari.woof said:
What isn't public knowledge is that young kevin magnussen has 30million of sponsorship money funding his drive.
He has a Danish backer that is paying for it all.
Still 30 million is still a long way short of how much Mclaren are spending but it helps.
This is hugely unlikely, do you have anything to back it up?He has a Danish backer that is paying for it all.
Still 30 million is still a long way short of how much Mclaren are spending but it helps.
An entity happy to spend 30 mill and not even have their name on the car? Really?
woof said:
I have no idea what's going on with Mclaren. Every year is just gets worse
But I do think they've lost focus. The car division has done an amazing job and is already running in profit and perhaps that path has taken them off their F1 strategy.
There won't be a cross over of staff working on F1 and the road cars. But I do think they've lost focus. The car division has done an amazing job and is already running in profit and perhaps that path has taken them off their F1 strategy.
They just aren't doing very well lately.
andyps said:
I was thinking about the lack of a major sponsorship deal for McLaren and wondering when a main team last ran with so little and (Brawn excepted) the one I thought of was the Honda Earth Dreams car. So the connection with Jenson? It was his fifth year of driving for BAR/Honda when they didn't get a main sponsor so used the Earth logo and this year is Jenson's fifth with McLaren.
If the pattern continues at the end of next year McLaren will pull out of F1 to concentrate on environmentally friendly road cars and Eric Boullier will buy the team and in 2016 Boullier GP will win the drivers and constructors championship!
It's amazing that despite this and the oft-mentioned "Button isn't that good a driver" comments that he has been in F1 for so long. Not a great driver and doesn't bring much sponsorship... he must have something over the team bosses... or maybe one or both those two statements are incorrect. If the pattern continues at the end of next year McLaren will pull out of F1 to concentrate on environmentally friendly road cars and Eric Boullier will buy the team and in 2016 Boullier GP will win the drivers and constructors championship!
DanielSan said:
They have the money, but what they don't have are the people... All the best staff seem to have gone to Red Bull or Mercedes.
There are new staff en-route, quite a lot of heavy recruitment going on especially in the aero department. woof said:
I have no idea what's going on with Mclaren. Every year is just gets worse
But I do think they've lost focus. The car division has done an amazing job and is already running in profit and perhaps that path has taken them off their F1 strategy.
My understanding is that this is some legacy left over from the Whitmarsh days, Racing resources were being used on Automotive projects and reporting lines were very confusing causing a loss of focus. Changes to management teams and reporting lines should bring this under control but time will tell.But I do think they've lost focus. The car division has done an amazing job and is already running in profit and perhaps that path has taken them off their F1 strategy.
As for title sponsorship Ron seems to have a figure in his head and doesn't want to shift on it, given that the team hasn't won much recently I imagine this is . The deal with Rakuten fell through so I guess it will come down to what deals Honda can help bring in for next year, plus any possible driver changes.
ewenm said:
It's amazing that despite this and the oft-mentioned "Button isn't that good a driver" comments that he has been in F1 for so long. Not a great driver and doesn't bring much sponsorship... he must have something over the team bosses... or maybe one or both those two statements are incorrect.
My opening comment was meant in a light hearted way, hence the icon on the thread. It is purely coincidental I am sure in relation to sponsorship and poor car performance - I actually think JB has managed to be in the wrong car at the wrong time too often in his career. He can't manage a poor car as well as some other drivers but in a decent car he is excellent, he managed to easily beat Rubens in 2009 with identical equipement (at least initially).F355GTS said:
woof said:
IThe car division has done an amazing job and is already running in profit,
Find that very hard to believe 
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