Motorsport Off Topic Thread

New regulations, new title sponsor, new engine, and funding it all with a volatile young pay driver screams risk to me. At the very least the next few years at McLaren are going to be challenging.
 
Skeeter said:
New regulations, new title sponsor, new engine, and funding it all with a volatile young pay driver screams risk to me. At the very least the next few years at McLaren are going to be challenging.
Click to expand...
Not to mention having lost Paddy Lowe ahead of the new regulations. If McLaren were to replace Perez with Kimi they'd be better off driver wise but a lot worse off money wise if Telmex are set to replace Vodafone as title sponsors.
 
I'd forgotten about Paddy leaving, that makes it even worse for them.

If they signed Kimi they would have to keep Perez in order to pay for him, and I'm pretty sure their new title sponsor is linked to Perez too (i.e. Telmex, as you said).

I expect the bean counters at McLaren would see signing Kimi as far to much of a financial risk.
 
Skeeter said:
I'd forgotten about Paddy leaving, that makes it even worse for them.

If they signed Kimi they would have to keep Perez in order to pay for him, and I'm pretty sure their new title sponsor is linked to Perez too (i.e. Telmex, as you said).

I expect the bean counters at McLaren would see signing Kimi as far to much of a financial risk.
Click to expand...
So you reckon if Kimi signed, then Button would have to leave to keep a seat for Perez?

I can't imagine McLaren would want to re-sign a past driver; it doesn't say much about their driver policy if they did that. McLaren might think that Perez isn't the finished article yet and would think they can help mould him; something they can't do with Button or Kimi.
 
MarcLister said:
So you reckon if Kimi signed, then Button would have to leave to keep a seat for Perez?
Click to expand...

Yes. Hamilton and Button both had pay cuts because of tight finances. A lot rumours suggest Perez was signed for his money more than his skill. And Kimi is going to be considerably more than Button if past pay cheques are anything to go on. Based on this I cannot see how McLaren could afford Kimi and Button without Perez and his money.
 
Skeeter said:
Yes. Hamilton and Button both had pay cuts because of tight finances. A lot rumours suggest Perez was signed for his money more than his skill. And Kimi is going to be considerably more than Button if past pay cheques are anything to go on. Based on this I cannot see how McLaren could afford Kimi and Button without Perez and his money.
Click to expand...
I was checking I'd understood what you were saying. Bit of a fall for McLaren to have to stoop to a pay driver + take his sponsor on as a title sponsor.
 
I can't see Mclaren being that hard up tbh. Perez also had a brilliant year considering his car the season before so that would have weighed heavily, and he is young.
 
Whitmarsh has said a few times that McLaren are not flush with money. They cut (tried, in Hamiltons case) the drivers pay, they have done other things to reduce costs too. He also did a really poor job of avoiding answering questions about weather Perez was signed for his money.
 
Skeeter said:
Yes. Hamilton and Button both had pay cuts because of tight finances. A lot rumours suggest Perez was signed for his money more than his skill. And Kimi is going to be considerably more than Button if past pay cheques are anything to go on. Based on this I cannot see how McLaren could afford Kimi and Button without Perez and his money.
Click to expand...

Are McLaren genuinely that cash strapped?
 
sunama said:
Are McLaren genuinely that cash strapped?
Click to expand...

I've no idea, but its definitely the impression I get from what they have been saying.

Wasn't there an article from Whitmarsh some when last year where he was saying that financial trouble extended much further up the grid than the bottom teams, and basically only Ferrari and Red Bull were immune.
 
If I was Toto Wolff I'd go for Kimi and replace Hamilton, after all Kimi won his Championship year fair and square and didn't need anyone to drop back and purposely be overtaken to win his :D

Much better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom