Mallya:We need to do better

[markfarrell9572]

Just want to agree here with Alionora about John Booth, he is a true racer, but when he's dealt a pile of cack to deal with thats all he can use.  Richard Branson is just disinterested.

[John S]

Just want to agree here with Alionora about John Booth, he is a true racer, but when he's dealt a pile of cack to deal with thats all he can use.  Richard Branson is just disinterested.

Most of the pile of cack is Booth's own making, Virgin only came on board after he had set up the team the way it was. Doing F1 on the cheap is extremely difficult especially without experience of what a team really faces, only now are things being put right with Pat Symonds onboard. Sponsors even if they are  full or part team owners tend to leave the running of the outfit to others, they are in it for the exposure not the hard graft.



   

[Alianora La Canta]

You guys are over-reacting.  It was simply a post to suggest he doesn't have the drive (or pour the same amount of money into the team) as the RBR management does - nothing more.  That part is true.  Maybe he pours his heart and soul into the team, but we don't hear about it, and it doesn't show if he does.  I like Mallya much in the same way that I like Briatore (don't jump on me - hear me out), in that he is a colourful character, and has potential, as long as he surrounds himself with good people.  Mallya hasn't done that part yet (I thought he had with Gacoyne, but we know Mike's an all or nothing kinda guy, and after all, it is Mallya's money).

Vijay is putting in the sort of money that the RRA allows for 2012, so the team doesn't have to go through any massive downsizing shocks at the end of the year. It's not his fault if the big teams prefer to subject their teams to the problem of suddenly adapting to much less money next year.

I also don't see any less drive - Vijay may have lots of different interests but when he's chairing Force India he's chairing it solidly and well. As for Gascoyne, he fell out with Kolles. Teams can't afford that sort of arguing in the technical ranks, especially when they're small. Vijay had to drop one or the other and it turns out that with the new teams coming in, he'd have lost both anyway.

[markfarrell9572]

I wouldn't hold the fact that Mike Gascgoyne didn't stay around against Vijay,  Mike has never (to my mind) been overly loyal to any team and has tended to go where the money has been good.  Mike has a big name as a Technical Director, but honestly how many really good cars has he  designed?

[Alianora La Canta]

Apart from the last two times, which ended when he fell out with the wrong people (management in the case of Toyota, Kolles in the case of Force India). To paraphrase an interview Mike gave to F1 Racing, he joined his own team* because he'd run out of other teams in the paddock prepared to hire him. He's a great talent but rather... ...individual in the way he works.

* - Well, it was his own team at the time - Tony turned up a few months in, during the immediate run-up to the FIA choosing entries for 2010.