Row Man Gross-Gene wrote:DanielPT wrote:So Horner is still "concerned" about the costs so he suggests to avoid more development costs by scrapping previous development costs while at a same time adding a few more development costs. He also expects that in the end the engines will cheaper. Looks legit.
I like the way your mind works.
Sadly, I do not like the way that Horner's mind works - the only upside is that most people are seeing straight away through his utterly transparent attempts to force the field back in his direction.
After all, it's not surprising that he is picking on the idea of a standardised energy recovery system given that is the one area where Mercedes is believed to be particularly dominant. It's also quite marked how Renault themselves are not complaining about the engine development regulations in the way that Horner is - perhaps because they are the ones who have to pay for the engine development and then hand over the fruits of their development to Horner for free...
Sublime_FA11C wrote:Will McLaren kick a second driver to the curb in two years? If he is Ron Dennis' "baby" then papa Dennis sure as hell doesn't act like it. At this point Magnussen may be more like a puppy that's grown a little bigger and the kids aren't interested in it any more.
Or Dennis has learned his lesson and is not showing so much enthusiasm towards Magnussen as a way of placating Alonso, who threw a fit last time Ron loved his "baby" a little too much.
I think that there is perhaps another aspect to McLaren's indecision over their driver line up, because McLaren do have a bit of a difficult decision to make.
Magnussen has shown potential over the course of this season in terms of raw pace, but at the same time also been ragged and somewhat inconsistent in terms of performance. Button, as has been his weakness, hasn't been the best in terms of qualifying and outright qualifying speed, but over the course of this season he has been the more consistent and higher performing driver, and on balance the difference in points represents that fact fairly well.
From McLaren's point of view, they have a problems - in the short term, Button is likely to be the driver who would score more points given his experience and race craft, but Magnussen's longer term career potential is likely to outweigh that of Button. The team is essentially having to wager on whether the short term pain they might take from keeping Magnussen, who would probably not score as heavily as Button might and could therefore cost them in a tight WCC battle, could be repaid in the longer term by stronger future performances from him - which is a difficult decision to weigh up.