STR?!?!? why so bad? and what's their future look like?

[ISLAMATRON]

As good as the RB5 looked all season why is STR the last team in the WCC standings? Was it all the rookie drivers? Lack of Development? BAd engines?

I know that Red Bull has been trying to sell the team since it can no longer be a "customer" team... any news on that front... you would think that they could come up with a buyer easier than starting a whole new team.

If still owned by Red Bull next year what are their plan car wise... will they have something very similar to next years Red Bull? or will they truly design their own car? or will it be a test bed for Newey's most radical ideas?

Buemi looked ok, but Jaime needs more lower series experience, word is they are keeping both.

Any ideas?

[sunny1304]

for sure STR will design their own car in 2010..

Jaime could do better if he had more lower series experience but he is better than bourdias who always complained about the car.

[WhiteBlue]

Loosing Berger and Vettel has taken the heart out of STR we knew in 2008.

[Miguel]

I'd say it's a mixture of lack of good engineers devoted to the set up (when I say good I mean world class) plus the rookie drivers. It seems Alguersuari has needed a long time to adapt in the last series he's competed in (British F3 as well as WSR), not to say F1. It also doesn't help when your team says that you don't have to worry racing, and just have to bring the car home.

We also have to take into account that STR received their car pretty late in the preseason, one month later than RBR (yes, I just googled that up). Given the lack of formal in-season testing, it is likely this has hampered their set up knowledge quite a bit. Given how tight the grid has been this year, 3-4 tenths won with the set up meant a lot of places.

Regarding the drivers, I never liked Buemi in GP2. Alguersuari had a really slow start of the season in WSR and he has disappointed me. It's true that lack of season testing plus lack of racing experience in the high end series is a handicap, but I expected more from him in these last races of the season (OK, the crash in Spa didn't help at all).

Let's see what happens next year.^H^H^H^H^H. We still have one more race to judge these guys.

[modbaraban]

I'm be surprised they exist at all if their management in other areas is even near as bad as in managing their drivers. It's like they're suicidal. Instead of promoting new talents using Red Bull money they actually bury all of them. Put them in one of their cars, make sure they fail, criticize them publicly for some time and sack them to get a new talent into their 'electric seat'. By 2010 I expect them to be capable of ruining 4 to 5 drivers' careers in 1 season!
The team is a joke, Dietrich should sell them asap to somebody who would actually care.

sorry couldn't resist.

PS: don't mention Vettel. He came there to 'hang out' before joining RBR proper. Now Liuzzi is a better example!

[WhiteBlue]

PS: don't mention Vettel. He came there to 'hang out' before joining RBR proper. Now Liuzzi is a better example!

I don't think that Vettel was meant to drive for RBR. He was brought in by Berger and and taking him out was a big part of Berger getting pissed off with the team. In the STR case the fish stinks from the head and the head is named Helmut Marko. The guy has done so much damage to Red Bull it is unbelievable. He has had the last word over driver issues for more than ten years. He was the idiot who provoked the break up between Sauber and Mateschitz because he continued to meddle with Sauber's driver choices. They tasked him with a young American driver program and he screwed that up as well.

[marcush.]

bad engineers at Toro rosso ,are you mad?

I think they have one of the best in Ascanelli he surely is in the same league as Jock Clear or Symonds,
Looking at the last race when suddenly STR is back where they were last year ,at least with Buemi ,it is fairly clear they had simply not all the necessary incredients to exploit the potential of a very good car.

[axle]

I think their driver line up is ill-advised. They have 2 rookies and no clue. Youth and experience is always a better way to go. I feel they are under massive pressure to find the next Vettel or Lewis and RedBull don't seemingly understand that they don't grow on trees.

I can see STR getting whipped by the new guys next year if they arn't careful. The engine is good, the car is good, but they haven't optomised the two.

[marcush.]

good car +good driver is not equal to a winning combination ,unfortunatelly or luckily.
where is the experience in kovalainen hamilton combo? it can work,it worked at str last year .
bourdais is surely good enough to make it ,so it has to do with internal mud jut why it does not work smoothly forward.

[Ian P.]

What about "The Team Formerly Know of As BMW" buying STR for the race entry....??
Also a good way for the designers to get their hands on a year old Adrian Newey car.
If history holds true, they will win both championships next year.

[Miguel]

bad engineers at Toro rosso ,are you mad?

I think they have one of the best in Ascanelli he surely is in the same league as Jock Clear or Symonds,
Looking at the last race when suddenly STR is back where they were last year ,at least with Buemi ,it is fairly clear they had simply not all the necessary incredients to exploit the potential of a very good car.

I don't have any doubts about Giorgio Ascanelli's technical prowess. I think though that there might be a less than perfect engineer in the "car engineer" position. Didn't we hear Kubica bitching about his car engineer in 2007 until he got replaced? Again, this may also be a lack of experience or miscommunication between the drivers and the engineers. And I'm looking at both sides.

EDIT: Of course, this is all my opinion, and any coincidence with reality is mere coincidence.

[StrFerrari4Ever]

Enough of the negativeness gosh!
They just have to look on these past 4 years in F1 and wonder what they want to achieve I mean this year has been woeful and hard as an STR fan but I'm always loyal and faithful for greater things in the future.

Red Bull might be wanting to cut strings with STR but I know that if they get their priorities straight and work a 110% next year with their own car they can do great things.

The drivers rookies they may be but I feel Buemi has matured fairly quickly even though I had my doubts when he was picked for this year but his grown very well and has shown great pace at times , Alguersuari hopefully will bring funding from Repsol and can get more experience and confidence behind the wheel of an F1 car.
All in all STR have a great platform to build upon and with the news I've been hearing about their 2010 preparations going exactly to schedule they could spring an unexpected surprise.

[marcush.]

I can only advice to read the paul haney book about Pacwest Indycar racing season with Mark blundell and Mo Gugelmin.
Blundell had a very very good Engineer but the two just were impossible as a team to set up the car.The protocols of driver feedback are really revealing and only after a change Mark got around to win a lot of races at the end of the season...good stuff
to read .
Paul haney -inside racing a season with pacwest racing-

I guess bitching about in public is one of the reasons I don´t feel Bob should be WC too soon...onthe other side if the boffin at the screen is just not understanding he should not have found his way there...but BMW seemed at times not very expert in one way or another.

[Giblet]

Being given sub par Ferrari high mileage engines can't help either, especially when the field is as close as it is this year.

They also seem like the most impersonal team out there. Team on one side of the fence, communicating with memos and emails to their staff (drivers). I mean they are just the help right, you might as well treat them poorly.

I look at Luizi, Speed, and all the Sebastians. There has to be a reason that out of these 5 drivers, 3 have had serious issues with the teams management, and a couple drivers have blown right the heck up.

This tells me that even though some of these drivers are a bit whiny, they were ousted in an inhumane way, with no communication until D-day.

Sorry for the negativity, but STR owners seem like a bunch of meanies to me.

[marcush.]

I was surprised with Gerhard leaving the boat last year when all seemed to flow into the right direction..
but then he also gave flak to liuzzi and speed in public which was a bit surprising.

I guess if you lack some base info or miss some details of the aeromap or some calculation programm exclusive to RB ,without any testing you stand no chance to even know where you are during the free practise sessions,let alone get a clou about
tyre conditioning for qualy attempts.
Combined with high engine mileage restrictions a big part of the performance gap is explained.Add to this driver change during the season to a absolute newbie and for sure you are trying to find your feet till the last race.
Given the high expectations and the speed shown by RB the unexperienced drivers try too much and crash which also builds up pressure instead of confidence.
Motorsport is a complicated system and easy to upset .