Following the demotion of Ron Dennis as the company's chief, McLaren Technology Group has announced that Zak Brown has accepted the position of Executive Director. The former McLaren F1 driver is set to start work in December.
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Bit of a shame and a surprise as they always seemed in public to be happy together.
ah no thats really bad stuff, i really liked them as a pair. poor jenson, hasnt been in the best of luck as of after his WDC achievement.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Bit of a shame and a surprise as they always seemed in public to be happy together.
That is a real shame mate, but as long as they part as friends then it's probably for the best.
Continuing in a lost relationship can be very bad.
I actually got to talk to Jenson a few years ago, although very briefly, when took part in the V8 F1 swap at Bathurst.
Jessica was right by his side the whole time and they seemed very much in love.
I can only imagine the demands of both being celebrities, and travelling the world apart most of the year would place on a couple though.
People making jokes about it is in fairly bad taste in my opinion.
Yes that is a shame. I've met both Jenson and Jessica about a half a dozen times and both seem like sincerely nice people. I know Jessica still lives in Japan most of time so being married and apart for most of the year must be difficult. Traveling during my days involved with F1 was a major factor in my marriage not working out. I hope they both find happiness in their relationships in the future.
“If Honda does not race, there is no Honda.”
“Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.”
I remember an interview with Jenson a view years ago where he said he didn't want any kids as long as he was racing in F1, because the livestyle and the danger.
Maybe Jessica got tired of waiting, especially now that Jensen was racing at the back of the grid. He has had a terrible season with the team, but still he chose F1 over freedom and a normal life.
I don't know how anyone else feels, but I thought the jokes and speculation around Jenson's split with Jessica was really uncalled for. It's not team related news, its the sad end of a personal relationship and frankly the mocking of it was too close to being mean spirited at this time of year.
All I have to say is, it's a true shame as they looked a good match, and I hope that both of them can find some happiness going forward. As for the mocking and mean comments, lets keep them to a minimum please?
Writinglife wrote:I don't know how anyone else feels, but I thought the jokes and speculation around Jenson's split with Jessica was really uncalled for. It's not team related news, its the sad end of a personal relationship and frankly the mocking of it was too close to being mean spirited at this time of year.
All I have to say is, it's a true shame as they looked a good match, and I hope that both of them can find some happiness going forward. As for the mocking and mean comments, lets keep them to a minimum please?
this times 2000
it's not just uncalled for, its hateful and shameful. i wouldnt be surprised these people are very lonesome themselves and jaleous and now only think fun because they think he's on their level now, which he isn't.
it is indeed very sad because imho they are a really great pair and i thoroughly enjoyed seeing their chemistry. the kisses, the hugging, the excitement on his WDC title, the support throughout the years, the marriage [they got extra points for having a pontiac as a wedding car], and the fact jessica seemed to be great friends with his dad, too. Extra sad that his dad died last year [or is it already 2 years ago?], and i can imagine she was the final support for him in these tough times.
Jenson stated multiple times that japan is 'like a second home GP' to him or even more of a 'home gp' because he's there so much and obviously that is because of Jessica. All evidence that they were genuinly happy together and she clearly made him happy.
I think Jenson is THE most likeable person in the entire F1 grid, and imho is the embodiment of the classic F1 hero playboy.
A likeable bloke, very talented, ups and downs, and is able to achieve whatever he wants. He gave Lewis a good run for his money whilst everybody got down on him - i never understood that btw.
So to be honest, i took it a bit offensive reading this crap from so-called 'funnymen' here. Not just that, but as if Jenson did not have a bad enough period in his life. The amount of crap he's faced recently is staggering. Remember he was runner-up in the WDC with Mclaren-Mercedes in his second year outing paired to Lewis versus the Dominant RedBull-Vettel period. Remember Alonso's 'dazed and confused' when he lost his chance @ it? Jenson must have felt the same. then he loses his dad - his buddy who was always there with him, and just recently they broke into his house while he was there - drugged asleep and they stole his engagement ring, whilst facing unhappy times @ mclhonda as he's swirling in the back field instead of batteling for the win for 3 years in a row now, having to deal with senseless and heartless Ron, and now, around christmas time, instead of being happy together, he's losing his wife - albeit under 'friendly circumstances'.
I actually think that is horrible and he deserved a lot more than this. Where is the support for this stellar F1 driver?
Last edited by Manoah2u on 26 Dec 2015, 21:04, edited 1 time in total.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Arai interview by Japanese stinger.com site
- location: reception room on 2nd floor at Honda HQ in Aoyama, Tokyo
- date: unspecified, but I guess sometime mid-December, perhaps 3rd week
- duration: about 1 hour
--------- Must have been tough and exhausting one year for you, or maybe you're still tired I guess (laughs). I imagine you stayed so little time at home this year having attended all F1 races as well as several domestic races.
Well, it's my job, so.
----------- Regarding Honda's comeback, there were variety of perceptions/opinions out there, anticipations and anxieties, as well as nostalgic hope for reproduction of the image of Senna/Prost and red/white from the name McLaren Honda. What did Arai-san think about it personally?
Assuming the said wide array of perceptions among public is true, those who were junior high school student in previous McLaren Honda era are now in their 40s. I reckon we are not able to live up to the expectation of people of that generation. Meanwhile, I have some opportunities to talk to/with much younger generations at universities etc, but unfortunately they do not even know the names of Senna and Prost, nor McLaren Honda, even F1 (laughs). From those people's standpoint, it perhaps looks something like "Japanese company called Honda is participating in F1 but it's not going well", irrespective of past glories and histories. Still then, that's one form of "disappointment for the anticipation" as well. But not exactly the same kind of disappointment that you'd have in/towards a legend.
----------- I see
Plus it's also about how you appeal to those who have little interest in it rather than enthusiastic fans, so we are not doing enough to make approach to those people due to the on-track result. Still, what was surprising was that there were a lot more McLaren Honda fans at Suzuka than at other circuits. When the name of Fernando Alonso was announced during the grid introduction before the race start, cheering from the stand was of completely different dB. When I heard that, I was determined to obtain good result here. Answering to Japanese fans expectation at least is a minimum requirement, I consider. Despite receiving such amount of support, we're having such miserable outcome, at Suzuka as well. We felt so frustrated about it and angered at ourselves, and we must meet fans expectation/support - we are made to realize once again at Suzuka. Next year when we come back to Suzuka, we'd like to be Honda that's worthy of that cheering.
----------- Ordinary people do not know that what Honda is doing is tremendous. Also, the word "F1" has become somewhat outdated, like Showa (prev Japanese dynasty era, 1926-1989 in AD) .
That's correct. As I've just said masochistically, it's something that can only be understood by generations of 40s and above (laughs). It can only become topic at under-the-bridge at Shimbashi (=business area and kind of old-sytle pub spot of Tokyo) (laughs)
--------- So I'd like you to explain widely, to let those people who are not involved/interested know that F1 is of such high quality thing, through Arai-san's comments. I'd like you to say something like "It's not something you can have it easy because quality is so high. We are in difficulty atm, but we'll get there definitely so please be patient". That way, we can look forward imo. But Arai-san's comment sounded like "it will get better soon".
I dont think it will be better soon (laughs)
---------- You weren't saying that way at first.
Declaring "it's completely impossible" in front of people's expectation at the very beginning stage equals that you betray all the expectation already, besides if I as a project leader said something like "Well, we should be helpless this year", it would be invalid/impossible/unsustainable world, not just for fans, but also for intra-company, as well as anyone who are actually involved with F1 project. I did say certain things to send out messages "that's where we are aiming at", "you've got to come up with solution/idea on how to close the gap by yourselves" in order to encourage/spur engineers at R&D, but I was always thinking we have to make effort to make people understand the degree of difficulty, and was actually trying to explain the difficulty and the struggle we were facing, accurately and little by little, on the way.
------------ I've asked you a question back in Suzuka, "Suppose the target figure is 100, where are you at right now".
Yes.
----------- Arai-san said you wouldn't make self assessment at that time, but I thought that, if you told something like "setting the target quite high, and right now we are at around this point towards the target", or "it will take some more time" or sth like that, we would be able to cheer/support Honda. Up til certain point, you were going like "we will surpass Williams soon", "we'll do our best to be able to match Mercedes by the end of the season". Then as the season progressed, things didn't go that way at all, which turned off quite a few people, like "what the hell is going on". I thought that was shameful.
Yes
------------- I regarded that Honda's F1 return was a good opportunity to let more ordinary Japanese people know that F1 is such high level sport, so I'd like you to propagate that F1 that Honda is challenging in is such phenomenal thing, by, for example, showing Sakura facility that's touted as high quality to general media, finding chance to introduce MTC, and so on (laughs).
Hmmm, it's quite difficult to meet requests like that. Because appealing F1's attractiveness is more a fundamental thing, so seeing Sakura facility for instance doesn't do much for it, because it's not much more than just "looks tidy/systematic".
------------ Suppose a small country ventured into space development, it's rather easy for anyone to imagine it's difficult to reach the area/level that US and Russia are competing. However, when Toyota entered into F1, there were some expressions as if expecting to win easy/soon. It's somewhat possible to imagine/understand the quality of space development, but not really so about F1. That in my opinion is regrettable.
I understand what you mean. I talk various things at various opportunities, but I feel it's difficult to explain. On the other hand I think I've done well enough as well in some aspect. So, I in turn would like to know what I should tell to turn things around better.
----------- That in turn is our obligation as well (laughs)
What should we tell, I wonder. Thinking about the "uninterested" group that we just talked about, while factors like awesomeness of development and car technology should certainly play a role, 80% of them would get attracted mostly by the kind of factors like "team uniform is cool", "driver is handsome" etc, I imagine. So, we've been thinking it's our duty to approach and solicit those people and actually trying various methods. But just showing Sakura facility does so little to move those people, I reckon.
------------ Seeing Arai-san's comments so far, i fear most people including the said 80% people must be thinking like "only words and nothing happens". Even though you are doing something incredible.
Hmm
-------------- Going for size zero, that is generally thought is impossible to be achieved, is about executing Honda Soichiro's principle "you cannot know whether it's possible or impossible unless you try it", right?
No, we are not doing it because you cannot know unless you try it, but because we are convinced that size zero is a must in order to win.
------------- So, if that intention/vision is made clear, it will be transparent that there is significant value in challenging itself, then that 80% people would grow such notion "don't know details but it's awesome anyway" as a result, I imagine.
I think that's impossible. I think people who have no interest in technology would not understand.
-------------- Might not understand technology itself, but still might be able to understand the attitude of targeting high?
I feel it's unlikely to reach to that phase of perception unless you have solid idea about what the target is exactly. People who like technology, eg students of technical collage, should be able to understand it, but not so optimistic in terms of ordinary public.
-------------- I mean it would be nice if such conception as "what's important is in targeting high itself, not about achieving stable but low" came across.
We have always been intending/striving to do exactly that (laughs)
------------- I think it's not communicating well.
Then there must be flaw in my talking, or else, I'm not sure, but if it's not coming across well, that itself is the issue certainly.
---------- One thing I'd like to make sure - ongoing development for next year is carrying over the concept of size zero?
Yes of course.
----------- So you are not changing concept
Not for now at least. Why, because there is no reason to change in regard to the direction in which we've been going throughout the year, and we cannot see any parts that can be better by changing. It's not like size zero is interfering/obstructing anything at all, so. To begin with, designing it compact is the basis of things, so if that is wrong then principles of everything not just size zero would be denied. To make machinery compact yields various advantages not just about chassis wise but also for many other aspects, but truth is that we are not able to take good advantage of it. So, method of placing the first year as a foundation and maturing it to develop the 2016 car is mutual agreement with McLaren. Maturing the platform by improving shortfall on Engine (PU) as well as chassis side including aero is the way we challenge for 2016.
---------- Isn't cooling the issue for/of size zero?
No, not at all.
----------- If that's the case, then what did you struggle about? What was lacking, what were reasons for not leading to good result?
Regarding what we are in charge of, reliability is one, engine output is one, and deployment issue is one. There is no single issue about cooling.
------------ I thought you were suffering from cooling issue due to the size zero concept that compromised packaging.
No, not at all. We've overcome that issue in the first few races.
----------- The talk is that Merc has advantage in cooling due to split design of turbine and compressor
I wouldn't buy that. That Merc solution is particularly beneficial for cooling is not true. We do not think Merc's layout is advantageous for cooling. Asked if there's any circumstantial evidence for the relation, I would say no. They are working on their own concept, and I don't believe there is any close relation with cooling itself.
------------ So why do you think Mercedes is such formidable?
That's because they have excellent reliability having managed to use only 4 PUs/season, have no deployment issue, have good engine output, as well as high potential of chassis (laughs)
------------ Why do they have such excellent reliability?
One thing is because they've had long development period.
----------- I predict Mercedes will advance even further for 2016, but McLaren Honda is catching up with them, is that right?
We think that we are not able to make proper fight unless at least catch up, so, we are trying to catch up while recognizing the gap.
----------- Speaking of Honda, I'd like to think "Honda = power"
We are not there at all yet in terms of engine output. It will be tough PU-wise unless everything - reliability, output, deployment and MGU-H - comes together.
------------- There is target figure set within Honda and you are getting closer to it?
Of course we are getting closer, but we acknowledge that there is still obvious gap b/w Mercedes.
------------- Ferrari is now getting extremely close to Mercedes?
No, I consider Mercedes is head and shoulders above the rest.
----------- At the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, Alonso set 3rd fastest lap time in the race, also Vandoorne set fastest time in subsequent Abu Dhabi testing, so there are some positives. It looked like there was some light at the end of the season.
It's certain that setup of the car was heading in right direction during Abu Dhabi GP. Team as a whole was feeling positive overall including the fact that both drivers were similarly performing well in the end after having gap on the first day.
----------- Regarding the setup, I reckon that it's impossible to talk about setup properly until power unit start working normally.
That's correct
----------- Around the summer time, some irresponsible rumors spread, which went like "it's McLaren chassis's fault", but I thought that was quite ignorant opinion. It might be true that McLaren has not been on the top form in the past few years hence it's not probable that McLaren possesses the same level of potential as teams like RBR and Mercedes, but looking at it from Japan's side, making power unit decent is priority before talking about Mclaren, in my opinion.
Power train is what we are responsible for, so we must pull ourselves together, but in 3 days running of Abu Dhabi GP, there was no problem on engine side while we applied some tweaks. So I think we managed to achieve that as a result of improving car's overall balance more and more.
------------ It feels to me that the testing after Abu Dhabi GP was the first time McLaren Honda managed to gather good amount of lap like 99 laps without any trouble?
Actually not really so, there were instances in the in-season testing where we could collect good mileage.
------------ Still, lap times weren't so good overall iirc. For example, at Abu Dhabi GP as well, Alonso was 9th in FP2, which gave hope for going through to Q3, but lost out in Q1 after all.
He was setting personal best in S1 and S2, then suffered from puncture in S3 so couldn't be helped. That's how racing is like as well. The whole team was excited about the prospect, so we were all disappointed so much.
-------------- Alonso's time of P9 in FP was within 1 sec from the top. Up until then, there was always a gap of at least 1.8 sec or so.
That's the matter of team effort not just engine, so, engine's contribution to the car's performance is one thing and what enabled the good form in Abu Dhabi is another, and there's quite a disparity b/w the two. We separate out these two elements.
------------ At Hungary Alonso had to miss out qualifying due to trouble. Scenes like that gives me the impression that such situation of KMag unable to start the race due to the trouble in reconnaissance lap of the opening race was continuing and recurring and things hadn't really changed.
I'd like you to tidy things up once, you'll see that's not the case actually (laughs)
------------ General impression-wise it's passing along like that way, I think. Then it finally went fine at Abu Dhabi, sort of (laughs)
Within ourselves we aren't feeling that way
------------ As an individual wanting to support Mclaren Honda, we could see some positives at Abu Dhabi, so it feels good to go into off-season like this, maybe we can expect good result next year. But that wasn't because Honda PU has advanced a lot suddenly, is that correct?
Yes. So as I've said repeatedly, even without changing PU, there's something that can affect and change things quite a bit. So, one thing is that it's extremely essential to get the setting right, and another is that if you mess up with it things can go utterly wrong. For example, Williams at Monaco was impossibly slow. They were so far back even with Merc engine, so you'd get totally lost in such situation. In the race, it's so crucial to optimize everything within the 3 days.
------------- Of course there are uncontrollable troubles like punctures as well as some issues on McLaren side, but impression is more like "PU related trouble occurred again". But even at Abu Dhabi, Honda's PU hasn't changed much?
You'll find out that's not precisely the case actually if you examine the data carefully
----------- Conversely, suppose Mercedes is 100, where is Honda?
That will be self assessment (laughs). As a matter of reality, we've fought 19 races for one year and haven't even gone through to Q3 single time. Thus, we are not yet at the level where we can give score to ourselves. We as a team are not even able to go into top 10 at Quali, so realistically, to be able to go into Q3 is the first step that we have to achieve in 2016.
------------ I can see it in detail at last (laughs)
If I said here now "we will be on podium next year", some people would think it's nonsense. I don't think it's easy either, and in order to display our comprehensive capability, it's essential to provide solid power unit, gain good mileage and take more time for raising the car's performance. Regarding where we'll place the target, I think we can no way say we'll aim for win when we haven't even managed to make it into Q3 yet. Before the 2015 season started, we sure had aspiration of wanting to be on front row, or closer to the front, but as a matter of reality, when saying such things, we were realizing that we were far from reaching that level yet. However at the same time I didn't want to discourage fans supporting us into thinking "totally hopeless", so to some extent we had to say something cheerful, or rather we had to affirm the target we were sharing within the team by declaring/proclaiming "that's where we are aiming for", in order to encourage/inspire ourselves as well.
----------- I see
So we are extremely angry/frustrated at ourselves. There is this gap out there, and finding out how to close the gap as quickly as possible is what we have been working on. And we are made to realize that the gap hasn't narrowed much through one year of challenge. There, regarding the objectives of 2016, if we said "we are going to be on podium" here now, some might think "you must have realized the reality after one year of experience but still say the same thing again". We've already felt the pain so harshly in the very early stage of 19 races, so we are aspiring to move up the field even by one position. We will be explaining/showing that it is getting better, but if we said something abrupt/audacious like "get on podium", then we would lose fans supporting us. That's what I think now.
--------- Engine output, reliability and deployment. Which element is lacking the most?
All of them actually (laughs), 1/3 for each.
------------ ICE is there or thereabout among the field, but increasing output sacrifices reliability, or something like that?
Of course something like that happens, where the parts that has been fine previously are not fine anymore if you increase the output level. However it's deployment issue that disappoints fans the most, isn't it. 120kW of power becomes zero in the middle of straight, so for example when you can add 160bhp to 300bhp, you are forced into a situation where you cannot use that additional 160bhp. Actual horse power is higher than that, but that's how things are like, so you get passed so easily.
---------- in terms of laptime, the difference doesn't become that big actually, but if you see the moment of overtaking, it looks extremely huge.
That's right. It dishearten the fans so much, also such scene is so explicit, so it looks completely hopeless. But if you look at lap time, the difference is not as big as what it looks like actually, but it is symbolically plain to see, so. From spectators viewpoint, deployment not running out is such important factor. Of course in order for overtaking, we cannot fight with deployment that runs out. We reckon that we wont be able to fight properly unless we work out all 3 elements. You told me while ago that we were giving the impression that we're not running much. That's the issue of the reliability, sure at least it's not so good to halt a session by trouble, so that's the first thing to overcome. There's another matter to address in output, but solving deployment issue is vital/urgent.
---------- Getting into Q3 as a first target sounds underwhelming, but only 10 cars can go through, so it would be nice if more people understand how high level it actually is.
You get thrown out by just 0.x seconds, so I would like that to be understood more for sure.
----------- I think the difference between mass production car and F1 is, same as weapons, that performance is massively prioritized over cost. Take piston as an example, anyone can see it's polished and glittering, but why is it like that? I'd like Arai-san to explain something of that sort to the public at each and every opportunities.
it's so delicate and detailed like a watch, yes. Precision/quality of each component is extremely high as well
"I have no idols. I admire work, dedication & competence."
Writinglife wrote:I don't know how anyone else feels, but I thought the jokes and speculation around Jenson's split with Jessica was really uncalled for. It's not team related news, its the sad end of a personal relationship and frankly the mocking of it was too close to being mean spirited at this time of year.
All I have to say is, it's a true shame as they looked a good match, and I hope that both of them can find some happiness going forward. As for the mocking and mean comments, lets keep them to a minimum please?
I pretty much tried to say the same thing, as did Wazari.
I find no joy in failed relationships never mind who's involved, famous or otherwise.
One thing I've really enjoyed about this Forum compared to just about every other I visit, is the maturity of the members here.
Anyhow, it seems to have died down so I'll shut up now.
poor jenson, hasnt been in the best of luck as of after his WDC achievement.
