Sidepodcast

Would You Sponsor the New US F1 Team?

With the fallout from McLaren's latest indiscretion still reverberating around Formula 1, guest writer Jeremy takes a look at the story from a different angle.

Maybe I'm just naive, but I found the recent news of Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes misleading a stewards enquiry quite outrageous and disappointing. What shocked me even more, was the revelation on Australian TV during an interview with Peter Windsor, that he would have "tried to cover it up in front of the stewards" if he was in the same situation as McLaren's Sporting Director, Dave Ryan.

During the lead up to the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix, Peter Windsor publicly discussed that, having previously been a Team Manager with Williams, if he was in Dave Ryan's shoes, he likely would have taken the same course of action. In his own words:

We're talking about the sort of thing that goes on in the stewards office, probably every day of the year and has been going on for the past 50 years at all motor racing events around the world.

If I put myself in Davey Ryan's shoes, I probably would've done the same thing.

Perhaps Mr Windsor can put this information on the website for his own Formula 1 team - USGPE. I'm sure that would be a great tactic for generating sponsorship. While I say that sarcastically, I'm actually wondering if that statement could in fact be correct.

What do you think, is Peter right and has the latest McLaren scandal been blown out of all proportion? Does this sort of thing happen every day in motor sport, or are USGPE off to a bad start before they even enter F1?

_{Photograph by Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.}