Thursday Thoughts - New Presidents
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Last week, we introduced the concept of Thursday Thoughts, a question posed here on Sidepodcast to encourage F1 bloggers and writers to publish a few words on the subject. The first question seemed to go down quite well, the experiment was successful despite it's hasty organisation.
This week, we have had a bit of time to prepare, and are giving you plenty of time to think up an answer to today's question. I asked for a couple of suggestions in the comments, and Jackie came up with a great idea:
Who should be the next boss of FOTA?
Now that Luca di Montezemolo has suggested he won't continue with the role for too much longer, as he has himself a proper job, who do you think should take his place?
If you have thoughts on this subject, please post them to your F1 blog and share the link in the comments (even if the pinger gets there first). If you don't have a blog, you can still participate by posting in the comments here or if you've got a lot to say, I'm sure many blogs will be happy for a guest post, or we can publish them here.
I'll be thinking up my answer to the question later today, and we would like to put a deadline on it by about 9pm GMT. Of course, it's not the end of the world if you miss it, but we'll have probably started pondering what next week's question should be by then. Happy blogging!
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Hmm - curious why the subject was not Brawn, Mercedes, Jenson or Kimi - was that because it was covered to death already?
I thought it might be nice to talk about something different. I have a feeling the Mercedes subject isn't going away any time soon.
Hmmm, interesting. will have a think about this.
Yeah ok, fair call then :)
Not sure I care who it will be, I think it might be Boss Haug though a) has the most free time if he lets RB get on with most things b) Merc are suddenly power crazy :-)
The next boss of FOTA for me should be...
Ross Brawn.
I honestly think he's one of the most respected people in the paddock right now, and he is someone Jean Todt at the FIA (or whoever the F1 commissioner would be) would listen to.
Good answers, both, although they are not quite blog entries.
I;m wondering whether my choices might be a little odd but we'll soon see :)
Thursday Thoughts:
http://pardont...ughts-new-presidents/
am confused... i thought everyone was posting at the same time, e.g. 9pm gmt, rather than anytime before 9pm?
did i miss that memo?
I dunno. But its 9:30pm here anyway, and I'll be asleep at 9pm your time.
I'm not sure? I don't remember :(
Here's mine anyways - http://gridwal...-next-fota-president/
good answer :D
it makes no odds to me, was just curious when it changed.
I seem to not understand the concept of Thursday Thoughts at all.
I would have thought it was easier to keep on top of blog posts coming in at various times rather than flooding the web and having a stack of reading to do.
I don't think my answer was even long enough to make a decent blog entry. Probably why I don't have my own blog to start with. :D
I see. I am not the only one who doesn't understand the concept of Thursday Thoughts then ;)
I'm more interested in the real reason why di Montezuma is stepping down and why (coincidently?) "he who must not be named" has been dropped from the motorsport side of Ferrari.
Initially I thought Luca's decision just reflected the waning power of FOTA now that the task of getting rid of Max has been achieved but having lost Briatore, Toyota, BMW and been simultaneously diluted by the new teams (hence not bothered who takes over).
However, the Schumacher decision gets me worried about Todt.
Well, quite. I think this is one of those stories that isn't quite ready to take out of the oven yet. FOTA is certainly a spent force, pretty much, now that some of its loudest voices are awaiting their P45s. Is HWMNBN making himself available for a drive or a position in Team Todt? Difficult to say at the moment, although that hasn't stopped (and won't stop) some people reading between the lines and parping out a non-story to fill the void on a slow news day (if we get one of them any time soon).
Really struggling with this one. How many others have/are writing a post?
Lukeh and Sean have both posted, I'm writing one later. What are you struggling with?
Man flu and writing on a hot stuffy train don't mix well :(
Oh. I cannot help with either of those. Sorry.
I suppose you can split the question further into two parts - who can stand up to the FIA sufficiently to help get things done, and who would be good at keeping things unanimous?
Here's a blug for my effort from 'Making Up The Numbers'. Feel free to comment, even though it's not Monday ;)
Me. But maybe lets make Jean Todt pressie of everything?
I like your little dig at the subject matter again :)
Sorry I don't mean to be snarky - it's more that I cannot believe the events of the week!
i'm so glad it's not any of the things you mention though. i have nothing else to say on any of those subjects.
To be honest, I thought about it, and neither do I. Just need things to settle a bit on those subjects!
I think it should be someone from Red Bull. The team seems savvy enough and is a good bridge between the larger and small teams. Christian Horner perhaps?
I agree. I just had a think of all the names I would prefer and he was the only one on it.
Finished my blog post. The link is in my username.
Thats not how you plug a post!
http://untitle...presidential-polarva/
Would love to do it tonight, but catching up on late posts on my other blogs.
Thursday Thoughts – Who Should Be The New President of FOTA?
At the start of this I have no idea who I think should get this job but hopefully writing this will help me select the best candidate. I think it has to be someone from the existing teams rather than the new teams. I also believe it has to be someone from one of the long established teams or one that has been competitive in recent seasons so that eliminates about half the teams on the grid. I also think Ferrari personnel have to be removed from the equation as it is unreasonable for that team to have successive presidents.
That means the president should come from Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull, Williams, Renault or Sauber.
Mercedes have Ross Brawn, Norbert Haug and Nick Fry who could all be considered to be candidates. Since the person who gets the job has to have the gravitas to stand up to Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone and be a popular choice with all the teams I think Fry can be discounted. Of the other two I think Brawn would be the better choice.
I am sure there are people within McLaren who are perfectly capable of doing a good job but in reality the only possible choice from that team would be Martin Whitmarsh as the others couldn’t have a lower profile. I am not sure Whitmarsh has the kind of personality to get the best results in such a position though.
Christian Horner has done a far better job with Red Bull than I expected and is probably the only person in that team who could realistically take on this job. He is younger than all the other team principals and Bernie is old enough to be his grandfather so that could work against him.
Williams has a few possible candidates. Frank Williams himself would be a good candidate but he doesn’t go to all the races and that has to be a pre-requisite for a FOTA president. Patrick Head can certainly stand up to anyone but I don’t see him lasting long in a position where he cannot be autocratic. Of the younger generation Sam Michael may be a possibility but like Horner his best opportunity may be in a few years time.
That only leaves Renault and Sauber as teams who may have a suitable candidate. Given the upheaval at Renault I think it is best to discount anyone from that team. As things stand Sauber don’t have a grid slot but I am sure that will be solved soon. I am not sure Peter Sauber himself would want the job and I doubt anyone at QADBAK will be remotely qualified. That leaves Mario Theissen if he decides that it is better for him to jump ship from his life at BMW and commit to an independent team.
So in the end it comes down to Ross Brawn versus Mario Theissen. Interestingly they will both be with teams that will be heavily re-structured next season which may mitigate against either of them taking on the job. I think Theissen is the ideal man for the job given that he is used to dealing with big company politics which must be to his advantage when there are a dozen people used to having their own way sitting at the FOTA table. However should he choose life at BMW I think Ross Brawn would do a great job.
Only thing against Ross is his past association with Todt. Mario would be excellent though - he also carries a lot of respect.
I think the Ferrari association could work both ways. He could be swayed by Todt but he has the backing of Mercedes and they are the biggest engine supplier so carry a lot of weight. Brawn knows where the bodies are buried so may be able to use that against Todt. One of the most important things for FOTA is to keep Ferrari onside and Brawn may be seen by them as the next best thing to their own man. In the end though the Ferrari/Todt association was one of the reasons I chose Theissen.
The one thing this exercise achieved for me was to highlight the dearth of genuine heavyweights left in F1.
I have put some random thoughts on FOTA presidents to be.
http://f1centr...er-to-keep-the-peace/
Really tired so going to turn in (and will edit the post tomorrow).
Night Rich
my thursday thoughts:
http://sidepod...he-next-boss-of-fota/
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