Shaddock wrote:gcdugas wrote:DaveKillens wrote:It's a shocker that an engineer that contributed so much to the development of the Brawn car has suddenly departed. Unless it's a very pressing personal matter (illness in the family, etc.) I have to suspect he's been poached by another team.
The days of the star designer one man show are long over but if I were pressed to attribute Brawn's success to any single person it would be to Ross. In Ross we have the most engineering minded team principal on the grid.
Newey?
If he goes now he has time to influence next years design, any later and it's a wasted year.
I don't think Brawn have the budget for a Newey, unless he was willing to take a pay cut like Jenson in order to be apart of the success. He is already near the top again with RB and their budget it definitely able to support his habit. He also has the option of having 4 cars to design for.
STR are somewhat of an extended testing program for the RB Sr. team. I'm quite surprised there hasn't been an uproar regarding the STR technical assistance from RB, they are basically a customer car but managed a loophole that William's isn't able to contest. I'm quite surprised McLaren haven't used FIF1 in such a partnership to excel their own program as well.