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FORMULA ONE’S BUSINESS MAGAZINETM 2024 BUSINESS OF GRAND PRIX PART TWO A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF THE TEAMS COMPETING IN FORMULA ONE May 2024 Vol 9 Issue 05 SINGLE COPY US $32 • UK£25 • € 30 ANNUALLY US$260 • UK£205 • € 240 The most important year of his life A moment in time AYRTON SENNAANDERVELL www.vanwallvandervell.comBusinessF1 3 TM REGULAR FEATURES Credits 4 • Letters to the Editor 4 • People Index 6 • Paddock Patter 7 • News 8 - 25 • Premature Facts 26 • Notes & Observations 28 • Lewis Webster 30 • Letter From America 32 • Motor Matters 33 • Jottings 98 COVER STORY INSIGHT Is F1 on the right side of electrification? 44 History just keeps repeating itself Adrian Newey is off from Red Bull, in a move that has been signalled since 4th February, the day the Christian Horner sex scandal broke wide open. It is the third time Newey has been on the move in 27 years and each time he has moved, the team he has left, has gone into decline shortly afterwards. Inevitably, it is about to happen again. 48 Mr Bean is now in charge at Williams 38 James Vowles ran race strategy for the BAR/Honda/ Brawn/Mercedes-AMG teams for 22 years and won 100 Grands Prix, multiple world championships and people thought he knew what he was doing. But he was a one trick pony, a maths prodigy who could think on his feet. But he was no manager and in the real world, he is pretty useless, a secret that every- one who worked in Brackley knew, but didn’t tell anyone. Whilst he was kept in his box running race strategy, everything was fine, but once he got out of the box and was appointed team principal, people who knew, could forecast the trouble that lay ahead. They were right. He has turned into Mr Bean. The defining Red Bull storm 34 60 Part two of The Business of Grand Prix 2024 covers five teams: Red Bull Racing, Williams Racing, Visa Cash App RB, Stake Sauber and HaasF1 inside this issue. Last month the Ferrari, Mercedes- AMG, McLaren Racing, Aston Martin Racing and Alpine Racing teams were covered. Together the reports give an accurate snapshot of the Formula One teams’ finances in 2024. With the advent of the Cost Cap, this will likely be the last Business of Grand Prix report as accurate financial informa- tion is becoming harder and harder to verify. In future, the ten Formula One team’s financial affairs will be covered throughout the year in individual articles as and when appropriate. PART TWO The Business of Grand Prix 2024 Page 76Page 72Page 80Page 68Page 64 BusinessF1 was spawned out of the old Formula 1 Magazine which Tom Rubython published between March 2001 and October 2002. Volume 1 No 1 of BusinessF1 appeared in March 2003 exactly six months after Tom’s last Formula 1 Magazine and focused purely on the business side of the sport. FIA president Max Mosley immediately took against the magazine and banned Tom from the paddock for the next three years, or rather more accurately banned him from the press room. Rubython recalls now: “To Max’s eternal credit he did admit he had been wrong and apologised. I can never forget the look on Richard Woods’s face when he was forced to reinstate my pass.” 100 issues of BusinessF1 Over five million words later 84 Ayrton Senna: Ayrton Senna never won a karting world championship despite many attempts and his debut in car racing in 1981 was far from guaranteed to be successful. But he made it happen in that first glorious season in Formula Ford, with his glamorous Brazilian wife in tow and his personal photographer and PR man alongside to record every moment. 50 A moment in time4 BusinessF1 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Tom Rubython CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Thomas Gibson, Oliver Edwards, Jo Maxwell, Lewis Webster CHIEF CREATIVE DESIGNER & PHOTOGRAPHER Alexander L. Sargent PHOTOGRAPHERS Darren Price, Jeff Custard WEB EDITOR Brad Dias CHIEF STATISTICIAN David Hayhoe VICE PRESIDENT - LOGISTICS David Peett EDITORS AT LARGE George Roberts, Andrew Frankl, Stefan Johansson GLOBAL AMBASSADOR Maprang Suwanbubpa SUBSCRIPTIONS CO-ORDINATORS Daisy Macedward, Roger Smith PUBLISHER Peter Collins BusinessF1 Magazine is published by BusinessF1 Magazine Ltd, Billing Wharf, The Causeway, Cogenhoe, Northampton NN7 1NH, United Kingdom Tel: 00 44 (0) 1604 698881/2 Email: editor@businessf1magazine.com Website: www.businessf1magazine.com May 2024 Volume 9 (Issue 05) BusinessF1 is published on the first Monday of every month. Title is copyright of BusinessF1 Magazine Ltd. F1 element is a recognised trademark of Formula One Licensing BV. Printed in Europe NEXT PUBLICATION DATE: The June 2024 issue of BusinessF1 Magazine is published on 31st May 2024. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Available for 12 months (12 issues) at a cost of US$260, UK£205 and €240 delivered anywhere in the world at no extra charge. Subscriptions can be ordered at www.businessf1magazine.com EDITORIAL COPYRIGHT: The contents of this magazine, both words and statistics, are strictly copyright and the intellectual property of BusinessF1 Magazine Ltd. Copying or reproduction may only be carried out with the written permission of the Publishers, which will normally not be withheld on payment of an agreed fee. ARTICLE REPRINTS:Many articles published in BusinessF1 Magazine are available as reprints by prior arrangement with the Publishers. Nor- mal minimum run for reprints is 100 but smaller quantities can be accommodated. Please contact David Peett - Vice President of Logistics. The taxi drivers Dear Tom We write in respect of an article published in BusinessF1 April 2024 Vol 9 No 4, with the headline ‘A tissue of obfuscation.’ The by-line for the article states: “The independent lawyer, who carried out the so called independent investigation into the sexual harassment allegations about Christian Horner, was anything but independent”. The article identifies Mr Peter Blake-Turner as the lawyer who carried out Red Bull’s independent investigation into allegations against Christian Horner. This is manifestly false. Mr Blake-Turner is not the lawyer who carried out the Investigation. This false statement underpins the entire article. As a result of this false claim about Mr Blake-Turner, the article asserts that he is a “practicing [sic] solicitor” and an “officer of the British court” who has “not told the truth” and has “allowed untruths to be told in his name”. Indeed, this is the tenor of the start of the article, which falsely asserts that the investigation was therefore not independent, and that Mr Blake-Turner allowed himself to be held out as a barrister and a Kings Counsel, and did not seek to correct the public statements made in that regard. Of course, our client (Peter Blake-Turner) holds no such role and has never held himself out to be so nor allowed himself to be held out as such. Through Mr Blake-Turner’s instruction by the Yoovidhya family he knows the identity of the actual independent KC who carried out the investigation. That individual’s name has not been released but Mr Blake-Turner can confirm that the investigation was carried out by an entirely independent and specialist employment KC. The article states that an internal investigation had already found against Christian Horner and that Red Bull intended to terminate his employment, but his personal solicitors insisted it “went to arbitration” and that this “arbitration” is being “handled by Blake-Turner”. This matter has never been the subject of any arbitration. The complaints made against Christian Horner were the subject of an independent employment investigation, namely the investigation as referred to above. The article refers to the investigation report. The details of the report are confidential. Your claims about the length and content of the report are false. There was no pre-emptive decision to clear Christian Horner. The investigation was carried out entirely independently. Finally, the article states that our client and his firm are advisers to Christian Horner. This is categorically false and further implicates Mr Blake- Turner in what would be a clear and impermissible conflict of interest. The article, insofar as it refers to our client’s involvement in the investigation, is completely false. The meaning of the article is as follows: (1) That our client carried out an investigation which he misrepresented, and permitted to be misrepresented, as independent. (2) That our client misrepresented himself and permitted himself to be misrepresented as a barrister and Kings Counsel, despite not possessing either qualification. (3) That our client acted for two clients in a clear conflict of interest. (4) That our client is in breach of his Solicitors Regulation Authority obligations and his duties as an officer of the court. (5) That our client, in his role as investigator, colluded with the Yoovidhya family and Christian Horner to ensure that no finding was made against Christian Horner. The article is likely to cause serious harm to Mr Blake-Turner’s reputation. It makes serious professional misconduct allegations against him that call into question his honesty and integrity and go to the core of his reputation as a solicitor. There can be no defence available to you. The allegations are false, and you did not contact Mr Blake-Turner prior to publication to verify the allegations or seek any comment from him. Yours, Nigel Tait, Managing Partner Persephone Bridgman Baker, Partner Carter-Ruck 90 Fetter Lane London, EC4A 1EN United Kingdom The editor replies: Lawyers are basically very well paid taxi drivers and like taxi drivers take instructions from their clients and execute them according to their client’s instructions. The only caveat is that they have to stay within the law. As taxi drivers have a caveat in that they also take instructions but only within the confines of the road traffic laws. Peter Blake-Turner was given instructions by Chalerm Yoovidhya and carried out his instructions. I do not believe he overstepped the bounds of the laws he has to uphold as an officer of the court. But unless he is completely media blind, must have known what was going on outside of what he was instructed to do. But whether he is obliged to act on what he reads in the newspapers and on the internet is a very grey area of English law. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. And there are now two levels of taxi driving here, because Mr Blake-Turner was taking instructions from Yoovidhya and now Mr Tait and Ms Bridgman Baker are taking instructions from Mr Blake-Turner. How media blind are Mr Tait and Ms Bridgman Baker going to have to be before they step over the lines of propriety? One point in Mr Tait and Ms Bridgman Baker’s letter I take issue with is that our article stated that Mr Blaker-Turner was also instructed by Christian Horner. This is not true as the whole essence of the article was that Chalerm Yoovidhya instructed Mr Blake-Turner to co-ordinate an independent investigation of Christian Horner after complaints by his PA, Fiona Hewitson. The question here is whether that investigation could be regarded as independent? A Albon, Alex40, 41, 42, 43, 79 Alexander-Arnold, Trent21 Allen, James F65 Allison, James26, 49, 28 Alonso, Fernando24, 25, 26, 33, 68 Alunni Bravi, Alessandro72, 74, 75 Andretti, Michael74 Arnault, Bernard17 Atkinson, Rowan43 Atkins, Steve98 B Bagnaia, Francesco13 Barnard, John7, 43 Barroso, Isabel65 Basarri, Paolo25 Bayer, Peter, 68 Beahon, Tom65 Becker, Boris16 Bellazzini, Aldino65 Benson, Andrew24, 25, 48 Ben Sulayem, Mohammed20, 24, 25, 30 Bhirombhakdi, Voravud73 Biden, Joe44 Bishop, Matt8, 9, 30 Blanco, Santiago19 Blandin, Eric62, 66 Blees, Marc73 Boeri, Michel32 Boesel, Raul53, 58 Bottas, Valtteri75 Bower, James77 Brandt, Chris81 Bravi, Alessandro Alunni63 Brawn, Ross7, 9, 39 Breeden, Adam15 Briatore, Flavio36, 68 Broek, Jacques van den69 Brown, Zak9, 11, 49, 62, 76 Buchanan, Bruce65 Buffett, Warren38, 44, 45, 46 Burton, Andy65 Buxton, Will48, 76, 98 Byrne, Tommy56 C Camozzi, Lodovico73 Capito, Jost38, 39, 42, 76 Casanueva, Juan Ignacio65 Cattelani, Guillaume67, 68 Catz, Safra65 Ceroni, Francesco Rinaldi69 Chapman, Colin70 Chawla, Sona65 Cheng, Evan65 Clark, Georgina77 Clark, Jim67 Clarkson, Tom30 Clawson, Chris77 Cleanthous, Constantinos69 Cleeren, Filip22 Colacicco, Marco73 Colombo, Ercole23 Concin, Dr Roland64 Cook, Tim64 Cooper, Adam48 Cooper, Frank69, 70 Costello, Nick65 Cruise, Tom98 Curci, Fabrizio73 D Demaison, Francois-Xavier 38, 39, 40, 42 Dennis, Sir Ron8, 36, 48, 55 Dharsi, Bimal65 Diaz, Amando77 Döllner, Gernot72 Domenicali, Stefano15, 20, 67, 73, 65 Dreyfus, Alexandre73 Drugovich, Felipe26 Duckworth, Keith38 Duesmann, Markus72 Duff, Zac73 Durban, Egon10 E Ecclestone, Bernie32, 48, 55 Eck, Gertjan van81 Egginton, Jody68, 69 Elliott, Mike67 Emanuel, Ari10 Eng, Tan Hock77 Ezpeleta, Carmelo12, 13 F Fallows, Dan62, 66 Famin, Bruno22, 26, 62, 69 Fangio, Juan Manuel67 Ferdon, Catherine65, 69, 70 Filippi, Riccardo De73 Firman, Angela52, 53 Firman, Ralph51, 52, 53, 55 Fragner, Bernhard73 Frangulis, Georgios81 Frankl, Andrew33 Fry, Nick39 Fry, Pat28, 40, 76 Fullerton, Terry58 G Gadd, Peter77 Gasly, Pierre68 Gils, Paul65 Giovinazzi, Antonio75 Goldston, Adam65 Goss, Tim69 Gow, Alan23 Grieder, Daniel69 Grimalid, Prince Albert33 Grosch, Christoph65 Guanyu, Zhou 73, 75 Guersent, Olivier13 Gulden, Bjørn65 H Haas, Gene 80, 81 Hakkinen, Mika36 Halbrown, Didier65, 69 Hamilton, Lewis16, 17, 21, 28, 32,60, 67 Haworth, Jonny19 Heidfeld, Nick74 Helyar, Victoria98 Henry, Alan48 Hewitson, Fiona14, 48, 65, 98 Heymann, Patrick73 Hilton, Ryan10 Hoffmann, Oliver63, 72, 73 Holmes, Alex81 Holmes, Ian21 Hopelain, Andrea65 Horner, Christian14, 21, 26, 30, 35-37, 48, 64, 66, 68, 71, 98 Houldey, Neil11 Hughes, Damian39 Hughes, Oliver70 Hulkenberg, Nico, 72, 81, 82 Humphrey, Jake39 Huning, Martin69 I Ickx, Jacky30 Isola, Mario7, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81 J Jobs, Steve64 Johannson, Stefan7 Jones, Brian56 Jones, Mike77 Jordan, Eddie39 Jordan, Michael16 Joshua, Anthony21 Josnik, Thomas77 Jules, Frank65 K Kelce, Travis21 Kelleher, Cameron25 Key, Rob75 Khalifa, Hamad bin Isa Al15 Khalifa, Salman bin Hamad Al 15 Kim, Margaret65 Kirchmayr, Alexander64 Koltes, Steven18 Komatsu, Ayao63, 80, 81, 82 Krack, Mike24, 62 Krieter, Sven81 Kroes, Neelie13 Kubica, Robert74 L Latifi, Nicholas79 Lauda, Niki61 Lefort, Yan75 Li, Xu73 Lucas, Rob18 M Mackenzie, Donald18 Maffei, Greg12, 15, 20, 21, 23, 28 Magnussen, Kevin, 81 Mahomes, Patrick21 Mahony, Jeff69 Malone, John60 Mansell, Nigel76 Mansilla, Enrique53, 54, 55 Marchionne, Sergio75 Marko, Dr Helmut26, 34-37, 64, 65, 66 Marqez, Ricardo77 Marshall, Rob11 Marsiaj, Massimiliano73 Mata, Juan21 Mateschitz, Dietrich35, 37, 63-68 McCormack, Mark10 McEvoy, Jonathan16, 17 McIlroy, Rory21 McInerney, Ryan21 McLain, Hardy18 McQuiston, Ed73 Mekies, Laurent68 Meo, Luca De62 Merkel, Angela47 Mintzlaff, Oliver34-36, 64, 69 Molino, Ayesha81 Monchaux, Jan74, 75 Montezemolo, Luca di8 Moreno, Roberto52, 56 Morrell, Mark81 Morris, Rick55, 56 Mosley, Max24, 48 Motohashi, Masamitsu69 Moulding, Matthew77, 78 Munoz, John81 Murnane, Tim9 Musk, Elon45 N Nakagami, Takaaki12 Neilson, Steve40 Newell, Jason73 Newey, Adrian9, 22, 26, 48, 62, 64, 66, 67, 82 Newey, Amanda48 Nichols, Steve43 Norris, Lando30 Nutz, Jochen73 O Oakes, Oliver49 Obajtek, Daniel69 Ogawa, Hiroyuki77, 78 P Palmer, Jonathan68 Palmieri, Marco69 Parham, Iain18 Parker, Kathy65 Pasceri, Gabrielle69 Peasland, Al65 Pelosi, Janine65 Penske, Roger28 Permane, Alan69, 68 Pesci, Alexandre73 Peters, Craig23 Petersen, Klaus73 Phipps, David23 Picci, Paolo74 Piquet, Nelson56 Pirson, Eric69 Primerano, Fabio73 Prodromou, Peter11 Pullen, Malcolm55 R Ragazzi, Francesco81 Raikkonen, Kimi33, 75 Rappard, Rolly van18 Rauch, Jurgen65 Rausing, Finn72, 74, 75 Reigle, Jamie65 Reintjes, Matt65 Rencken, Dieter20 Resta, Simone74, 82 Reynolds, Ryan21 Ricciardo, Daniel26, 30, 43, 70 Richards, David39 Riemenschneider, Oliver73 Riley, Daniel17 Roebuck, Nigel48 Rosberg, Nico63 Rossi, Dario69, 73 Rossi, Valentino28 Rothengatter, Huub36 Rüegger, Christian73 Rushen, Dennis56, 57 S Sainz, Carlos25, 26, 67, 72 Sanchez, David11, 98 Sargeant, Daniel79 Sargeant, Logan40, 41, 42, 79 Sarin, Akhil73 Savage, Matthew28 Schatorjé, Irina73 Schlegelmilch, Rainer23 Schneider, Nick65 Schumacher, Michael32, 36, 67, 82 Schwarz, Claudia38 Scott, Christian65 Seidl, Andreas63, 72-74 Senna, Ayrton21, 32, 50-52, 55-58 Serra, Chico51, 52, 53, 58 Shambro, Lori65 Shriver, Lionel47 Shull, Dave65 Silva, Milton da51, 55, 56, 57 Silva, Neyde da56 Singh, Bally73 Skipper, Luke25 Slim Domit, Carlos65 Smedley, Rob40 Smith, Michael18 Souza, Liliane Vasconcelos52, 53, 55-57 Stallard, Tom30 Steiner, Guenther48, 62, 80, 81, 82 Stella, Andrea11 Stephens, Warren77 Stoddart, Paul33, 68 Stroll, Lance26 Stroll, Lawrence26, 49, 62 Sunderland, Leif81 Surita, Sarah10 Sutton, Keith50, 54-58 Szafnauer, Otmar77 T Tadi, Tej73 Taittinger, Clovis81 Tanabe, Toyoharu65 Tavares, Carlos75 Tee, Steven23 Tehrani, Bijan73, 75 Theierl, Rudolf64 Thow, Penni17 Todt, Jean24 Toledano, Enrique53 Törnqvist, Johan81 Tost, Franz69 Tsunoda, Yuki26, 30 Tyrrell, Ken55 V Van der Else, Catherine65 Vasseur, Frédéric74 Velutini, Ramon77 Vermeulen, Raymond35, 37 Verstappen, Jos35-37, 48, 66 Verstappen, Max 7, 21, 26, 32, 34-37, 48, 60, 64, 65, 66, 67 Vettel, Sebastian28, 30, 35, 37 Victor, Jenny69 Vording, Ronald22 Vowles, James26, 28, 30, 38-43, 63, 76, 78, 79 Vries, Nick de71 W Walker, Ron68 Watanabe, Koji22 Watkins, Sid48 Watzlawick, Franz64 Webber, Mark68 Weber, Willi82 Westenbrink, Bram65 Whicker, Alan98 Whitesell, Patrick10 Whitmarsh, Martin8, 9, 30, 62 Williams, Claire28, 38, 39 Williams, Richard8, 9, 30 Williams, Serena16 Wilm, Renee12 Wilson, Charlotte81 Wilson, John44, 45, 47 Wilson, Justin68 Winter, Laura98 Wolff, Susie30 Wolff, Toto28, 30, 37, 39, 49, 66 Wood, Tom25, 48 Y Yoovidhya, Chaleo64 Yoovidhya, Chalerm34-37, 64, 66 Z Zetsche, Dieter8, 9 Zhou, Ben65 Zimmerman, Zach44, 45, 47 Zoi, Mike23 Zordo, Andrea De81,82 6 BusinessF1 PeopleIndexTom Rubython Editor-in-Chief Editor’s Letter 7 BusinessF1 R oss Brawn was a great Formula One engineer, one of the top half dozen to ever to work in the sport, but he lost the plot when he joined Formula 1 Group (F1G) in 2017 and devised the current Formula One formula, complete with old fashioned ground effect. What was he thinking of? Together with the current crop of tyres supplied by Pirelli, the cars absolutely stick to the tarmac even in the wet. When Formula One cars run around with wheels stuck to the road like magnets in the pouring rain, you know something is drastically wrong. Ross Brawn had messed around with nutty solutions, when the real solution lay in the tyres. Ross Brawn completely wasted his time (and everyone else’s) for six years messing around, when he could have sorted out the problems of overtaking in Formula One, during a five- minute chat with Mario Isola. O ne of the reasons, in fact the main reason, that Max Verstappen is the greatest driver ever to have driven a Formula One car, a talent which gives him a natural three quarters of a second advantage over other drivers, is the way he can manage his tyres so much better than the others. Verstappen doesn’t seem to suffer from tyre degradation, which seems to decide the 2nd to 20th places in a Formula One Grand Prix nowadays. As Stefan Johannson writes in his Letter from America column this month (page 32) the result of a Grand Prix generally seems to come down to whomever can get the tyres to “light up” at the right moment. As Stefan says, it has become more difficult than ever to get the tyres to come into the optimal working range. He points out that teams are spending huge sums of money on development when it always come down to who can make the tyres work the best. Yet, as Stefan points out, tyres are probably one of the cheapest components on a Formula One car. John Barnard always said that it didn’t matter what he did, the tyre companies could always do better. And he was right. A t the risk of repeating myself, Formula One can’t go on with the Max Verstappen domination for all 24 races this season. He already has five out of six and as a minimum, Max will win 16 out of the 18 races remaining this year. In truth, he will probably win 17 of them and there is a better than even chance he will win 18 of the remaining 18 races. The only chance Formula One has got this season to inject more competitiveness, is to change the regulations so that Pirelli has to produce durable tyres that can last a whole race. What is currently going on with tyres is completely pointless. It is pointless for Pirelli to produce soft, medium and hard varieties of tyre. It is the only supplier, its tyres are identical. So why not just produce one tyre that will last 200 miles, meaning teams would need just four sets each for a race weekend instead of the 13 sets they use now. It would cut freight costs by 50 percent and cut tyre production costs by 70 percent. It would also cut out waste and be massively good for the environment. And it would take away a lot of complication from a race weekend. Currently it is insane - drivers get 13 sets of tyres for a weekend – that’s 52 tyres each or 104 for each team. A Grand Prix driver gets through as many tyres in three days as a lifetime’s driving for a normal human being – that can’t be right, can it? The tyres also have to be carted to each Grand Prix, along with goodness knows how many rims to mount them on. It means that Pirelli has to take a minimum of 520 tyres to each race, plus another 200 or so intermediate and wet tyres. That’s over 700 tyres in all, and I’m guessing would take up the complete cargo area of a DHL Boeing 747-8F freighter aircraft. But the real benefit of durable tyres, is that F1 cars would move around again, instead of being glued to the track. Cars would have to be driven more skilfully with no worries about tyre degradation – just worrying about the racing. Pirelli tyre boss, Mario Isola has admitted that Pirelli can make such tyres and slippery tyres make for great racing and lots of overtaking, as was proved in Las Vegas. Pirelli has the answer to all Formula One’s current problems and the future of close and exciting racing in Formula One is in Pirelli’s hands, just like accidentally happened in Las Vegas. Team principal actively sabotaged his own team in 2009 Bishop reveals Whitmarsh role in McLaren destruction M att Bishop, the former public relations chief of McLaren Racing, has, for the first time, revealed the full details what happened in 2009 when the new Brawn GP team won the world championship on its debut. Bishop has revealed how McLaren’s then team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, actively persuaded Daimler AG to supply its Mercedes-Benz engines to Brawn GP in 2009, thereby almost destroying his own team when McLaren lost its works status to Brawn in 2010. Bishop reveals that it was a combination of Whitmarsh’s personal ambition, misguided sense of public service and lack of prime loyalty to his employer. Bishop discloses for the first time, that it was Whitmarsh’s personal ambition to succeed Luca di Montezemolo as chairman of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) that led him to believe he had a wider mission than his role as McLaren Team principal and to assist Brawn GP, which Whitmarsh believed faced closure. Bishop says: “I think Martin saw himself as perhaps, primus inter pares, first among equals, compared with some of the others and was a capable statesman- like person.” Bishop believes that Whitmarsh saw it as his mission, in his bid for the FOTA chairmanship and a leadership role generally in Formula One, to persuade Daimler AG to supply the new Brawn team with a competitive engine. Bishop disclosed that in December 2008, Whitmarsh ordered up the McLaren jet to take him to Stuttgart where he sought a meeting with Daimler AG chairman Dr Dieter Zetsche, to effectively persuade him sell the Mercedes-Benz engines to Brawn GP at a discounted price of $12 million. Bishop says: “He actually flew to Stuttgart personally, not to beg, but to persuade the boss of Daimler AG at the time, to supply the team that we thought was still called Honda but might be going to bite the dust.” Bishop in a rare moment of candour was speaking on his new podcast called ‘And Colossally That’s History’ that examines in minute detail, significant historical events in Formula One, with his co-host, veteran journalist, Richard Williams. Bishop admits it was a “strange thing to do.” He added: “What Whitmarsh was doing was interceding in a way that would benefit a team that would actually be a rival of the team of which he was team principal.” Whitmarsh had assumed power at McLaren Racing when Ron Dennis stepped down as Team Principal and handed the reins to Whitmarsh. Bishop goes on to say, that Whitmarsh’s job was to take advantage of the situation and raid the old Honda team for talent and it was almost his duty to kill off the team to assist his employer’s competitive position in Formula One. Instead, Bishop says Whitmarsh actively assisted a deadly rival: “So rather than accepting that it's really unfortunate, but it looks like the team at Brackley is going to bite the dust, very unfortunate, let's have a look if there are any good engineers we should poach or any good commercial people or any good mechanics or anything like that which is probably what Ron Dennis would have done, super competitive and very pragmatic.” Bishop also praises Whitmarsh’s altruistic approach which was to save the Honda team from oblivion: “Martin decided that he wanted to try to intervene, Martin Whitmarsh sowed the seeds of McLaren’s demise in 2009 when he per- suaded Mercedes to supply Brawn GP. The Mercedes-Benz FO-108W engine supplied to Brawn GP in 2009 was the same spec as supplied to McLaren. The Brawn BGP001 with its Mercedes-Benz engine and double diffuser aerodynamics was good enough for an unprecedented debut team world championship. News BusinessF1 8 News BusinessF1 probably the best for the sport as a global outlook for Formula One because it prevented the dissolution and disappearance of the team and all those jobs, 719 jobs.” Richard Williams agreed with this assessment: “From the point of the sport, it was a good thing for Martin to do.” Bishop recalled the views of Tim Murnane, McLaren’s Group Legal Director. Murnane apparently made his views known to Whitmarsh and said: “What is happening? What is Martin doing? Martin is eroding our position as the works, or as near as dammit, works Mercedes team in order to bolster a rival that we need to beat.” Bishop clearly recalls Murnane’s opposition and how his views were ignored by Whitmarsh: “Tim was tetchy about it and very forthright, because that's the nature of the man. And I hadn't really focused on it, but he was right, it was a mistake.” Whitmarsh defended the situation at the time and afterwards, by saying the Brawn team would have closed down without his intervention and there would have been the loss of 719 jobs, on the basis it would not have got an engine. However, that is not true. At the time Renault, Toyota and Ferrari were supplying customer engines to Red Bull, Williams and Toro Roso respectively. A Formula One team principal says: “Ross Brawn had a choice of three engines. He did not need Martin Whitmarsh to save him, but he did need to have the Mercedes engine to be competitive. I always found it very strange how Martin behaved at the time. And look at the catastrophic consequences for McLaren later.” Bishop says: “Honda wouldn't let them carry on with their engine so they had a choice between Mercedes and Ferrari and Ross (Brawn) knew from his experience at Ferrari that if they said yes to Ferrari then they'd be getting last year's engine, and they wouldn't be getting new bits, and it just wouldn't be as good. And anyway, the Ferrari engine didn't fit the chassis that they'd already got, which they'd designed for the Honda engine, it would have had to been redesigned. But the Mercedes engine, rather miraculously, did fit. So when Whitmarsh made that grand diplomatic gesture, then it worked very much to the new team's interest.” In Bishop’s opinion without Whitmarsh’s dramatic intervention, Brawn would have been forced to buy a Ferrari engine, which would have meant modifying its car and probably not have been as competitive as it was. He maintains the Mercedes- AMG engine was more powerful than the Honda engine, worth at least a second a lap. The Mercedes engine was the same physically as the Honda which meant it slotted into the Brawn car without huge modifications and combined with the double diffuser developed under Honda, the car was immediately competitive, a good second faster than the McLaren- Mercedes works car. The rest was history and with the aid of the double diffuser and the best engine, Brawn GP swept the board in the first half of the 2009 Formula One season, winning six out of the first seven races and eight out of 17 for the season until Adrian Newey caught up and designed his own double diffuser for the Red Bull team which won five of the remaining 10 races, too late to challenge Brawn for the world championship. Whitmarsh’s decision had huge implications for McLaren. It directly led to Daimler AG buying Brawn GP and establishing its own works team in Formula One, sidelining McLaren which began a gradual decline, until it almost went out of business itself six years later and was only rescued by the arrival of Zak Brown. The future was then full of destructive ironies for McLaren. After losing its Mercedes-Benz works status, it was eventually forced to switch to Honda engines itself in 2015. It also lost its star driver, Lewis Hamilton to the new Mercedes- Benz team in 2013. Bishop concludes: “Martin Whitmarsh was perhaps not only motivated by a desire to see McLaren succeed, solely but also perhaps to do the greater thing for Formula One in general and be a good Formula One citizen and perhaps get himself the FOTA chairmanship at the same time.” And it worked, in 2009 Whitmarsh did fulfil his ambitions and get the job as chairman of the Formula One Teams Association. But at huge cost to his own employers. Ross Brawn needed the Mercedes-Benz FO-108W engine to be competitive. Dr Dieter Zetsche was persuaded by Martin Whitmarsh to give Brawn GP a Mercedes engine in 2009. Matt Bishop has revealed full details in his new podcast called ‘And Colossally That’s History’ co-hosted by Richard Williams. The podcast examines in minute detail, significant historical events in Formula One. 9Next >