Prodrive - McLaren talks collapse

SO,

According to Autosport.com talks between Prodrive and McLaren over the Banbury-based company running the Woking-built cars next year have collapsed.

A source informed the website that McLaren COO Martin Whitmarsh told staff at the factory that the team are no longer in negotiation with Prodrive.

The issue over the legality of customer cars under the 2007 Concorde Agreement was not under question, as the regulations clearly stated that all teams must run a unique car of their own construction, to which they own the design rights. However, the suggestion was put forward that for 2008, constructors would be allowed to sell chassis as well as engines to other race teams, and it was on these terms that Prodrive lodged their entry for F1.

But now that the '07 rules may be rolled over into next year, Prodrive may not be legally allowed to run customer cars, and the delays over sorting this out have contributed to McLaren supposedly ending talks.

So the question is, if Prodrive are informed that they will be allowed to run another constructor's car next year, what happens next?

I believe that if it is possible, McLaren will seek to run a second team. After all, they tried so hard in early '06 (when the FIA took entries for the 12th slot on the F1 grid) to get the Jean Alesi fronted 'Direxiv F1' onto the grid as an official McLaren 'B' team.

And if after that has failed Prodrive offer the same possibility then why shouldn't McLaren take it?

As it stands McLaren Mercedes are the one of only two manufacturers who have no links with, and supply no parts to other teams and when it was revealed that Prodrive was searching for a partner team, they were the ones out of the three favourites who seemed the most keen to establish a second team.

But now, if as Autosport has been informed, McLaren are no longer interested, then surely Prodrive will turn to the other two options it supposedly chased up originally.

BMW and Renault.

If this becomes the case then surely BMW would be the better option, as it’s cars are clearly more competitive than those of the French manufacturer at the moment, and unlike Renault, they would have no third group that they are providing with engines (Red Bull Racing) to offer a distraction.

However this whole saga is reliant on the outcome of the Court hearing on October 24 which will decide the legality of customer cars in Formula One for 2008, and therefore whether or not Prodrive will feature on the grid next year.

Will chassis sharing be allowed? That’s a total 50-50 call.

But if it is (and providing there is no skeleton-in-the-closet between them that has yet to be revealed) then I really wouldn’t be surprised if McLaren are still the team that Prodrive link up with for next year.

Four McLaren’s on the grid?

Sounds like a Jean Todt nightmare…

Equal Rights?

SO,

The Championship is going to go to the wire in Brazil because of a stupid 40 mile-an-hour slide into the gravel for Lewis Hamilton on totally knackered tyres.

And while McLaren have shouldered the blame for not calling him in, it's hard to understand why Lewis himself didn't make the decision.

Surely as it was him who had the chassis squirming noticeably and continually under his arse, he should have thought better than to stay out as long as he did and jeopardise his championship chances.

While many would argue that Hamilton's lack of experience would cause him to wait for the teams call to pit, I would have thought that with the number of mistakes Lewis was making on the three laps up until that fateful attempt to make a stop would have surely made him re-think continuing as long as he did.

Of course, we also shouldn't forget that this is McLaren Mercedes' second monumental and race-destroying cock up in tyre calls, as it was Lewis' ill-fated gamble at the Nurburgring that left him in a sorry ninth place on a day that he had every opportunity to snatch victory.

But what is worryingly telling in this saga was that post race; Ron Dennis told Autosport that the delay on the call was due to the team worrying about Alonso.

He said: "The problem was rain and his [Hamilton's] tyres were in the worst condition. But we weren't at all fazed about Kimi. We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando."

Now, I'm the first to admit that I have long believed that Fernando Alonso demanding favouritism, and proving that he will go as far as blackmail to get it, was a pathetic attempt to win power and prominence within the team in the face of a mighty team mate. During this team, I was pleased with McLaren's decision to treat each driver equally as it gave Lewis a fair tilt at the title.

But now, as Hamilton had a solid chance to seal the title today, (and after Alonso's almost traitorous behaviour to the team during the Stepneygate fiasco and the likelihood that he will swiftly aim two fingers at the Woking boys in November) McLaren are surely overlooking the team's needs in their blind determination to maintain even treatment between it's drivers, and in doing so have left rivals Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen with a shout at the Championship in Brazil.

Lewis has proved often the quicker, generally the more reliable, and certainly the most loyal of the team's two drivers, and on a day when he could have achieved the dream and won McLaren's first title since '99 and the first ever for a rookie, the team have admitted to being more worried about Alonso.

Call me a hypocrite and tell me I'm being totally favouritist towards Lewis if you will, but think. Today we should have all been celebrating the eigth British F1 World Champion, our first title since Damon Hill in '96 and McLaren's first in eight years. But we aren't.

And it's all thanks to McLaren's determination to maintain equality between two drivers who in light of certain events this year and with a McLaren Championship at stake, clearly don't deserve it.