Williams documentary to open on August 4th

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Williams is the latest F1 team to get the documentary treatment in a film coming out next month.

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Comment of the day

Ron Dennis’s departure from McLaren yesterday may not have been a huge shock but it nonetheless marks the end of an era:

I was and still am a big Ron Dennis fan. The amount of success the team experienced under his leadership placed McLaren among the great teams in the sport.

Best wishes on his next venture and a sincere thank you for all the years of hard work from a McLaren fan.
@Pmccarthy_is_a_legend

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Williams documentary to open on August 4th”

  1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
    1st July 2017, 1:00

    There is a certain hilarity about the way only one of two drivers in each team supplied Renault engines is suffering from poor reliability – and I don’t think Kvyat has had an engine failure so far, it always seems like power steering or suspension failures.

    1. Sundar Srinivas Harish, there is a bit of ambiguity over his retirement in Baku – it’s listed as an “electrical” failure, but that could include the ERS component of his power unit.

  2. It’s such a joy to see Billy with that ENORMOUS smile even after Donington. His mental toughness is inspiring. I don’t know how he manages it.

    1. FlyingLobster27
      1st July 2017, 6:33

      He’s already planned his return to racing, @fer-no65. He was at Le Mans just before the 24 Hours to team up with Frédéric Sausset, the quad-amputee who finished Le Mans last year, and the pair will race together, and with Sausset’s mate Christophe Tinseau, in the V de V Series at Estoril in the Autumn. Sausset’s ambition is to have a trio of disabled drivers in one car at Le Mans in 2020.

  3. After reaching the midpoint of this season Renault have only found a 0.2s gain. I thought they had set their targets much higher at the start of the season. They’ve still got another 0.5 s to match Ferrari and Mercedes.

    1. There are upgrades permanently” according to Cyril:

      Every single race we are making some small improvements. Last year we created a huge expectation and we came with an upgrade that had a big impact. But we can’t repeat that every year. Now it is all about constant improvements which overall will make a difference – but there is no magic bullet.

    2. The 0.2s is just for Baku, and only based on settings.

      Renault introduced new engine modes and settings in Baku for its works and customer teams, which delivered a gain of around 0.2 seconds

      If they can repeat that for just 3 more races then they’ll beat that 0.5s ;)
      @todfod

  4. Did anyone catch “Mclaren” the documentary?

    1. Yes. Quite liked it, but then again I’m one of the late-born people knowing the McLaren-team mostly from the Ron Dennis-years (and, as a Ferrari-fan, as the main rival), so it may be easy to impress me with a Bruce-McLaren-movie. The team certainly had an image-change in that conversion.

    2. Yes, I can highly recommend it. Bruce McLaren’s story is a fascinating part of F1 history that’s usually only mentioned in passing.

  5. Renault introduced new engine modes and settings in Baku for its works and customer teams, which delivered a gain of around 0.2 seconds

  6. From the story on Dennis getting forced out after the friendship with Mansour Ojjeh broke down:

    There are stories buzzing around the F1 paddock about it, including one that many of those close to the situation believe to be true but which cannot be detailed here.

    /rolleyes.
    Let me guess, someone took a whizz in someone else’s hot-tub…

    1. @charleski, one that seems to have been given more credence is that Mansour Ojjeh and Ron Dennis used to have an agreement where they would vote together. It was an arrangement that the two had kept to since 1983, when Ojjeh first invested in the team, and it was an arrangement that became important to Dennis when Mumtalakat bought a sizeable share of the team and the associated voting rights.

      It is claimed that, back in 2012, Dennis was against participating in the Bahrain GP and arranged a vote with the other shareholders where he hoped to win support for calling for the race to be cancelled. With Mumtalakat voting against the motion and Ron for it, Ojjeh, who was asked to chair the meeting, had the deciding vote.

      It seems that Ojjeh was of the personal opinion that the race should go ahead, though at the same time Ron was expecting him to vote with him under their historical agreement. However, when the time for the vote came, Ojjeh broke his agreement with Ron and voted for what he believed was the right decision – that the race should go ahead – rather than voting in step with Ron.

      It is claimed that Ron was outraged that Ojjeh broke their historical agreement and considered Ojjeh’s decision as an act of betrayal. Now, around that same time, Ojjeh’s health was deteriorating due to a lung condition, leading to the need for a double lung transplant in 2013, leaving Mansour to temporarily step back from his role (with his brother, Aziz, temporarily taking over his position). Ron, in turn, seems to have seen Ojjeh’s ill health as an opportunity to push him out of the team, resulting in the move to oust Whitmarsh and replace him shortly afterwards.

      Although it seems that Mumtalakat initially supported Ron’s return as he promised a return to better form, as the promises that he made to them began to fall apart and his relationship with Ojjeh soured, it seems that Mumtalakat’s enthusiasm for him waned over time. There are claims that Ron then sought new investors – possibly from China – to buy out Ojjeh and Mumtalakat in what would effectively have been a hostile takeover, with both Ojjeh and Mumtalakat pushing back against Ron’s behaviour and eventually pushing him out instead.

      1. Wow. Thanks for that insight…

        1. Excellent insight.

      2. Thanks, that’s very interesting and, given what we know of the participants, very believable. Anyone inviting Ron to a party should make sure to drain the hot-tub first.

  7. I like lance stroll standing up to Villeneuve – who left f1 because he was not fast enough – the media keep using Villeneuve’s annoying opinions as click bait.

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