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This is the XXI century @damon, what’s wrong with women winning in F1?
Besides, you killed me with @keithcollantine:

Not a driver’s son, obviously, though Christian runs Red Bull and did F3000 plus Geri went to the 1997 McLaren launch

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A very interesting question.

Disclaimer: I am a McLaren fan and this is a quite long post.

I don’t know for sure why the team is in such a dire state, but I can remember how we end up where we are.
This is mostly written from memory, so if I forgot or misinterpreted any event, please feel free to correct me.

As far as I know, here is how all unfolded.

2008 : McLaren was a top team, en route to win the championship and coping with the aftermath of the infamous spygate (a fine of $100M).

2009 : Having fought until the end of the year to win the WDC, McLaren starts the year completely off the pace. They missed the boat of the double diffuser and spent the year catching up. They nonetheless did a good job, being the first team to win a race using KERS.
Meanwhile, they prepared their next car using the double diffuser trick.

2010 : Red Bull successfully used diffuser blowing, rendering ordinary double diffuser obsolete in the process. McLaren introduced its RW80 (aka F-duct) later copied by the others teams.
Meanwhile, they prepared their next car using a giant and complex blowing system nicknamed ‘the octopus‘.

2011 : The octopus is not working as expected and the winter tests are a complete failure. What would have been a Red Bull killer on paper is just an expensive BBQ starter. During the interval prior to the Australian GP, McLaren removed entirely its octopus from the car to use a more simple blown diffuser (the octopus would never return). Button ended the year runner up to the unstoppable Vettel.
Meanwhile, Martin Whitmarsh is appointed team principal of the racing team. He is leading the preparation of their following car.

2012 : McLaren starts the year with the best car on the grid.
But half way through the year (not sure of where it stands in that year exactly), the design team finds difficult to improve the car.
Whitmarsh while at the head of the team has changed its internal organisation. Ron Dennis used to rule as a king in his castle: he always had the final word.
Withmarsh organized committees where pools of engineers debated in place of a single person taking the decision. I’m not sure about the other changes, but the common idea was to involve more people in the decision making process and not use his position whenever an argument arose.
The development difficulties led to a dump of the foundation of that year’s car to start a new chapter in 2013. Thinking the current car was a dead-end, they had to invent something new. Later that year, the team overcame their issues and finished the year with the fastest car (albeit not reliable).
Meanwhile, their new challenger was prepared with a new aero philosophy.

2013 : The new car is a deception. Whitmarsh hesitated to revert to last year’s car. He stated later that it was actually quite close. But the committee in charge eventually voted against. That year the team failed to win a race. It was the final nail in the coffin for Whitmarsh’s leadership.
Later that year, he stepped down from team principal as Ron Dennis returned.

2014 : Jumping ship from Mercedes, McLaren is barely allowed to touch the Mercedes engine once its bolted to the car. This compromises its integration to the chassis, reducing the car overall performance.

2015 : Honda returns to F1 engine making, with little success, forcing the team to wait for that elusive win they haven’t scored since 2012.

This is how I see the team right now: a lot of potential, but it lacks efficiency.
McLaren has introduced various technology and always had some special weapon for the opposition to copy. But since 2012, they are just catching up.
Martin Whitmarsh and his innovative leadership (from an F1 point of view) made two major mistakes: throw the MP4-27 under the bus and when it appeared the MP4-28 was not up to the expectation, stick with it. This means years for McLaren to get back to winning (they haven’t done so yet).

But hey, they have very good engineers, some cash from the other branch of McLaren Group and Dennis’ vision. It’s just a matter of time before they are back on top.

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I may be old fashioned too but I feel like @dragoll here: too clumsy for my taste. As @blockwall2 noted, this kind of move is not well regarded in simracing, where drivers are less skilled than F1 drivers.
If amateurs can do it, then why can’t professionals?

But I take the point that it is no different to what Bianchi did at Monaco. I’m a Hamilton fan so I’m biased toward Rosberg, and I must admit that I may have been more lenient has it been another driver than Rosberg. Maybe the penalty was too harsh, but the stewards had at least to notify that this is not F1 standards. The quality of racing has quickly dropped in the last few years in F3, it may drop as well in F1 if contacts are not discouraged.

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Hi Keith,

This is an advert for “la tête dans les nuages”, a french chain of game centers that had a deal with SEGA in the 90s. They were branded at the time “la tête dans les nuages – centres SEGA” (literally: head in the clouds – SEGA centres).
I used to go there at the time and had some good fun. But I’ve never seen this before.
From what I understand, Prost goes to a game centre in 1996, plays some games and find himself in a game centre in 2029 (not that far from now btw). The ad ends with the message “J’y reste” (I stay), implying that he played all that time without exiting the centre.

Not sure about my analysis, but this is my attempt.

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