Grand Prix of Bahrain

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis is confident the new partnership between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will not result in the same intra-team tension as witnessed when Ayrton Senna drove with Alain Prost. The Senna and Prost feud of the late 1980′s is something of a Formula One legend. After numerous on-track tussles and off-track war-of-words it came down to the 1989 Suzuka GP when the two McLaren drivers were fighting for the World title. Blocking an attempted pass by Senna, Prost – some say intentionally – collided with the Brazilian. Prost walked away while Senna returned to the track by illegally cutting the chicane. He went on to the win the race but was later disqualified, meaning the World title went to Prost with Senna accusing the FIA of favouring his French rival. Now, once again with two World Champions on the payroll, there is some concern that McLaren may be courting the same intra-team problems as what they had with Senna and Prost. Dennis, though, says McLaren have “completely” ruled out a repeat performance. ”Completely – primarily because irrespective of their individual characters, (Senna and Prost) came from very different cultural backgrounds and the basic DNA of their characters had that very different temperament,” Dennis told the BBC Sport. ”Then you have language (differences), which gives birth to miscommunication. You have one driver preceding the other and feeling that he had to catch up. ”You have all these very, very different chemistries, and it’s just not the case with two drivers who have got like-minded approaches, an Anglophile approach. I don’t foresee any problems or difficulties that are in any way comparable with the challenges that I had in the past.” As for who out of Hamilton and Button he expects to come out on top, Dennis insists it will be a close battle between the two McLaren drivers. ”I think they both have complementary skills,” Dennis said. “They’ve got great abilities. I don’t think the differences in their styles are going to favour one over the other. ”It’s going to be a very, very competitive season, and I’m sure that their first objective is to beat the rest of the field. If we’re in the privileged position of them having to race against each other and worry about the politics that may or may not come out of…

Read Article @ Planet F1

Posted by admin 12 February 2010

Post A Comment