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McLaren Chairman leaves after single year
Sir Richard Lapthorne, who joined the McLaren Group in April last year to replace Ron Dennis as Chairman, is believed to have shocked the Woking company by now announcing his departure.
Following McLaren's highly disruptive start to the 2009 season, Lapthorne joined the company a year ago, having previously acted as Chairman for British telecommunications company Cable & Wireless.
Lapthorne (right) and Ron Dennis at McLaren's Surrey-based Technology Centre, April 2009
However, his exit this week comes as unexpected.
"We had a full list of issues last April," the 66-year-old explained to The Times. "Ron and the team have been brilliant in working through them and, with the road car company poised for a spin-off, my job's done."
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Q & A with Stefano Domenicali
The Chinese Grand Prix marked another missed opportunity for the Ferrari team, which paid for its mistakes and lost the lead in both championships.
AUTOSPORT caught up with team boss Stefano Domenicali after a disappointing day for the Italian squad.
Q. You lost the lead in both championships in China, what positives do you take away from China and the first four races of the season?
Stefano Domenicali: I think that when you have such an incredible race, we need to bring home the points that we had. There are a lot of situations that were going on during the race. If things were different maybe we could have had a different result, but that is the way it is.
We have to say that we brought the points home, and what I can say is that, not only here, but if I had to do a summary of the first four grands prix, there is a little bit of disappointment because we could have brought home more points considering I would say the level of the performance of our car. This is a fact.
But, on the other side, and as we have always said since the beginning, the competition is very tight. It is very tough. And we don't have to give up and push like hell in order to make sure that the new step that we will bring at every race will be enough, because we did a step in this race but we have seen that the others have done the same. That is the racing of this year, and that is basically the situation.
Q. When Fernando Alonso overtook Felipe Massa coming into the pits, did it create any delays?
SD: No. I congratulate all our guys because we did three times a double pitstop. We know any single delay, any single problem in these very difficult conditions, of changing tyres in this situation, can cost positions. So we have to be very happy with the job the team has done in such difficult conditions, of course.
Q. After Fernando's mistake at the start, what did you think about the way he managed to recover? Can Ferrari make an improvement for the next race in qualifying?
SD: For sure after the jump start, Fernando did an incredible race. He was always attacking, pushing and I think that to gain more was impossible considering that we did one more pit stop than the others and we were there. So, I think that he was really great. I know he is really disappointed for the jump start but that is part of the game. When the situation is so tight, we know that there are certain moments that are so crucial and the start if a focus point for all of us.
On the other issue, we are working very hard in order to bring new performance developments already for Spain because we have seen this weekend that the others have done the same. The difference between the cars is so small. It is unbelievably small and if you do a little mistake while you are driving, you move from first or second to seventh or eighth position. That is the way it is with this championship. We knew it, and that is the way that we will approach it.
Q. What is your opinion about the pit entry manoeuvre for your two drivers. From outside it looked a bit close?
SD: When you are racing, then for sure all of the manoeuvres can be seen in that way - no discussion. But I have to say that Fernando, he is a racer, and I have to say that Felipe behaved very, very well. It is not easy, and I can understand what could be his feeling, but this episode has not changed our philosophy and for me that is the most important thing.
Q. Do you know how the jump start happened?
SD: I don't know. When I saw it on television I thought: 'wow, mamma mia, what a start! This is great!' But after a while I discovered it was a jump start.
Q. You said you have not maximised your opportunities in the first few races. What do you need to change, and what are you going to look at to make sure that you do maximise them to get yourself back at the front?
SD: I think that for sure, if you look at mainly how the first races have developed, then there were so many situations where unfortunately we did not bring home all the points that we should have brought. One thing that we need to work towards perhaps in a little bit of a different way is to prepare qualifying. We know that qualifying is really important and we saw that our major competitor seems to be, at least from what we have seen in the times, a little bit better than us on that moment of the weekend. Maybe we can improve qualifying to work flat out to bring performance on the car and of course we have to say that after the first rain it was not boring. We cannot say that the races are boring! Considering what has happened, in different conditions we could have taken home more points but we need to take this classification as it is and work hard. We know the gaps are irrelevant with the points system we have. For sure it will be important to get back on the podium.
Q. Where are we currently in relation to tyres in Formula 1 at the moment?
SD: Of course it is a point of concern for the future of F1 – there is no doubt about that. As far as I can say, as you know Michelin has made a proposal that is under evaluation to make sure that it is the best proposal from the technical point of view and the commercial point of view. On the other hand I know that there is a possible discussion to have another tyre competitor who can be ready to come for next year, and I think we will know something more, I would say 100 percent, by Barcelona. So by Barcelona the situation of tyres should be almost clear if not defined.
Q. What is the situation regarding your travel plans returning to Europe?
SD: Honestly, I don't know what is the time now – but I don't know! Everyone is waiting to see what is going on. On the material side we know that either we move all the stuff, or we keep it here. So either we do another race here or we move altogether back to Europe! Everyone is waiting to see the updates and at the moment I would say the normal flights we are booked on are totally closed. To wait means we wait here for one week or 10 days, I don't know, but we are trying also to see if we can organise ourselves another way of moving through a charter flight. The situation is not only affecting F1, it is affecting the whole world so we need to consider that. I know that Carmelo Ezpeleta told me that they moved the date of the MotoGP race from next Sunday to October because of this problem, so it is something that is affecting everyone.
Q. Once Michael Schumacher was very, very fast in wet conditions, now he is struggling. What are your emotions like seeing that?
SD: I know that today that the conditions were very difficult, and you may have a different situation with the tyre grip and a difficult manoeuvre. But to be honest with you, I was much more concentrating on our drivers to see what was the situation that they were looking at rather than what Michael was doing!
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