25/07/2024
FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
Team mates! Some share helicopters, some swap girlfriends, some drop briefcases out of helicopters. Thankfully no one has yet (and may they never) dropped one another out of a helicopter... but they might have day-dreamed about it!
You broke the chassis. You've got the new front wing. You've got the smarter engineer. You've got the call on first pit stop. Sigh. Anyone would think they were racing... Oh hang on a moment.
In a rowing eight, or a running relay team, you win or lose as a team. In a soccer team you mostly win and lose as a team, mostly... In a cycle team, or an F1 team it all gets a touch more complex. Equipment, team orders, tactical and strategic moves. All play out over a race day, a race week, a season. And friends, what other friends do you have in the field?
Cyclists in particular have an order of merit and friendships which cross team boundaries. Bernard Hinault is still regarded (the tragic Lance years aside...) as the most forceful patron of the peloton. Stand fast, slow pedal today. Punch a farmer tomorrow. Race as if the devil will truly eat the hindmost. Yet in a professional cycle team it is usually agreed who the team lead is, the one who will have the other riders sacrifice their personal result in order to raise the result of the team lead.
It used to be the case in F1. Fangio and many other team leads would take their teammate's car in the event that theirs broke during the race. That's about as far as a racing driver can possibly go for his team mate! (Let's never forget Peter Collins selfless act at Monza in 1956 - Ed).
For some reason the two drivers demanding to be seen as equals is a relatively new phenomenon. Gilles and Didier simply fell out. They became furious over behaviours rather than a perceived number one status issue. Which leads us to the best on-paper pairing of a generation, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Two legends in the same team, what could possibly go wrong?
Both World Champions, both capable of sublime drives, especially in wet conditions, both able to produce a magic lap, finding time where others only found trouble, until that fateful corner where they found each other. Two into one did not go... Twice, two years running at the same corner. Surely a lesson for every team principal to be so very careful what they wish for?
Which brings us to V. Max and the developing situation at McLaren. Lando and V. Max are friends off the track... for now. It used to be the same with Gilles and Didier. Likewise while Oscar and Lando might not be total besties, they do mostly get on and act civil... for now.
The evolving championship situation could well change all that. George Russell and Lewis are frequently at differing phases of their race weekend, and as a result rarely get the opportunity to trip over one another. Plus, George knows Lewis is off in the New Year, so no harm in keeping it civil.
V. Max is destroying Perez again this season, so again the chance for tensions are minimal. So instead a highly testy V. Max berated half the team during an uncharacteristically grumpy race in Hungary. Stupid timing, strategy, tyres, information, thinking... you name it, V. Max hated it. To be publically told straight-up by his race engineer to "stop being childish", was, hopefully, a wake-up call to take a deep breath and get on with driving the car... and be a team player in a very large team, not a sulking teenager in a legendary driver's body.
Likewise Sainz and Leclerc are frequently nowhere near each other on track, so few chances to get grumpy. Whereas the recent Oscar and Lando to-do was one of the few times they have been wheel-to-wheel with a podium, indeed a possible win, at stake. And it was not pretty. If the team continues throwing strategy curveballs like that we can expect more tension and possibly some on-track biffo. Could any of our modern, currently amicable drivers end-up as salty as Alain and Senna, or Gilles and Didier?
Gerhard Berger tells the story of throwing Senna's briefcase out of a helicopter just after take-off, with the contents scattering far and wide. Senna was furious. Gerhard was breathless with laughter. So it was that Senna sat back, didn't react further and took to causing mayhem in Berger's life as payback. Each knew what they could achieve on track, and left their racing on the circuit to become improbable friends. I think this is the friendship stage that Daniel and V. Max have reached. I think after many tough seasons Daniel is possibly reasoning that being a close, but definite, second to V. Max is not the worst thing in F1. Oscar and Lando are yet to reach any such conclusion.
Other pairings? Alonso and Lance have been getting along fine, but recently Lance has been finishing ahead of Alonso. That sort of thing usually irritates the Spaniard in the end. Let's wait and see. The Haas and Stake pairings are so invisible one would reach for the salt, and jump when your hand hit one of these see-through drivers. "Sorry didn't see you there!" would be your shocked apology. Williams? Well Alex is so far ahead of what's-his-name (another invisible man...) that there is no reason for friction over anything other than the window seat on the flight home.
Next season? Well if Oscar, and Lando are still in the mix for wins, and have not fallen out prior to the end of this year's campaign, it will be an edgy fight. They are very well matched on track. Daniel with V. Max? I think that will work like a quality Swiss watch. George with, well who? It looks like it will be a car capable of winning races, so there is a chance for tension. Then Lewis and Leclerc? I fully expect that to have the potential to combust much as Lewis and Alonso did. Each will very much make the other reach for their own condiments.
Maintaining relationships in a team sport that has so much focus on the individual will always be a challenge. I'm sure Alain and Senna went through a stage of ensuring they did not arrive at the same restaurant at the same time (or indeed at the same restaurant in the same month...), let alone be close enough to pass the salt.
So if they wish for seasoning this season, I wonder which drivers might end-up having to grab it for themselves, unless of course it is abruptly required for the glee of rubbing it into fresh wounds.
Max Noble
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here