Why Alonso Failed To Qualify for the Indy 500
In two words Zak Brown. The guy has no responsibility for the results of the race teams and yet there he is, front and centre of the cameras at every opportunity.
Zak Brown is undermining the position of his managing directors
Ron Denis would never be seen on camera when he was not responsible for the race team. When Martin Whitmarsh was the race director, Ron Denis was nowhere to be seen and rightly so.
It was none of his business.
To the outsider looking in, Zak Brown seems to be using his involvement with Mclaren and F1 as a way to become famous, as a way to build is notoriety.
If he was the race director, fair enough, his results would speak to themselves, good results you stay, bad you go.
Except good results, he his there taking the credit.
Pre race press conferences, he is there, for example this week’s Monaco Grand Prix. Why? He has absolutely no responsibility for the performance of the team, he has absolutely no place being there.
Andreas Seidl is the Mclaren Team Principal. It is he who is responsible for the results, it is he who the public wants to listen to.
Going back to the Indy 500 and Alonso
Zak Brown has fired Bob Fernley. https://www.apnews.com/a8653967a9714ac7a9a3ba576f712fff
This is Zak’s job, hiring and firing.
His job is not being seen on the TV and giving interviews. He is an impostor and he is undermining his Race Directors
The reasons he gives for firing Rob Fernley is another classic example of his toxic influence, he says the problem is that he was not more closely involved with the Indy effort.
If I had to guess I would say the problem with Mclarens Indy 500 effort was too much involvement from Zak Brown.
For those who are not aware, Fernley was deputy Team Principal at Force India, a team with vastly less resources than Mclaren but who still beat them regularly.
Rob Fernley was not the problem at Indy.
Rob obviously knew of all the problems they were facing and I bet he also had solutions unfortunately Brown probably had a case of tunnel vision, he had probably arranged things in advance, he had a plan and he wanted to stick to it and he wanted Fernley to execute this plan even if the plan was lousy.
Fernley was put in an impossible position.
Mclaren’s performance issues will never be solved until we stop seeing Zak Brown in the media completely. Until he becomes invisible Mclaren will always have problems.
No world class Race Director/Team principal wants to be seen playing second fiddle to Zak Brown, media wise, on race weekends.
