2007

April 18 Wednesday

Today, Byron Young of the Daily Mirror in the UK (mirror.co.uk) wrote "F1 Stars Left In The Shade" which, of course, is about Lewis Hamilton's usurping of #1 from Fernando Alonso, his dethroning of Jenson Button as #1 Brit and general pain in the ass to all other drivers.  He's a great guy but there's a definite round of jealousy in the paddock because the sun is only shining on him for at least the next three weeks.

Byron Young said the following, which showed how far removed he is from the Paddock:

[Ron] Dennis is a veteran of chats to soothe bruised egos after managing the likes Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

The latter pairing ran the full gamut from public slanging matches to life-threatening clashes on the track and tearful discussions off it. Amazing pace and consistency - combined with the novelty of being the sport's first black racer - have made McLaren's rookie a media darling and marketing juggernaut.

Alonso's followers, though, question whether their man will get equal treatment all season over the team's adopted son.

Anyone knows that the only thing between Alain and Ayrton was Jo Ramirez.  Jo was the lynchpin to the whole operation and those who know know that things at McLaren went downhill when Jo left and Ron Dennis focused more on what was then called Paragon, the McLaren Technology Centre.  Anyway, Mr. Young should have known better than to compliment Ron Dennis for the task he gave to the sport's finest gentleman who never raced: Jo Ramirez.