Coton is a man who knows Formula One and will be conscious of the space a driver needs to focus on their main job, namely winning races, so will be instrumental in creating a ‘bubble’ around Hamilton, that was said to be at the root of his problems last year.

Didier Coton, who runs Sports Marketing and Event Management company Aces Management Group, takes on the task of guiding the 2008 F1 World Champion back to winning form.

Hamilton retains Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment to run his broader affairs, whilst the highly-experienced Didier Coton joins XIX to guide Hamilton’s racing career back to world championship winning form.

Coton said: “Being appointed by Simon to join the team is a great honour. I am excited to work alongside two such prestigious personalities and talents. XIX’s visionary approach is unique and one I believe in. I look forward to helping Lewis achieve success and developing long term projects with Simon and his team.”

Hamilton experienced a turbulent year in 2011, which was partly blamed by the media on his long-distance relationship with former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. Neither Hamilton nor Scherzinger have ever validated this assumption, although clearly their busy schedules placed tension on their relationship, leading to the pair splitting in October last year.

Since then, the pair have been spotted at a ski resort in Vail, Colorado where they spent New Year’s Eve and earlier this week heading out for dinner in Los Angeles.

With Scherzinger’s recent departure from the judging panel of X Factor U.S., she’ll have a bit more time on her hands, so perhaps that will boost Lewis’ morale and enable him to focus on winning another championship.

If you’re an ardent F1 fan, then you’ll already have pored over all the details on autosport.com, FormulaOne.com or the main UK broadcast rivals BBC and Sky F1 Digital. For a dose of intelligent reflection from the most popular experts, pay a visit to James Allen on F1, Joe Saward and F1 Pit Reporter for SPEED channel, Will Buxton.

If not, then it’s worth setting aside a few minutes and reading what they have to say.

The MP4-27 is the car that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes hope will deliver them back to the top of the rostrum in both the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships, after a drubbing by Red Bull Racing in 2011 (and previously in 2010). The combination of Adrian Newey, the hottest engineer in F1 and Sebastian Vettel, the hottest driver in F1, has made a formidable opponent and McLaren are determined to fight back from the first race of the season in Melbourne.

In the following video, former World Champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton share their thoughts on the upcoming 2012 season, together with what drives them and their team in their pursuit for success. In addition. McLaren MD Jonathan Neale also provides his insight into the development of the MP4-27 and how it differs from last season’s car.

Given how early we are in the season, with only 2 cars (from Caterham F1 and McLaren) currently revealed, I was surprised to see the comment from Sky Sports’ Technical Analyst Mark Hughes that the MP4-27 represented “..nothing new” and the more asinine remark that “..McLaren are still yet to uncover the secret of Adrian Newey’s ongoing success at Red Bull.”

Hopefully such speculation is not indicative of Sky’s F1 coverage for the season ahead. As McLaren’s Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh said yesterday, even they don’t know how good a car they’ve built and won’t really know until qualifying at Melbourne. To conclude anything at this stage, especially given how much the cars will change between now and mid-March, smacks of naivety or downright link-baiting to grab prominence in the search listings.

I guess all we can say just now is the drivers looked calm and refreshed from the winter break, the engineers looked satisfied with their endeavours and the team as a whole were realistic in their aspirations for the season ahead and the amount of work they need to invest in order to beat Red Bull.

Roll on Melbourne.

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The reason for my request was to provide some background to the BBC’s coverage of McLaren’s new £50m Production Centre (MPC), which is being opened by British Prime Minister, David Cameron, this afternoon.

Journalism student, Beth Andrews, was one of the first to respond and selected to appear on BBC Surrey alongside Professor John Watts, from the University of Surrey. Here’s what they both had to say..

The MPC is the new production facility for McLaren’s MP4-12C supercar and will also house the bulk of McLaren’s race car collection, which up until recently was housed at the secretive Unit 2 Access Point in Portsmouth.

The Prime Minister met with the team’s F1 drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and was escorted around the MTC and MPC by McLaren’s Executive Chairman, Ron Dennis.

When speaking to a small gathering of media and invited guests, the Prime Minister said, “Thank you for inviting me. It is incredibly inspiring to be here. I’ve been to a few car factories in my time but I have never been to anything like this. Formula 1 is an incredible British success story. It is not just McLaren. When Michael Schumacher races it is in a car built in Britain. Perhaps that is a point I will make to Chancellor Merkel tomorrow to break the ice!”

Ron Dennis was keen to point out that McLaren Automotive had already sold 2,000 MP4-12C road cars in 2011, and was well on target to achieving 5,000 cars in 2012.

“Just like our racing cars, the McLaren Group never stands still – and you may like some of the pioneering new directions we’re taking.”, said Dennis.

“McLaren is more than just a builder of beautiful and successful Formula 1 cars: we’re a relentlessly competitive entity, bred on high-performance and determined to bring to market ground-breaking products and solutions that are set apart by their top quality and dependence on totally unique and highly innovative steps in performance.”

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]]> http://skiddmark.com/2011/11/prime-minister-david-cameron-opens-the-new-mclaren-production-centre-mpc/feed/ 0 http://skiddmark.com/2011/10/massa-vs-hamilton-is-much-ado-about-nothing/ http://skiddmark.com/2011/10/massa-vs-hamilton-is-much-ado-about-nothing/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:43:39 +0000 Steve Davies http://www.skiddmark.com/?p=25280 Scuderia Ferrari’s straight-talking blogger, The Horse Whisperer, has spoken up this morning on the media excitement generated by a misquoted radio transmission between Felipe Massa and his F1 engineer, Rob Smedley during the recent Singapore Grand Prix.

The Daily Mail Newspaper (the last bastion of truly fine reporting) claimed that “Felipe Massa was urged to ‘destroy’ Lewis Hamilton prior to their collision in last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix”, but then went on to clarify that Smedley told Massa, ‘Hold Hamilton as much as we can,’ and then added, ‘Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on, boy!’

So, Ferrari’s off-the-record spokesperson has sought to clarify the misunderstanding in a blog post on ferrari.com

So consider yourself verbally chastised for entertaining the thought of anything improper – it can be pretty grim up north in Middlesbrough and sometimes the vocabulary of the locals reflects this..

McLaren Automotive Asia Pte Ltd will be responsible for all of McLaren Automotive’s regional operations throughout its Asia Pacific network including importation, distribution, logistics, sales, marketing, technical support and financial services for McLaren’s range of high-performance sports cars.

The wholly-owned McLaren subsidiary will be based in Singapore with an initial team of around 10 McLaren Automotive employees managing retailers in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Plans are under consideration for expansion into mainland China.

McLaren already have a strong reputation in the region from its Formula One success, having won races in the Asia Pacific region every season since 2007.

One fascinating statistic revealed last night is that around a quarter of all existing McLaren F1 road cars have their homes in the Asia Pacific region, so McLaren Automotive naturally assume existing owners will be keen to add an MP4-12C to their collection and indeed this is borne out by news that the 5 McLaren Automotive retailers in the region already hold an 18 months order book on average.

Ron Dennis, the company’s Chairman, also made his ambitions clear at a press conference last night – to grow into a multi-billion dollar business within the next 10 years.

Dennis confirmed that McLaren’s future was still very much in F1, but that racing would only account for around 10 per cent of the group’s income as other divisions expand.

They aim to sell around 4,000 cars each year (around 1,000 cars have been sold in the MP4-12C’s first trading year), with 43 per cent of sales in North America, 35 per cent in Europe and the rest in the Middle-East and Asia Pac. This compares with around 7,000 cars sold by Ferrari today, although their President Luca di Montezemolo has previously stated their ambition to reach 10,000 cars within the decade.

Dennis is determined to “..reach a turnover in the billions” and he said “we will achieve it.” Watch out Ferrari..

What better excuse to wheel out McLaren’s new supercar, the MP4-12C and cruise around the town pursued by Milan’s indigenous paparazzi.

If you’ve ever been to Monza circuit then you’ll probably have visited the remains of the heavily banked section of the old track, as it gently decays in the surrounding woodland. I’m fortunate to have visited a great many tracks around the world, but Monza is the only one that sends chills down my spine whenever I visit, especially on a non-race day.

To describe the sensation as haunting would be an understatement, there’s something so steeped in history about the place that you can almost still hear Fangio and Moss dicing just inches apart as they fight for the win. Little remains of the 4.25 km high-speed banked ‘speed circuit’, but you get the feeling that what does, retains the very essence of motor racing – all the reasons why young men risk their lives in pursuit of the chequered flag. Distilled into one stretch of track.

So, it’s fitting that we look upon a photo of McLaren’s MP4-12C, a car which in McLaren’s own words, “..captures everything McLaren has learned in Formula 1 – distilled into a road car”.

I like to imagine Fangio looking on at this image, knowing that it was men like him who contributed to making modern supercars, like the MP4-12C, the great machines that they are.

Feel free to download a copy of the image for your own personal use, and then immerse yourself in the full gallery of McLaren’s MP4-12C in Milan.

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This has been Lewis’ most dissapointing season in F1 to date, admidst criticism that his celebrity lifestyle may be hindering his Formula One career.

To set the record straight, Lewis wanted to speak about the race and the preparations he makes as he approaches the unique challenge of Monza.

Questions and Answers

Lewis, can you describe the challenge of racing at Monza?
Monza’s unique. It’s a real challenge for the drivers because you go there with a special lowdownforce aero package that makes the car feel completely different. It accelerates faster, but it also feels quite unstable compared to normal and you have much less grip through the corners. You have to drive the car a bit like a go kart.

Do you expect the MP4-26 to be competitive?
Last year I won at Spa and failed to finish at Monza, so I’m looking to reverse that sequence this year! I think we’ll be massively competitive at Monza because we’re on full-throttle for 83 percent of the lap and we have a very powerful and driveable engine in the Mercedes V8. The balance of our car is also good and I’m expecting it to ride the kerbs well. You have to hammer the chicanes if you want to be quick and not all the drivers feel comfortable doing that, but I have an aggressive driving style and don’t mind!

What would it mean to win at Monza?
It’s one of the classic races on the calendar and I’d love to win it. I haven’t had much luck at the track for the last two years, but it’s a place that I associate with good memories. I won the GP2 Series at the track in 2006 and it was that same weekend that Ron [Dennis, Chairman of the McLaren Group] told me he was going to give me a chance. I finished second here in 2007 and I’d love to go one better this year.

Do you get used to driving at speeds in excess of 220mph?
You do and, as a result, you have to be very careful not to exceed the pit lane speed limit when you come into the pits. Monza is a track that you have to respect because of the high speeds involved. In 2009 I was pushing hard at the end of the race and I lost it between the two Lesmos. I hit the barrier on the inside and it was quite an impact. I definitely don’t want to be doing that again!

What’s it like performing in front of Ferrari’s home crowd?
It doesn’t worry me. If anything, the support for Ferrari spurs everyone at McLaren on! We get a fantastic reception as well: there’s some light-hearted banter from the grandstands, and there are some in the crowd that support us!

Does the history of Monza mean anything to you?
It’s pretty spectacular to see the old banking right next to the pits. I tried walking up it once, but it wasn’t possible. I had to get down on all fours and actually climb up it! You have to wonder how many cars disappeared over the top of the banking because there was only one layer of Armco holding them in if they had failures.

Would you have been happy to race on Monza’s banking 50 years ago?
It was dangerous, but I would have raced on it back then. It must have been thrilling to drive around a really high speed corner. You probably think I’m nuts, but I’ve always been like that. When I was a kid, if someone told me not to do something because it was dangerous, I’d go and do it!

I am particularly keen to showcase mini-series formats, which provide an ongoing insight into a topic or brand that we’d all like to know more about. This week we’re featuring Formula 1 and the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, both of whom are sponsored by Johnnie Walker.

Without sponsors we wouldn’t have Formula 1, but you might be surprised to learn that it’s a relatively small group of sponsors who contribute the majority of this support. One of those is Johnnie Walker, purveyors of the finest Scotch whisky and sponsors of McLaren since 2005, using its partnership with the team and drivers to promote its responsible drinking campaigns.

So what’s this got to do with you?

Well rather than using Formula 1 as a marketing vehicle, Johnnie Walker have invested their efforts in ways that we as enthusiasts can appreciate, by providing unprecedented access to what goes on behind the scenes at some of the most iconic grand prix events in the calendar. The series is called ‘Step Inside The Circuit’ and has so far visited Monaco and Silverstone, producing 14 black-and-white videos, all lavishly shot where Lewis and Jenson take us on a unique journey into the world’s most glamorous sport.

The latest episode in the series is embedded below capturing the driver’s thoughts and emotions before the British GP earlier this month, there’s also a series of exclusive wallpaper pictures available on the JWStepInside Facebook page which you can download and use to brighten up your computer or smart-phone.

It’s a neat way of immersing yourself in the sport, adding to the broadcast TV coverage on the Beeb and showing some support for brands such as Johnnie Walker who keep F1 alive. Thus far the videos have received 160,000 views on YouTube but we believe they deserve more, which is why we’ve agreed to bring them to your attention.

If you’d like to watch the other videos in the series then you’ll find them on the McLaren channel on SkiddPlayer, the Johnnie Walker Step Inside channel on YouTube or you’ll find a small selection on the JWStepInside Facebook page.

What’s Next?

Next stop is Nürburgring in Germany this coming weekend – McLaren say they are confident that the adoption of pre-Silverstone diffuser regulations will allow it to once again fight the mighty Red Bull duo and move back ahead of Ferrari.

The impromptu change of regulations at Silverstone hit the Woking team hard, with MD Jonathan Neale claiming they lost around 0.7 seconds relative to their main rivals, and whilst the gap to Red Bull was even greater the team still believe it’s possible to fight for the championship in 2011.

According to Neale, “This organisation exists to win races, and while it is mathematically possible to win the championship, it’s possible.”

Disclosure: This post has been sponsored by Johnnie Walker, however all views expressed within are entirely our own. We only accept sponsorship of articles in which a more in-depth focus will benefit the reader. Get in touch with us directly if you’d like to discuss.

The opening, hosted by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes drivers, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, and McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman, Ron Dennis, celebrated ‘Defining Moments in Time’. Recognising the launch of the global network of McLaren car retailers, and the arrival of the first ‘pure’ McLaren sports car, the event also presented past McLaren track successes with iconic trophies and two of Lewis Hamilton’s race-winning Formula 1 cars.

Ron Dennis said: “We are fiercely proud of the McLaren brand and I am personally proud that we are welcoming into the McLaren family some of the world’s best car retailers, many of whom are with us tonight. I look forward to delivering great cars to them, as I know we share a common objective: we are driven to succeed and we try to be the best at everything that we do.

“Jenson, Lewis, our hosts, and many of our guests represent tonight a group of people who share a particular value: that is that somewhere along our careers and lives we have experienced an iconic, or defining moment. Tonight is that moment for McLaren Automotive,” Dennis concluded.

McLaren has invested nearly £800m since 2005 to establish itself as the world’s newest sports car company. That investment has focused on the development of a range of innovative, technologically ground-breaking, and bespoke high-performance sports cars, as well as the construction of a brand new manufacturing facility (the McLaren Production Centre – MPC) at the company’s headquarters.

The initial 35 strong retail network was recently completed with the confirmation of McLaren retailers in Frankfurt, Munich, Osaka, Singapore and Tokyo whilst attention now moves on to securing up to six more retailers in 2012. Markets that McLaren is considering include China, Russia and Scandinavia. The company’s first ‘pure’ McLaren sports car is experiencing high demand with over 18 months of production currently accounted for.

McLaren anticipates expanding its global retail network to around 70 locations by the middle of the decade when the full range of cars is under production at the MPC in Woking, England: as the MP4-12C goes on sale, three further models or derivatives are currently already under development.

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In front of a crowd of enthusiastic race fans and motorsports journalists from around the globe, Hamilton took laps in Stewart’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala, while Stewart climbed into the cockpit of the team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23. The drivers each enjoyed a few laps around the long course at The Glen, experiencing the 3.4-mile, 11-turn lap circuit.

Lewis climbs into the NASCAR as Tony Stewart looks on

Hamilton and Stewart, both champions in their respective disciplines, eagerly anticipated the chance to give up their seat to a fellow champion. “I’d always wondered what it would be like to get behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car, because it’s such a completely different experience from driving a Formula 1 car” said Hamilton.

Tony Stewart prepares for his run in the MP4-23

“Thanks to Mobil 1, I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity today – not only did I get the chance to drive the car of Tony Stewart, a double NASCAR champion, but I also got to share that experience by giving him the chance to drive my Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 car too.

NASCAR is a different world. Driving the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet was a massive change from what I’m used to, but Tony was an excellent teacher and I quickly found a good rhythm – those cars are raw and powerful! They’re fantastic fun to drive.

It was a great day at Watkins Glen – this is a circuit with a great deal of Formula 1 history behind it: Emerson Fittipaldi won McLaren their first drivers’ and constructors’ titles here back in 1974 and it’s been fantastic to come here and take in some of that history.”

Two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart said, “I’ve always been intrigued by the open wheel cars in Formula 1 racing. Feeling the power behind the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 was amazing and being able to take it for a ride around the course in front of a crowd of avid race fans at a track like The Glen made it even more special. An experience that I’ll never forget.”

We are expecting a further video from Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, but in the meantime enjoy the videos on this page showing the build up and TV report from yesterday’s event.

Y! Sports Blogs: Tony Stewart & Lewis Hamilton – Car Swap At Watkins Glen 2011

SpeedTV: Tony Stewart Drives Lewis Hamilton’s F1 Car – Seat Swap Special 2011

SpeedTV: Lewis Hamilton Drives Tony Stewart’s NASCAR In Seat Swap

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