David “Spinning” Richards
Written by George Katinger · November 20, 2004
With the accquisition of BAR F1 by Honda and the dismissal of David Richards, does anyone doubt that “Jensongate” figured prominently in his sacking? According to Mr. Richards the Button flap had nothing to do with his departure. Riiight!
grandprix.com: Richards: Breaking up is (not) hard to do
sport.guardian.co.uk: Richards leaves BAR as Honda buy stake
grandprix.com: Button and BAR
Maybe not by itself. But when you combine the Button fiasco with the Villeneuve debacle and Richards alleged resistance to putting Takuma Sato in the BAR car, it all makes sense. Bye bye Dave, thanks for your help, don’t let the door hit you in the bum on the way out!
But why would a team dismiss the man in charge of a winning effort? I believe it’s all in a misguided attempt to keep Jenson Button in the car for 2006 and beyond. David won the battle but lost the war. How do you keep Button from turning into a Jarno Trulli, who virtually evaporated from competitive racing after his flap with Flavio this year? Fire David, and confirm that we at Honda love you Jenson! If BAR can land Jenson victories next year and challenge for the title, Jenson may come around to seeing the wisdom of staying with BAR. If, big “IF”, he hasn’t already signed with Williams for 2006! Which is why I think the effort is misguided. Even if unsigned for 2006, Jenson has not demonstrated any maturity whatsoever, and has strongly hinted he will still drive for Frank in 2006.
And in the midst of all this turmoil I guess David will cry all the way to the bank. If the Button contract extension fails, guess who may be back managing things in ‘06 or later? Or more likely, opening new doors for Prodrive to run things for the emerging Midland or Dubai teams? With Honda power? It only gets better from here!!
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OR you could look at it from the other end. Jenson wanted out because he didn’t want to drive for a team that openly favours his running mate. Now his comments about Williams F1 being the team most likely to give him a crack at the title become a little clearer.
Good point, Brian. With Honda in control of the teams destiny will they make favorite son Sato the preferred driver? Maybe Jenson saw the writing on the wall before anyone else and knew it was time to move on. Too bad he got such cruddy legal advice.