Whitmarsh admits team told Lewis to lie

A sensational press conference has just concluded here in Sepang, where new McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh admitted that his sporting director Davey Ryan deliberately set out to lie to the stewards in Melbourne and that he told Lewis to follow his lead.

Whitmarsh suspended Ryan this morning and the New Zealander is on his way back to England as we speak.

Speaking to a packed media centre, Whitmarsh said that this matter did not go any higher in the McLaren organisation and that he was not consulted before Ryan and Hamilton went to the stewards,
“We knew what had happened and there was a belief that a true and honest account of that would be given.

“Lewis got out of the car and gave a truthful account of what happened (to reporters). When they got to the stewards, Davey, who had been part of what happened at Spa (Hamilton’s penalty for passing Raikkonen) was highly sensitive and I think that in the heat of the moment his judgement was not to give a truthful account and I think Lewis was then led by that.”

When asked whether he would reconsider his own position, Whitmarsh said he could not rule anything out or in.

He said that, “We have lost a significant anchor to this team,” implying that Ryan’s suspension will become permanent.

One of the the things everyone wants to know is what was said in the original stewards’ meeting, as we have only the FIA stewards’ version of events as published yesterday. Whitmarsh said that he has not seen the transcript because one does not exist, “these things are not normally minuted and one of the stewards did not bring his notebook with him,” he said. “We have no access to that, all we can do is ask the driver and team manager what happened at the meeting.”

Hamilton himself will speak soon, at 5-45pm here in Sepang. He has lied, that much is obvious and as reigning world champion it puts a huge stain on his sporting integrity. He should have spoken to the media yesterday having first sorted out the details with Ryan and Whitmarsh, but instead, the whole thing has been allowed to be covered in the media with Hamilton’s reputation taking a hammering. He now has to say, “I lied, I was told to and I’m sorry,” after the event.

It will not improve things much for him, but it will help if he expresses regret. However the problem he will have going forward is that he is perceived by his critics as a manufactured product and the fact that he lied under orders will only emphasise that point.

I hate to keep comparing this to moments in Michael Schumacher’s career, but in 1994/95 he felt that he had to move away from Benetton because of all the allegations of cheating, from the FIA, which were piling up against the team and reflecting badly on him, he moved to Ferrari in 1996.

Steadying the ship generally will be Whitmarsh’s first priority, but after that he will have to work hard to persuade Hamilton that staying with the team is his best long term option.

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Dennis era ends today at McLaren

Ron Dennis’ 28 year tenure as team principal of McLaren ends today. His number two, Martin Whitmarsh, aged 50, takes over the role at a fascinating time for the team and the sport in general.

Under Dennis McLaren has been one of the most successful teams of the last three decades, although there have been marked downturns in their fortunes along the way, when the team struggled for competitiveness, like the period between the 1991 world title won by Senna and the 1998 one for Hakkinen. Since Hakkinen’s second title in 1999, there was a long and frustrating wait for another, which ended with Hamilton’s success last year.

But the global economic downturn has co-incided with the retirement of some of the more divisive older generation figures like Dennis and Ferrari’s Jean Todt and with the change in personnel and attitude the shape of F1 is changing too.

The FIA has already said this week that massive change is imminent to cut budgets (which will also mean reducing team sizes). Meanwhile the F1 teams’ association (FOTA) will face the media and the public for the first time later this week in Geneva and lay out its vision of the future of the sport.

Whitmarsh is a fine administrator, a diplomat and a genial character. He’s been around a long time, has McLaren DNA running through him, but manages to combine that with an independence of mind. He’s good at thinking around corners, as his well planned and executed strategy in 2006 to win the contract to supply the common electronic control unit (ECU) showed.

He will be absolutely central to the fortunes of the teams’ collective. Speaking in the Telegraph this weekend he said,

“If we can get our act together, I think we can get on so much better. What we’ve got to try and do is look at how we improve the show and stabilise the business. We have made a big effort to shed the scars and issues of the past.”

This sums up the state of play at the dawn of the Whitmarsh era at McLaren. The team itself is in good shape, in winning form with a strong technical team, a KERS system which works and as good a driver as anyone else has.

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