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	<title>The Blog of G &#187; David Coulthard</title>
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	<description>It&#039;s an on again, off again, blog thing</description>
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		<title>Separate Playpens required at McLaren</title>
		<link>http://blog.georgepratt.net/2007/08/09/separate-playpens-required-at-mclaren/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.georgepratt.net/2007/08/09/separate-playpens-required-at-mclaren/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:53:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>George</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Alain Prost]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Coulthard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[F1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fernando Alonso]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jacques Villeneuve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lewis Hamilton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McLaren]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Schumacher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Dennis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ayrton Senna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eddie Irvine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fernando]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Formula One]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Monaco]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Seems I may have been premature laying all the blame on Fernando for Hungarogate &#8482; with the news that Lewis wasn&#8217;t following team orders at the start of the session. As a result Fernando was a bit peeved. So he decides he can&#8217;t see whether there are white lines on his tyres or not and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Seems I may have been premature laying all the blame on Fernando for Hungarogate &#8482; with the news that Lewis wasn&#8217;t following team orders at the start of the session. </p>
<p>As a result Fernando was a bit peeved. So he decides he can&#8217;t see whether there are white lines on his tyres or not and spends 9 or 10 seconds on the radio checking that the team put the right set on. <img src='http://blog.georgepratt.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  As a result Lewis misses his opportunity to do a flying lap by 4 seconds. </p>
<p>Now all hell has broken loose, McLaren are once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, let&#8217;s not forget Lewis&#8217;s accusations of team orders in Monaco, Fernando&#8217;s accusations of favouritism, The whole spy mess and now Hungarogate &#8482;. It seems to me what should have been a dream season for McLaren has turned into a nightmare.</p>
<p>Is it just me or are both drivers acting like a spoilt brats?<br />
<a href="http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40326&amp;PO=40326"><br />
Eddie Irvine seems to think so and he makes some interesting points</a>. I have to say, I agree with him when he says&#8230;<br />
<blockquote>
<p>To block Lewis like that in qualifying was one of the most stupid things I&#8217;ve ever seen and it reminded me of Michael Schumacher&#8217;s move on Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think Eddie managed to sum up what I found so offensive about this whole thing&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>â€œI can&#8217;t condone cheating, but if you must do it, there&#8217;s got to be a subtler way!â€?</p></blockquote>
<p>At least when Michael and Ayrton were caught they were trying to make it look like an &#8216;accident&#8217; <img src='http://blog.georgepratt.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>I can see where he&#8217;s coming from, I am starting to think that Lewis has been manipulating things when speaking to the press, but then what driver hasn&#8217;t at some point in his career. Still that bit of arrogance that&#8217;s starting to show is a sign of what&#8217;s happening at the moment and I&#8217;m surprised we haven&#8217;t seen more of it. He&#8217;s the most successful rookie of all time by a long long way and it must be so hard to resist being arrogant when you are in a class of your own. </p>
<p>Last Saturday, when this all went off, I thought that maybe there was a culture of cheating starting to build in McLaren, I now think it&#8217;s more to do with 2 giant egos battling to be number 1 in a team that will not publicly condone such a thing and despite the success they have had in the past they have mostly come when there has been a &#8216;natural&#8217; number 1 in the team (sorry DC I love your attitude these days but you were never a match for Hakkinen, except maybe the day Ron ordered you to let him pass). Remember Senna and Prost? That ended well for McLaren didn&#8217;t it <img src='http://blog.georgepratt.net/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>I feel myself, it&#8217;s only a matter of time before one of the brats throws the toys out of the pram and does something even more stoopid (and probably dangerous) than what we saw this weekend. I really hope it doesn&#8217;t come to that but barring Ron actually names a number 1 driver I can&#8217;t see this ending any other way. The question is which one will it be, the young gifted rookie or the 2 time world champ?</p>
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