Harshest Sackings

[rjbetty]

Hadn't heard this one before. Was it a sacking, or just the end of the WSR Honda programme? I seem to recall Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes being confirmed very early for the WSR MG programme that followed, and would assume — given their parallel sportscar effort — that these were MG appointments rather than WSR ones.

In his Vauxhall years, I agree, but thereafter I'd argue Thompson would have achieved more success with WSR than he has done elsewhere.

Oh dear, my apologies, I might actually have got this wrong and need to check my facts... (man I'm on bad form lately what with talking about Bruno Senna at Force India as though it was confirmed when in fact Bruno is now out of F1...) But I'm certain I read quite a bit on this in Autosport. Whatever, the situation between Thompson and Bennetts looked pretty nasty indeed.

[zako85]

I think Heidfeld's mid-season sacking from Lotus/Renault in 2011 was pretty harsh. The team effectively threw its pilots under a bus for its own sins. Later it became known that car hasn't been updated for much of season because the original design was too complex.

[Fortitude]

It may be that Frentzen did look like a better bet for the team. It's the fact that they fired the current championship leader and saw the world champion leaving the team. It's just very bad form IMO and to this day I can never bring myself to support Williams.

Who knows if he would have been champ in 1997, maybe, maybe he would have been bested by JV, but he should have been given the chance at least.

I know how you feel. It was a raw deal for Damon...