And if they did want to balls up another driver, they'd go for the other Red Bull

I wasn't aware that Red Bull were paying for ECUs that 'mostly' worked, or ECUs that randomly decided to desync from the pitwall.

Well perhaps Red Bull should perhaps look inside the box as it is not the first time athey have issues with a third party developed component that's used without issue by other teams on the grid... I vaguely remember that last year they kept on having alternator issues but blamed the manufacturer and Renault.

This component is not developed and distributed by the McLaren race team but instead by McLaren Electronic Systems, which is a wholly separate company. The FIA managed the tender process as well as everything else to do with the FIA mandated ECU.

What sponsors they got late?


Basically two biggest sponsor places almost empty: sides of the rollbar (only small Acer and Dark Dog) and sidepod

On February 14, 2001, the cash-strapped Prost team suddenly looked like the team to beat ahead of the F1 season.

Jean Alesi, having already topped two of the previous four days of testing at Estoril, lapped the Portuguese circuit over a second quicker than anybody else had managed - or would manage - during the winter.

The rumours of the AP04 running massively underweight in a bid to grab instant headlines and convince potential sponsors to part with their cash, flew instantly - especially as the car had also gone second fastest at Barcelona two weeks previously. The rumours were right too. Sponsors secured, the car showed its true colours, scoring only four points all year.