Nigel Roebuck על סוכנים, מנהלים ונהגי מרוצים.

[דובי מילר]

כולנו, בטח אוהדי הכדורגל שביננו, מכירים את נושא המנהלים האישיים של השחקנים או את הסוכנים השונים.

אלו שלפעמים נראה כאילו הגיעו בכדי לגזור קופון על העברה של שחקו כזה או אחר מקבוצה לקבוצה רק בכדי להרוויח עוד קצת דולרים עבור עצמם ולא עבור מי שהם אמורים לייצג.

בפורמולה-1 העסק לא כל כך שונה למרות שלא את כל הדמויות אנחנו מכירים.

הסוכן שאולי הכי מוכר לכולנו הוא כמובן ווילי וובר, האיש שסייע לקריירה של מיכאל שומאכר להתרומם עם השקעה ראשונית שעשה איתו והרוויח בגדול לאחר מכן, אבל כמובן שיש גם אחרים.

השבוע נשאל Nigel Roebuck על אותם מנהלים וסוכנים ובחירתם או בחירת הנהגים .

 

 

תהנו

דובי

[דובי מילר]

"...Most F1 drivers, I think, are greatly influenced by their managers - why else would they employ them? Having said that, though, it's a very good point you make: not a few managers seem less than fully effective in managing their drivers' careers.

 

To some degree, I suppose, it depends on how much a particular driver wants to be managed. Some drivers of my acquaintance have been extraordinarily generous people, and it's easy to say, 'Well, with their money, so they should be'.

 

In point of fact, though, as a race, drivers tend to be very much better at pocketing money in than letting it go - believe me, just because someone's rich, it doesn't mean they're not tight! I think now of the retiring world champion who gave his chief mechanic - a man who had worked for him for years - the princely sum of $100 ...

 

I have known drivers who passed up employing a manager at all. Gerhard Berger, for example, could never see the point of paying 20 percent commission, or whatever, for someone to negotiate his contracts.

 

"I always do my own deals," he shrugged. "I have two figures in my head - what I want, and what I'll take. Simple ..."

 

Berger was unusual, however. These days you find that even a young driver angling for an F1 test contract has a manager, and it goes further down the ladder than that. Any kid who shows unusual promise, even in karting days, quickly finds there is no shortage of people wanting to manage him.

 

Quite often, this is to the good of both. Some driver managers - like David Robertson and Willi Weber, to name but two - will invest in a young driver, take a gamble, if you like.

 

They will fork out to help pay for a young man's career in the junior leagues, and in return he signs over a percentage of his earnings when - and if - he hits the big time.

 

Flavio Briatore, for example, 'bought' Fernando Alonso: "I took a risk with my own money when no one else wanted to - now they would buy that contract from me for many millions ..."

 

Briatore manages several drivers, another of whom is Mark Webber, whom Flav 'staked' at a difficult time in his career. "There's this perception in the paddock that Flavio moves drivers around like pawns on a chess board," says Mark, "but that really isn't the case - not in my experience, anyway. And I'll you this, without him I wouldn't be in F1."

 

Webber would also admit, however, that he has not always taken Briatore's advice when it has come to decisions about his future, and although he says resolutely that he never looks back, never wastes time on regret, he must surely wish he taken more notice of Flavio back in 2004.

 

At the time Mark was at Jaguar, who were about to quit, and on offer for '05 were offers from Williams and ... Renault, which of course Briatore runs.

 

What Flav wanted was for Webber to partner Alonso in the Renault team - and we all know what happened to Fernando in 2005: he won the World Championship, and then in '06 he won it again.

 

I don't suggest that Webber would have beaten Alonso to the title, but it's a virtual certainty that he would have won Grands Prix, and conspicuously raised his profile.

 

As it was, though, Mark effectively let his heart rule his head. He had always somehow felt that Williams was his spiritual home in F1, the team into which he would most comfortably fit, and I'm bound to say that I was one of many who agreed with him.

 

As it was, though, by their standards Williams were at a pretty low ebb in 2005 and '06, and when Red Bull came calling Webber was all ears. Had he taken Briatore's advice, though, and joined Renault for '05 ...

 

Some managers I've encountered, I must say I wouldn't trust an inch. Often they've come across as very slick and sharp, but you can see that underneath they're just corner boys who've spotted an opportunity for making a lot of money for not doing very much.

 

Almost to a man, they know damn all about motor racing, and their advice is often far from sound, based on immediate money, rather than long-term prospects.

 

Jenson Button has been managed by various people over time, and not all of them, you would have to say, have done him many favours.

 

The whole BAR-Honda-Williams affair - controversial in one direction one year, in the other the next - was as big a contractual mess as F1 has seen in a great many years, and did Jenson's image no good at all. I think he has been badly advised on occasion, but by no means is he the only one.

 

All you can say to a young driver, on the subject of managers, is 'Pick carefully'. Some, like those you have mentioned, are brilliant at what they do; others, equally clearly, are not...."