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Is it me or was this a complete waste of time signing him into the team this season? He's in a competetive car but not getting any results! What's going on?!
Andy Neate A Waste Of Time ???
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Could say the same about Jenson Button recently, think he hasn't had the best of luck with his car and isn't happy with the setup, personally he's the second driver so maybe he does pay to drive happens a lot or he's just that, the second driver! if he was better he'd be a first team driver somewhere else.
I can't imagine it's easy driving in BTCC and anyone that does even if they are last it a much better driver than me or anyone else on here I would imagine. :bgrin:
I can't imagine it's easy driving in BTCC and anyone that does even if they are last it a much better driver than me or anyone else on here I would imagine. :bgrin:
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Andy Neate works for Ceravision, who sponsor MG this year.
I too have not been impressed, he's driven competitive cars before now (BMW & Ford) and not done anything with them. I would be more inclined to sign someone like Paul O'Neill, but obviously money talks.
I too have not been impressed, he's driven competitive cars before now (BMW & Ford) and not done anything with them. I would be more inclined to sign someone like Paul O'Neill, but obviously money talks.
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14,111 Posts
I bloody knew it would be something sponsership related, he is not good enough from what i've seen to be in a championship winning car.
- GK
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Charlzy is right (surprisingly).
Andy has been plagued with bad luck, some has been caused by himself and a lot of it is beyond his control. Perhaps he might come good. :dunno:
However, if he can't achieve some good results by the end of the season, MG will be daft to keep him on as a driver, he doesn't appear to be getting to grips with the car at all and although Oulton park saw his best finish yet (7th) it was still a bad weekend for him. After Andy's 7th place, I'm sure that I heard him say something along the lines of, 'I'll be upset if I don't make a podium finish this weekend'. He must have a great deal of self belief, because from what I've seen so far this season Andy simply isn't quick enough or lucky enough to finish in the top 3.
MG can't win the constructors with Andy driving the second car. Neal and Sheddon are going to walk away with that one. Honda have got a quick car with two quick drivers, it's the perfect recipe.
I sincerely hope that Andy can up his game and prove me wrong, because he doesn't deserve this amount of bad luck and he wouldn't be on the BTCC grid if he didn't have potential.
Andy has been plagued with bad luck, some has been caused by himself and a lot of it is beyond his control. Perhaps he might come good. :dunno:
However, if he can't achieve some good results by the end of the season, MG will be daft to keep him on as a driver, he doesn't appear to be getting to grips with the car at all and although Oulton park saw his best finish yet (7th) it was still a bad weekend for him. After Andy's 7th place, I'm sure that I heard him say something along the lines of, 'I'll be upset if I don't make a podium finish this weekend'. He must have a great deal of self belief, because from what I've seen so far this season Andy simply isn't quick enough or lucky enough to finish in the top 3.
MG can't win the constructors with Andy driving the second car. Neal and Sheddon are going to walk away with that one. Honda have got a quick car with two quick drivers, it's the perfect recipe.
I sincerely hope that Andy can up his game and prove me wrong, because he doesn't deserve this amount of bad luck and he wouldn't be on the BTCC grid if he didn't have potential.
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433 Posts
Hasnt he invested around £750,000 into the team? So without his input off the track MG more than likely wouldnt be racing. Give the guy a break. Next year will be MG'S year on and off the track.
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Not sure how to feel about people buying drives etc.. i now the teams needs money to race, but it does feel wrong somehow that an uncompetive driver is only there because he has the cash backing.
I dunno.
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Wow cannot believe the title of this thread, to suggest anyone is a waste of time could be regarded as slander.
We are not aware of the full facts so are not in a position to make comment relating to sponsorship etc
The results year todate are disappointing and I am sure Andy Neate feels the same, he has had a lot of bad luck, lets hope it changes for the rest of the season.
Good Luck Andy!!!
We are not aware of the full facts so are not in a position to make comment relating to sponsorship etc
The results year todate are disappointing and I am sure Andy Neate feels the same, he has had a lot of bad luck, lets hope it changes for the rest of the season.
Good Luck Andy!!!
Very very few drivers across the whole worldwide spectrum of motorsport are paid to drive, even F1 has pay drivers.
It doesn't necessarily come from their own pocket, many have sponsors, so the cash comes by proxy to the teams, but the drivers with this kind of backing have to be good to have the sponsor support.
Some drivers are just plain rich and if they're cack can really get in the way, but most have training and experience which means they can drive faster than most of us.
I strongly doubt anybody on this forum would be able to beat Andy's performances if they took over for the rest of the season.
I agree with you regards the title, its a bit harsh.
With regards to the sponsorship etc debate, I personally was only putting 2 and 2 together with the information given to me by people within the team and being as someone has mentioned there are only 2 paid drivers seems to confirm what I thought.
There's nothing more I`d like to see than Plato and Neate battling for podiums, hopefully he will get he`s **** together soon so we can see some mighty battles.
Paul
not sure Plato is paid, he has typically had to raise 400k per year to drive, anything over that he can take as a wage.
technically he is only 'paid' once an amount of sponsorship money has been bought to the table.
Plato is quite a shrewd business man and gathered some great sponsorship money, he put tesco 99 on the table, a deal reported to be worth 3million over a time period. Any money paid for him to drive is only through the sponsorship he already found.
I believe Plato had put these deals together before agreeing a deal with MG, there was reported to be a few companies & teams wanting to work with him.
Andy Neate is certainly not a talentless driver, if you look back over his career he was very good but sadly was involved in a racing accident which put him in a coma for quite a time. His return to motorsport since has not been to the same level as before the accident, but to shoot the guy down considering what he has been through is a little unfair.
Neate is a wealthy man, he has bought a pot of cash to a cash strapped team.
I understand MG put in about 250k, now I don't know if this was 1st year alone or what as I also heard their input was worth 500k over 3 years, either way, it was very little money considering race entry for the weekend is about 38k per car.
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To be fair to Andy, he's had more than his fair share of bad luck, plus his times in FP1 and Fp2 up to his shunt were pretty competitive - 3rd in FP1 and 4th in FP2. He just didn't seem to have the car in quite the same place after that, but seeing as Qualifying was a couple of hours after his shunt in FP2, the team did a sterling job just getting him out!
From what I've seen is that Andy's not as decisive when overtaking, Jason is and that's how he manages to slice his way through the pack. Andy just needs a bit more racecraft in that regard and I think we'd see much better results from him.
From what I've seen is that Andy's not as decisive when overtaking, Jason is and that's how he manages to slice his way through the pack. Andy just needs a bit more racecraft in that regard and I think we'd see much better results from him.
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I suspect this is the case as well. One thing made perfectly clear to me was that the team is not MG's, its not a works team. MG are onboard as a main partner of course, but its not like the WSR setup of old.
Quite who runs the team I'm not sure, if 888 answer to Brandpilot or if BrandPilot answer to 888. Eitherway, noone answers to MG it seems.
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