Alan Gustufson-Bonehead of the Week

The other day I learned that the Mercedes-Benz F1 team has a 100 person engineering group at their headquarters in Brackley working strategy options on race day.
 
aunty dive said:
The other day I learned that the Mercedes-Benz F1 team has a 100 person engineering group at their headquarters in Brackley working strategy options on race day.
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so do most nascar team,i dont know how many people,but they do have people at the shop doing strategy during the race and are in contact with the pit box
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Clear as day you haven’t watched much of Alan Gustafson’s races. He’s a damn genius when bringing speed but he’s one of the worst in the strategy department.

You also have no clue to how much Alan deferred to Jeff and Mark. You act like Alan ordered Chase in and Chase straight up objected like an angsty teenager.
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I've watched 99.5% of all the races Alan has been on the box for, and yes I know strategy isn't always his strongest suit. No, I haven't listened to all the races he's called, but when I have, I don't recall anything like that standing out to me. Regardless, however he does it, nobody should be making those calls but him, no matter how many people (including the driver) are offering input. Whether Alan made the dumb call or let somebody else talk him into the dumb call, it was STILL a dumb call. Stevie Wonder could have seen THAT one . As I said, if you wanted to see what was going to happen, all you had to do was watch the 7 car in the Xfinity race or what happened to the 9 earlier in the race.
 
They have 'clock management specialists' in other sports for head coaches that are great at everything except in-game clock management, since they're juggling multiple personnel decisions and generally focused on directing the team than dealing with the clock.

Doesn't really apply for nascar a 'late-race strategy specialist' is literally the crew chiefs job as the laps wind down, factor in all the input and feedback. The driver has to trust the crew chief and the crew chief has to have the confidence to make the call. I can't remember Chad deferring to Jimmie many times, if ever. There's room for different approaches I guess, but primarily in my opinion, the driver should be focused on visualizing how he's going to win the race on track, not having to worry about making the right pit call in the final sequence.
 
CC doesn't need to ask the driver anything, if the car ain't right you can be sure the driver has already complained to the CC. That complaint and if it can be fixed is part of the call to come in. Why bring a car in if there are doubts it can be improved enough to change the outcome or if there is enough time for those improvements to overcome the loss of tract position?
 
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