Jon Noble

the engine would still be pretty much where it is now.

The development program would be the same, but where it would be different, I think is politically in the paddock because Horner was happy to stir things up, happy to cause annoyances because every moment you annoy your rivals and take their eye off the ball of what they're doing to focus on what you're doing is where you can make the gains.

So I think there are elements where things are different, but I'm absolutely convinced in Abu Dhabi last year, uh,

Max Verstappen wouldn't have torn off into the lead and won the race.

He would have been... Christian would have unleashed them to back up into the pack, cause chaos, cause annoyance, try to win the championship in this way, even if he got criticised at the time and McLaren weren't happy and it caused all this trouble.

But I think he proved that he was willing to push this.

And I think Laurent very much more...

ruling by consensus and agreement and doing things a bit more amenable, whereas Horner would be happy to upset the entire paddock.

And that upsetting everyone else also became a unifying force within the team itself because you create these common enemies and you get everyone behind you and everyone pushing forward, which can be a tremendous force for a Formula One team if you're all looking elsewhere rather than worrying about what's going on here now and...

Because that's the danger then is that things start falling apart.

Yeah, I think you can win day-to-day with the approach of Laurent.

You can make the decisions, you can move the car forward, you can make what you've got quicker.

So the things in your control...

It's as effective, I think.

But making a successful Formula One team is about trying to seize control of things that you aren't fully in control with, which means winning paddock politics, which means winning regulatory change, which means not caring that your driver's done something on track that everyone's criticising and you sit in front of the press and you defend it to the hilt.

Not because...

your driver was correct, you know he's wrong, but because this is the thing that you do for the team to lead them on.

So there's a lot of battles behind the scenes that a successful team boss has to go through and win.

And it's those stress points that make the difference between a team that can win races and a team that can win lots of championships.

I think this is the area we've not yet seen