Kevin Magnussen 'fired' by mclaren on his birthday

Wonder how Dennis will be fired. Live by the sword...

 

Sad to see other people have encountered experiences like this. People just don't know how to behave anymore.

 

We shouldn't be surprised.
Email is a mean of communication like others.
It may carry good news, just like bad news.
Personally, I don't see what's the issue here, I really don't.

 

Riiiight.

If that were true, there would be no story.

I guess email is ok to communicate any news or information?

 

For me yes. It's the same as a letter, or a text message.

 

+1 he was a junior driver. If he had more status it might be more of a story than it is. No shortage of drivers who will willingly suffer the same fate if given a chance to drive for Mclaren.

 

In the UK if someone is dismissed by text, email or even letter, there's a good chance it would be deemed to be an 'unfair dismissal' and legal action might follow.

 

I have to agree with Ian. Apart from being classless and impersonal of the firing manager, it seems pretty risky too.

I don't think Kevin Magnussen would challenge Ron Dennis though, as he's nothing to gain at McLaren and would only complicate his future with other prospective F1 employers.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

If it's such a grown up sport, with frank assessments and all that, then Ron Dennis just should've told Magnussen personally and frankly why he decided to fire him o discontinued his contract.

Has nothing to do with expressions like "hand-holding and back-slapping" "he's a grown-up boy" or "he makes a gazillion $$, so then it's alright" or any of that (semi-tough) nonsense.

It's part of R.Denis's responsibility as a manager/team leader, it's a small gesture to make, it's professional conduct and just a case of respect for everyone involved and Magnussens efforts for the team in particular.

Nothing more, nothing less.

 

A driver is an employee - For me Boullier should have passed it personally. RD doesnt need to deal with Jr drivers. FA or Button yes.

 

Ron Dennis created him and now he´s destroying him. Etiquette is the lesser of Magnussen´s problems and his quotes show that he´s well aware of that. After a good start, he didn´t set the world on fire in his first season and he couldn´t find any sponsors this year, so it was quite obvious that life at F1 was not going to be easy for him.

 

I may read this the wrong way, but it doesn't seem to me that it was a "dismissal", in the strict definition of the employment law.

I understand that McLaren emailed Kevin Magnussen that they wouldn't renew his contract at the end of the year. At least, that's how it was reported.

I don't think that Magnussen was "employed" by McLaren, but rather that he had a fixed term contract with them, like most racing drivers have with their teams. They are in fact free agents.

People get dismissed by letter, and I cannot see how that can be illegal. How are you supposed to tell someone you want to stop their employment then? A letter is a document, just like an email, accepted by the courts.

 

Are you sure?

Many drivers have their own management company which contracts them to a team or a manufacturer, but as individual, they are not on the payroll of the team they drive for.

They do that because they handle several contracts at the same time, with a team (sometimes with several teams at the same time), with their sponsors, with some media, etc...

Most F1 drivers would do that, if only to be able to exploit all the tax loopholes offered by being an employee of your own company, residing in a different country, etc... .

 

In a sense he is an employee and in terms of his management they knew more than likely this was going to occur. I seriously doubt he was surprised by this. Much ado about etiquette and not much else. He was a junior driver. Fired. Shocked are we ???

 

The media report made it seem like it was a surprise, and that was the initial discussion.

And junior driver or not is not really relevant.

 

Illegal and unfair dismissal are two different things. One is criminal and the other is civil. Unfortunately, I've been involved in dismissal proceedings before and the lengths we had to go to to document our due process and due notification of each stage of the dismissal was quite time consuming.

On a technicality, not renewing the contract of any employee when their contact expires is not quite the same as firing an employee who was under indefinite contract - so you're probably correct there. Still, the gentlemenly thing to do would be to sit down with them and inform them face-to-face (at the factory, at a GP weekend, etc). Where that's not possible, Ron Dennis could have taken 10 minutes out of his busy day to telephone Kevin Magnussen and inform him of his decision. As the email came from Ron's personal assistant, clearly it was his decision and not that of Eric Boullier.

Emailing the documents is fine once the meeting or phone call has already occurred. The email should reference the meeting: "As we discussed during our meeting on such-and-such-a-date...", etc.

I don't know... McLaren has been my next favorite F1 team after Ferrari for many years, but sometimes the way they do things is just crass.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

The word "media" always rings alarm bells with me: they like to exagerate, or make a mountain out of a mousehill.

As for Magnussen, if he didn't know the precarity of his situation, he must be very naive.

He just had to look back at Perez' experience in the same situation, to know what he was up against.

 

Relevant would be JB and FA. They are not treated this way at all. Look at RD given the JB situation earlier and how RD was on camera working that issue. Its incredibily relevant to put it lightly. Evidence is clear. Again Kmag is a Jr driver and is not critical at all.

 

This is the reality IMHO. But it is interesting to see people go on rants about the exact opposite - "oh these guys don't have to really drive the cars anymore; blah blah blah, no real talent in F1; blah blah; pay drivers; blah blah". 700-900HP and 1400lbs with no traction control and crazy aero concerns in traffic. LOL; ok.

Plus the structure of all the feeder series is so good now and many of the cars really impressive as well - GP2 and Renault3.5 as just two small examples.

 

wow this is a non story.

 

I agree there's absolutely nothing remotely illegal (or unethical) of not renewing the contract of an independent contractor. Unprofessional? Maybe. But as mentioned, I doubt Kevin gave a crap which way he was let go. In fact, in my millennial daughters are any indication, kids nowadays much prefer things done that way .

Now, I personally think Magnussen deserves a ride more than Gutierrez, but I could almost bet my house the latter will get it mainly due to Slim's $$$. We'll see. He's young, and surely should get a ride sooner or later.

 

Really

If Magnussen gives a crap, is something only he can answer. But it's seems quite logical that the news regarding his dismissal and the way and when it was communicated to him, came from his camp.

Which makes me believe it's seems he does give a crap.

Probably depends if they were notified beforehand or not, and it most probably also depends if you're pursuing an F1 career or just flipping burgers at McD.