2010 new teams discussion

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ardius
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PJ-FFL
Don't know if this has been posted anywhere yet, but, Alguersuari is confirmed at Torro Rosso.

Hopefully, now that he has some F1 experience, he'll improve this year, hopefully some points.
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Um, did you read the thread title? This is not the silly season thread, this is the New Teams Discussion thread. Toro Rosso is not a new team; Jaime Alguersuari is not a new driver. The only reason why I reported Lopez going to USF1 and Soucek being rumours for the Campos seat is because USF1 and Campos fit the definition of new teams.

Go figure.
 
Jeez interludes, give the guy a break. I see nothing wrong with posting that news in here.
 
interludes
Um, did you read the thread title? This is not the silly season thread, this is the New Teams Discussion thread. Toro Rosso is not a new team; Jaime Alguersuari is not a new driver. The only reason why I reported Lopez going to USF1 and Soucek being rumours for the Campos seat is because USF1 and Campos fit the definition of new teams.

Go figure.
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You know, interludes, you might be wise to at least treat others how you would like to be treated yourself. PJ may have made a mistake, but whats the harm in politely advising him to create a new thread next time? Your sarcastic and aggressive posts are not going to help encourage people, only make more enemies.
 
Ardius
whats the harm in politely advising him to create a new thread next time?
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Because then we would have to hear him complain in the new thread that it could have been posted in an already existing thread.


But back on topic. Its nice to see USF1 picking drivers that seem to have some talent, but I wonder if they will fill the second seat with a driver who has actually raced an F1 car not just tested.
 
NapoleonMikey
Because then we would have to hear him complain in the new thread that it could have been posted in an already existing thread.


But back on topic. Its nice to see USF1 picking drivers that seem to have some talent, but I wonder if they will fill the second seat with a driver who has actually raced an F1 car not just tested.
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They have asked several drivers, and I mean SEVERAL, and drivers many unknown, about getting sponsorship for the seat.

I think they are a little more interested in the moneymen...
 
Yea I'm not surprised there looking for pay drivers. They said they where trying to do this cheaper then the others and paying drivers is expensive but when they pay you that's always nice. But I'm sure there's some drivers out there that could get the money together such as Sato or Bourdais if he wanted to come back to F1.
 
NapoleonMikey
Yea I'm not surprised there looking for pay drivers. They said they where trying to do this cheaper then the others and paying drivers is expensive but when they pay you that's always nice. But I'm sure there's some drivers out there that could get the money together such as Sato or Bourdais if he wanted to come back to F1.
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Bourdais was almost dropped precisely because he couldn't bring money. Sato doesn't appear to have big money behind him either, seeing as no one has picked him up still, though STR considered him for a bit.

Teams prefer to take younger drivers with money behind them possibly in a vain hope they may be surprise decent drivers.

It says more about Virgin and Lotus than it does about USF1 and Campos really, I expected all 4 new teams to look for paying drivers, but Lotus and Virgin have surprised with some decent line-ups, suggesting they have very secure pockets and are considered decent in the technical area for said drivers to happily sign contracts.
USF1 and Campos are acting mostly how I thought they would, though USF1's hiring of Lopez is very random and unexpected. Campos has an air of mystery over the 2nd seat, seeing as we kind of know they were after a Spanish driver that has since joined Sauber.
I expected all 4 to either go for 1 paid and 1 paying driver or both paying with either having as much experience as possible. The reason is new teams especially like USF1 are not especially appealing options for the experienced drivers nor the rookies who want to make an impact, they run the risk of ending their careers there if it all ends in tears. Look at Sato and Davidson, they had no other options and had little results to beat the pay driver's money.

The weird thing with Lopez is that it doesn't sound like he was the best option available, if we believe the rumours about Petrov's backing. So Windsor must hold him in particularly high esteem to go chasing him, though I think his old pal Reutemann has something to do with it too. In other words, its not like they ran out of options and had to go with Lopez because they needed the money and other, more reputable pay drivers weren't there. So definitely a man to watch.

USF1's 2nd seat will be interesting too, the whole team really is going to be fascinating to watch, will they be a Mastercard-Lola or a Minardi?
 
I saw an interesting poll on the F1 website. "Which Mercedes GP driver will be fastest in qualifying for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix?" Schumacher has majority, of course, but I pick Rosberg. Anyone agree?
 
My opinion - I think Schumacher will beat Rosberg by 1 or 2 tenths (if they both make it to Q3 and run the same tire) in qualifying, which is fairly close on the new layout which will likely be just under a 2 minute lap. I think Rosberg will make a few tiny errors here and there around the circuit (as he usually does) which will add up to that precious tenth or two...where as Schumacher's lap will probably be a fair bit smoother looking, just as close to the threshold of grip if not closer, without as many small errors in a corner or two. Should be interesting :dopey:

Waiting for the first race to come around is like waiting for a dream to come true for me :sly: :lol: I'm just as intrigued to watch the team mate wars as I am to see what teams do best :drool:
 
There are more rumours Campos are in trouble; it's believed Dallara won't deliver the car until the money due is paid, and the team may not announce their second driver until the eve of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
 
I'm hoping Senna's career isn't ending becuase of poor planning on Campos' behalf. 👎 If they do indeed turn up at Bahrain with no testing, its safe to say they are in deep trouble, not just for results, but for finances too - how can you convince sponsors that turning up with no testing is a good thing?
 
Sad news - I was hoping that we wouldn't see anymore of this before the season made it...

Without pre season testing they're screwed.

C.
 
Ardius
I'm hoping Senna's career isn't ending becuase of poor planning on Campos' behalf. 👎 If they do indeed turn up at Bahrain with no testing, its safe to say they are in deep trouble, not just for results, but for finances too - how can you convince sponsors that turning up with no testing is a good thing?
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Does look bleak :nervous:
 
yeti
Without pre season testing they're screwed.
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Well, they're not screwed, they could still last the season, but it certainly doesn't make it easy! :lol:
Many a team in the past has lasted on much less, but then again, those past teams were all established and had some finances behind them (thinking Arrows, Super Aguri, Forti, Minardi, Tyrrell, Prost, etc, they all were struggling to develop their cars properly and didn't do much testing but they all survived at least 1 season). Campos is coming from practically nothing, at least financially. Dallara may well make a good chassis that works out of the box, but its a massive gamble.
Whereas the other teams will have done setup work, reliability checks, fuel consumption checks and various other calibrations, Campos would be turning up not knowing how their car will perform and how to use it properly.

If they manage to roll up on race day, I think its safe to say they would be looking at reliability problems for the 1st half of the season.
 
I wonder how much Lopez payed for that USF1 seat. I'm going for 8 milllion.
 
You have to wonder what Campos are doing. They know they're in bad shape, but they're still pressing on as if nothing is wrong. They're going to be an embarrassment. They should sell the team to Stefanovic, or at least withdraw and let the FIA grant their place to the Serbians. If they do sell, hopefully they'll have the decency to include Bruno Senna as a condition of the contract. He shouldn't suffer simply because Adrian Campos committed the same mistake as Alain Prost and over-estimated the interest of local corporations (and by local, I mean from the home country) in sponsoring a team. Spain might be mad for Formula 1, but I don't think they care for much outside Alonso. Alguersuari and de la Rosa are on the grid, but neither have been met with much of a response.

I really hope they don't sell to Teixeria, or bring him in as an investor. He says he's doing it for A1GP. He wants to include A1 in the team, somehow. Back when he was said to be bidding on Honda, he announced that he wanted to offer the seat as incentive to A1 drivers. Awfully nice of him, but the way he pitched it basically involved using the team to promote A1GP. I can't imagine that such an arrangement would sit well with Bernie Ecclestone, and not least because A1 is dead in the water.
Alex.
I'm going for 8 milllion.
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That's how much his sponsor package was. USF1 told him that if he wanted the drive, he had to pay eight million.
 
Sell the team to Stefan? :rolleyes: Yes, thats certainly a credible guy to sell to! :ouch:
A bunch of vague reports on "testing" of the TF110 after he "bought" the design from Toyota do not make him an appealing option to me. I've already said before I don't understand the appeal that some people on the internet see in Stefan and I still don't. Where is his credibility? He has less than Andrea Sassetti! At least he did have vast amounts of wealth!

Teixeria isn't a great option either, but he's got far more credbility than Stefan, at least A1GP was moderately successful, even if it was fundamentally flawed.
 
Ardius
Teixeria isn't a great option either, but he's got far more credbility than Stefan, at least A1GP was moderately successful, even if it was fundamentally flawed.
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A1GP might have been successful, but that was before Teixeria took control of it.

And if neither Stefanovic nor Teixeria are credible options, who is? Don't say someone like Dave Richards, because we know he's not interested. The only ones I could possibly think of as being keen for it are Lola, who have their own car (but would probably baulk at the pospect of paying the debts due to Dallara) or Epsilon Euskadi, who have said they could buy whatever was left over by a dead team and finish it themselves. But neither Lola nor Epsilon have said anything on the subject.
 
No one is, there are no decent options for Mr Campos to explore, hence why he is seemingly attempting to find investors rather than outright selling the team. The team would be better off continuing and struggling under his leadership than being sold to unknown entities, especially as dubious as Mr Stefan.
The only other option is to pull the plug and attempt to take the team elsewhere, but this would still cost money and effectively wasted the time and money gone into Dallara's car and the Cosworth engine supply.

Lola and Epsilon are not stupid, taking on a team at this late a stage would be difficult to make anything of and a useless money drain. They would be better off waiting for next year and applying again, giving them more time to find sponsors in this difficult time rather than doing so while looking after a very likely backender team. That or waiting for Campos to go under and buying the assets for use next year.
 
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StefanGP has revealed they are receiving technical support from Toyota. The clearly expect to be racing in 2010. Either Campos will be leaving very shortly, or the FIA will allow them onto the grid as a fourteenth team.
 
^But Stefan has "expected" to be on the grid ever since he failed to get an entry in the summer - remember his comments about turning up to Bahrain regardless?
I still refuse to believe there is anything to Stefan at all.

If the FIA really does check the finances, I don't see how Stefan are going to be accepted. Even if they have the Toyota chassis, drivers and technical support - how is this a better entry than any of the others? There so far appears to be no finances behind the project (Serbian government money? :lol:). Toyota certainly aren't going to bankroll the team!
 
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Ardius
^But Stefan has "expected" to be on the grid ever since he failed to get an entry in the summer - remember his comments about turning up to Bahrain regardless?
I still refuse to believe there is anything to Stefan at all.
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Surely you'd agree the fact that Toyota is giving them techical support lends credibility to the team, or at least to their prospects? Toyota have a vested interest in Stefan, because Stefan would use Toyota engines; why would they do that if they didn't think there was at least a reasonable chance that Stefan would find a place on the grid?

Ardius
how is this a better entry than any of the others?
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There are no others. If one of the existing teams bails out, there is no-one to replace them except Stefan.
 
I meant, how is it that Stefan is considered now when teams like Lola and Epsilon were not back in 2009? Not to mention Prodrive, who by the sounds of it had the technical background and the finance in place!

If the FIA really do check up on each team's viability and ability to fulfill their obligation to finish the championship - they shouldn't let Stefan in. We haven't even discussed whether the car will be any good and if the team will even last the season?!!

The whole Toyota thing to me sounds like they are happy to take whatever little money Stefan has. But even so, "technical support" is a rather vague term and could mean they are operating the telephones for Stefan :lol:
Lets see, Stefan has the "design of the TF110". Ok, so now he needs to develop it, produce the chassis, find a gearbox and engine, pay the contractors for the parts, pay for Bridgestone tyres, pay for fuel, pay the FIA entry fee, hire staff, purchase buildings...etc (even if Toyota are making the chassis for him, he still needs buildings for his side of the operation).
None of these things have been shown.

Its also rather suspicious that most of the news we get is from Stefan himself in poor english. Nothing wrong with poor english skills of course...but surely he has more pressing matters to take care of?
And why haven't we heard from people like Mike Coughlan who he has apparently hired? Very little from Toyota either?

It all smells quite honestly.
 
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James Allen is reporting that Tony Teixeira has agreed to purchase Campos, but the money hasn't been handed over yet. Zoran Stefanovic is still gunning for a place on the grid, and seems to have stepped up his efforts to make it.

But the interesting thing Allen reports is that that the F1 Commission is considering a rule whereby the new teams will all be issued with three Get Out of Jail Free cards. Because some of them are in trouble, they will be allowed to miss as many as three races without penalty. There's no word on how this might work, whether the teams would have to provide reasons for their failure to appear, whether there are certain events like the season opener and finale that they would have to attend or whether they can skip two or three races in a row.
 
Lotus successfully started their engine this weekend:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8502812.stm

👍

I've also noticed that the Mofaz team in WSR has been re-named "Lotus F1 Racing Junior Team", which makes sense as its a Malaysian team owned by Fairuz Fauzy's father. So, both Virgin and Lotus have junior team programmes as well. All around looking like a strong future for both teams.
 
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