FIA opens F1 2011 new team selection

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ardius
  • 137 comments
  • 17,040 views

Who should be let in for 2011?

  • Prodrive/Aston Martin

    Votes: 54 52.9%

  • Lola

    Votes: 13 12.7%

  • Epsilon Euskadi

    Votes: 7 6.9%

  • RML (Ray Mallock Limited)

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • N Technology

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • USF1

    Votes: 14 13.7%

  • StefanGP

    Votes: 12 11.8%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Total voters
    102
I think Villeneuve would struggle as both driver and owner/team principal. Mark Skaife tried it a few years ago in the V8 Supercars and his form slumped almost immediately.
 
Yeah, but how long ago was that? Compare the sport then to its current form - with the amount of information available to the team, it would be impossible to race and run the team at the same time. And if Villeneuve deferred team principal duties to someone else while he raced, it would look like nothing more than an attempt to buy a place on the grid.

Also, the Piquets have been liked to Cypher.
 
I somewhat doubt that Villenueve will really be team principal for that very reason, just because the team bears his name, does not mean he is in full control of it. As the articles mention, its being run also by Durango.

It amusingly sounds like BAR though.
 
Ardius
I somewhat doubt that Villenueve will really be team principal for that very reason, just because the team bears his name, does not mean he is in full control of it. As the articles mention, its being run also by Durango.
Click to expand...
So it's going to be the Durango team headed by Villeneuve and run under the Villeuenve name? The articles are unclear; they don't translate too well. I've also heard that Briatore, Symonds and some ex-Super Aguri folk may be invovled as well.

Ardius
It amusingly sounds like BAR though.
Click to expand...
Not the first time I've heard that parallel drawn. Didn't Villeneuve try to buy the team before it became BAR?
 
Okay, pardon the double-post, but this is absolutely brilliant: Durango have confirmed they're working with Villeneuve. So, this is basically what their bid is: a washed-up singer-songwriter who has been trying to make a comeback for at least a year lends his name to a bankrupt, wannabe GP2 team who have been investigated for tax evasion and fraud and whose time in GP2 was marked by frequent rushed repair jobs of an Andrea Moda quality that ignored the rules and with rumours that they'll be running a redundant and obsolete 2010 car purchased from Toyota. The only way this could be any more awesome would be if the team's second driver was a certain DTM pilot who was and still is desperate to escape his brother's shadow. And if they came up with some super-pretentious "boutique" name, like Villeneuve Racing by Durango, possibly with a certain Serbian who has a limited command of the English language and a name like a James Bond villain as team principal. There is no way this can end well.

Somebody has to let this team in - even if their main rivals for the place are some Epsilon Euskadi/Prodrive/ART super-conglomerate (ProART Euskadi?) - just so that we can have some hilariously-inept team to entertain us when the races get boring.
 
I'd rather see a competent team turn up and I'm sure the FIA does too after USF1 screwed up. Though I would love to see Villenueve back just for his determination, even if he lacks skill from time to time.
 
Oh, of course it will go to a competent team, but if none are submitting bids, then Villeneuve Racing by Durango should get it just because they'd produce some comedy when the races get boring.
 
interludes
Okay, pardon the double-post, but this is absolutely brilliant: Durango have confirmed they're working with Villeneuve. So, this is basically what their bid is: a washed-up singer-songwriter who has been trying to make a comeback for at least a year lends his name to a bankrupt, wannabe GP2 team who have been investigated for tax evasion and fraud and whose time in GP2 was marked by frequent rushed repair jobs of an Andrea Moda quality that ignored the rules and with rumours that they'll be running a redundant and obsolete 2010 car purchased from Toyota. The only way this could be any more awesome would be if the team's second driver was a certain DTM pilot who was and still is desperate to escape his brother's shadow. And if they came up with some super-pretentious "boutique" name, like Villeneuve Racing by Durango, possibly with a certain Serbian who has a limited command of the English language and a name like a James Bond villain as team principal. There is no way this can end well.

Somebody has to let this team in - even if their main rivals for the place are some Epsilon Euskadi/Prodrive/ART super-conglomerate (ProART Euskadi?) - just so that we can have some hilariously-inept team to entertain us when the races get boring.
Click to expand...

oh god yes

Honestly, I'm still smarting about SGP not getting onto the grid last year. To see what Mr. Stefan would actually produce to put a car on the grid. At the very least, it would have made Hispanias' effort seem a lot better.
 
SaberFire
oh god yes

Honestly, I'm still smarting about SGP not getting onto the grid last year. To see what Mr. Stefan would actually produce to put a car on the grid. At the very least, it would have made Hispanias' effort seem a lot better.
Click to expand...

Stefan has always been and will always be a joke. I don't get how a conman gets so much fanfare.
Colin Kolles and Hispania are far more respectable.

What does Stefan even offer? He doesn't have anything.

ROAD_DOGG33J
They should definitely hire Briatore.
Click to expand...

Well if they did, it would certainly raise their credibility a notch! Not so sure it would be good to see Flav back in the sport so soon though, old wounds and all that. Wouldn't be surprised though.
But despite what he did, he is a brilliant business man and he knew exactly how to run an F1 team. Benetton and Renault were not successes by accident and not just because of Schumacher/Brawn or Alonso/Gascoyne.

I doubt though Flav would get involved just because he wasn't particularly praising Jacques' ability before. But then again, he would probably do it just to get back in F1.

Pat Symonds on the other hand would be another brilliant choice. There was a rumour he was going to Williams before.


Its sounding more and more likely that Cypher is the most credible entry out of the 3, as we are at least getting some driver rumours:
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/238982/brawn-gp-s-brown-and-piquet-connected-to-cypher/

We haven't heard a peep from Epsilon for a while. I really don't know which is the best entry, though you'd have to say Epsilon are the most credible and accomplished in the sense of history (though even they are not the world's best ever team). We know a bit more about Cypher now and Villenueve.
 
Last edited:
I'm not 'in the know' about all these new/prospective teams, who are Epsilon and where did they come from?
 
Epsilon is a Spanish - well, Basque - team that have run in the WSR and Le Mans. Most notably, they won the World Series with Robert Kubica behind the wheel, though they haven't been able to replicate that success just yet. As for Le Mans, the Epsilon Euskadi ee1 was one of the sexiest racing cars ever created, but abysmally slow. The original plan was to have engineering students from universities design the car from scratch and develop it over several years to get them into the industry, but funding dried up after one year.
 
They also have their own very high tech facility too, which suggests to me they aren't run by complete idiots with no money. Last year, I thought of them as just behind Manor Competition (Virgin) in terms of pedigree.
They are like a far less successful Spanish Prodrive.
 
Ardius
Stefan has always been and will always be a joke. I don't get how a conman gets so much fanfare.
Colin Kolles and Hispania are far more respectable.
What does Stefan even offer? He doesn't have anything.
Click to expand...

Oh, without a doubt, I agree with you. The website has the background image of a scapped rFactor mod, pictures of different teams and general shabbiness.

However, I believe men like that ALWAYS find a way of getting things done. Even Andrea Moda managed to get halfway through a season on nothing more than 2 go-karts with 1 engine between them. Hence, I'd actually rather enjoy seeing a Stefan entry go through.
 
Andrea Moda entered during a time where running an F1 team didn't require much money and there were very few safety and testing restrictions which cost teams so much money these days.
Lets not forget that even Andrea had money, he was a conman all right but he did actually have money. At least enough to do what he did (i.e. build a couple of barely-working cars and run one race and never qualify other than that.)

Stefan has no backing whatsoever. He has no entry to F1, he has no sponsors, no government backing, no Toyota TF110 or Cologne facilities....what exactly does he bring to the table?

Stefan has been trying for 12 years to "get things done" (he had tried to buy and run the 1997 Lola-Mastercards in 1998). Surely the fact that all his efforts so far and the example of Andrea Moda is that they never get things done? When exactly has a conman been successful in F1? (other than joking about Flavio :p).

I'm all for the little team that tries hard and I too love reading fascinating stories like the Andrea Moda story and all the other F1 Rejects stories. But I cannot possibly say they deserve to be in F1. I would rather see an entry in the vein of Lotus, Virgin and Hispania - geniuine racing team efforts - rather than a joker like Stefan not even turning up to Grand Prix.
Its no longer the 1990s, its sadly not possible for any old person to turn up when they like with whatever they call a car.
 
SaberFire
Oh, without a doubt, I agree with you. The website has the background image of a scapped rFactor mod, pictures of different teams and general shabbiness.

However, I believe men like that ALWAYS find a way of getting things done. Even Andrea Moda managed to get halfway through a season on nothing more than 2 go-karts with 1 engine between them. Hence, I'd actually rather enjoy seeing a Stefan entry go through.
Click to expand...

On one of the Serbian guy's pages there's a short part about how it's a family company, and the accompanying picture is the first result of you google 'happy family'. :lol:
 
Cypher withdrawn it's bid?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85917

Both Hellmund and Ecclestone believe F1 could succeed in Austin even without local talent involved. Since Scott Speed's departure from Toro Rosso, there have been no American drivers in F1, and the Charlotte-based US F1 team failed to make the grid this year. Fellow US outfit Cypher Group recently withdrew its bid for a 2011 entry.
Click to expand...

First i've heard of it.
 
Heard about it a few days ago, not exactly surprising. I think once the Austin race gets going and maybe a driver or two from the US enters F1 and is competitive we might see a team based in the US. Although as you can see with MotoGP just having Americans participate competitively is enough to garner some interest.
 
According to Epsilon Euskadi's Joan Vilaldelprat, today is the day the teams (and probably the public) find out who is going to be joining the grid in 2011.

I'm not holding my breath, though.
 
Why do they select new teams so late? I mean, there is only around 7 months until the start of the 2011 season, so that means, 7 months to do all the testing, designing, managing etc. That's part of why we've got Virgins and HRT's over 3 seconds slower than everyone else. They should be selecting the new teams around April-ish
 
Back when it became apparent - really apparent, not just media speculation - that USF1 was in trouble, Nick Wirth went on the record to say that Wirth Research had signed off on Manor/Virgin's final design by the end of August, and that anyone who took much longer would be in serious trouble. I'm willing to bet that the prospective new teams for 2011 had to submit a final design of some kind so that the FIA knew they'd be on-target. After all, it doesn't cost that much to pay a guy to design a car, and it demonstrates a certain level of commitment.
 
Epsilon have already started wind tunnel testing. Before they have even been confirmed.

This news comes from almost a week ago.
 
interludes
Back when it became apparent - really apparent, not just media speculation - that USF1 was in trouble, Nick Wirth went on the record to say that Wirth Research had signed off on Manor/Virgin's final design by the end of August, and that anyone who took much longer would be in serious trouble.
Click to expand...

Lotus didn't have a confirmed grid spot till September. They certainly did not have a "final design signed off" before then. The very least they had was a CFD basic design, but as you may recall, they "stole" a certain Force India wind tunnel model. Proving it can be done. Epsilon have more apparent resources than that, Villenueve/Durango could probably go to Lola or someone for design work.
 
Ardius
Lotus didn't have a confirmed grid spot till September. They certainly did not have a "final design signed off" before then. The very least they had was a CFD basic design, but as you may recall, they "stole" a certain Force India wind tunnel model. Proving it can be done. Epsilon have more apparent resources than that, Villenueve/Durango could probably go to Lola or someone for design work.
Click to expand...
Mike Gascoyne was previously involved with the Litespeed F3 project, which was on of the initial bidders for the three grid places and also looking to revive the Lotus name. When BMW withdrew, the Lotus 1Malaysia outfit drafted Mike Gascoyne, who already had the car designed - at least on paper. If it weren't for Gascoyne's status as a free agent with a car design lying around, I doubt Lotus Racing would have been interested in joining the grid, and if they were, then I doubt they would have made it.

The problem with USF1 is that they never even finished their final car design. They built a nosecone (and destroyed it) and a cockpit, but when the whole thing imploded, insiders spoke of how they'd make some progress, then come back the next day and find that Ken and Jason Anderson had changed everything back to the way they wanted it. That's why USF1 took so long to get moving. The important part here is that teams like Epsilon Euskadi and Villeneuve/Durango and StefanGP have a car design to show the FIA that they have a clear path. Even if Lotus started their car design in September, I'll bet the FIA asked for the designs in order to get peace of mind.
 
Rumours abound that all of the aspiring teams have failed the FIA's financial prerequisites and that there will be no thirteeth team in 2011. However, the source seems to be Autosprint, and they're not the most reliable publication (though just because they deal in rumours doesn't mean they can't hit the nail on the head every once in a while). Talk of an annoucement being imminent places the FIA's official statement being released any time from today until Friday.

However, I think it may be entirely possible that the FIA is going to put forth a second order of business at the Ferrari hearing this week. If they're still undecided between two teams, or between a team or leaving the grid space vacant, I could see them taking the opportunity to put the matter to a vote at the WMSC meeting.
 

Latest Posts

Back