Cutting Them Loose
It was with particular disappointment that I read of Super Aguri’s struggles getting into the Istanbul paddock yesterday. My dismay came not from the desire to see the team find a safe passage to race next Sunday, but rather because I hoped they had just stayed home this week.
I appreciate this is an incredibly harsh thing to be thinking, and I’m also aware that amongst F1 fans I’m in the minority here. The problem for me is this whole process has now been publicly dragged out for far too long, leaving the Oxfordshire outfit with little dignity at the end of the day.
It’s been pointed out to me by several people during the past couple of weeks that it was SS United defaulting on sponsorship payments, that led the team into their current predicament. We know Aguri lost almost $30 million after the contributing company failed to make an expected second payment, but there was also an additional $10 million missing from the coffers after Giedo van der Garde’s sponsors failed to honour any payment.
Now these two issues may be entirely unconnected, but I’m seeing a pattern emerging here. Someone must be responsible for the failure to land the supposed income and it isn’t helped by the fact that to all intents and purposes SS United Group don’t appear to exist.
Back in my day, it was customary for companies who failed to generate and collect necessary income, to go bankrupt, but lately you could be forgiven for thinking that financial failure is merely a stepping stone on the road to acquiring additional support. In the UK recently, our government was effectively forced into nationalising the commercial bank Northern Rock, and this was swiftly followed up by a £50bn bond offer to help out other struggling British banks. Apparently, commercial failure is a very viable option these days.
The flip side of this particular coin of course, is success.
On track last year Aguri did a veritably fine job of humiliating the Honda factory team, soundly beating them in the first part of the season using the previous year’s car. At the time Nick Fry came under a lot of criticism for Honda’s performance and although he eventually saved himself with the appointment of Ross Brawn, there was a time when many felt his F1 career was on the ropes.
I’m sure then, it was with a wry smile that Nick apparently informed Formula One Management that Super Aguri would not be attending the Turkish Grand Prix this weekend. While there does appear to be time to withdraw said order and allow the ostracized transporters to enter the paddock, the question is, is there the will within Honda to do so?
Personally I think it’s time they were cut loose. Many will argue that 11 teams are better than 10, maintaining they’re doing a perfectly good job given the budget they have, or that the two drivers and all of the employees deserve to be treated better. However, Formula 1 is in so many ways broken right now, it’s going to take a a huge event to focus the attention on fixing the issues. If that has to be the demise of everybody’s favourite underdogs, then so be it.
I appreciate many, if not all of you, will disagree with me here, and therefore I encourage you to check out Lou’s post over on F1Break or Alianora La Canta’s podcast thoughts for a more balanced view.
Feel free to discuss in the comments as usual.
May 5th, 2008 at 05:16 #1 - Nick Fry vs. Suzuki & Weigl - Show me the money ! - Super Aguri decision time | F1 Wolf said:
[...] are opinions expressed on this topic all around, here are few tips – BlogF1, Sidepodcast, [...]
May 5th, 2008 at 05:45 #2 - F1Wolf said:
There are thousands of companies here in Hong Kong, at the end it is all about business and money here. So it is impossible to know every company that registers here. But until Super Aguri revealed their 2007 livery I never heard of company called SS United … I can’t believe that any company anywhere in the world with their name on dominant display on F1 car can remain pretty much hidden from everybody even in their place of origin … Isn’t the F1 presence supposed to promote a company … I wonder what were the true reasons behind SS United’s F1 deal (not that I am trying to accuse Super Aguri of anything). Then another mis hit with the Magma deal … Frankly who can blame Nick Fry for having enough of all this …
May 5th, 2008 at 08:48 #3 - Alex Andronov said:
Gosh “me”, how much older than Christine are you?
May 5th, 2008 at 08:51 #4 - Alex Andronov said:
Oh and slightly on the point.
I can’t believe that saving Super Aguri wouldn’t very good publicity for whoever did it. Although I guess 300 million is a lot of money.
I would like to see them either properly saved by a proper company or individual (Spyker did’t properly save Jordan for example but it looks like Force India is becoming a proper little team). But failing that I agree they should probably be cut loose.
May 5th, 2008 at 09:56 #5 - LadySnowcat said:
Honda had to stop standing behind them sometime… they were owed hundreds of millions by Super A before they had to stump up a guarantee for Bernie to get Aguri’s team into Barcelona….
Would you fork out another few mil on a tentative deal with Germans you don’t believe have the wherewithall to keep the team going in the future?…
No…neither would I….
May 5th, 2008 at 10:44 #6 - Scott Woodwiss said:
Super Aguri now want Honda to help them so much, even Takuma Sato has been pleading with them to help the team out.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67159
Damn, it’s gotten this bad that even the drivers are having to beg to get the money to keep their jobs!
On an unrelated note, Toro Rosso are going to run their old STR2B chassis in Turkey. Looks like Le Seb did more damage than we thought!
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67161
May 5th, 2008 at 11:56 #7 - lou said:
Thanks for the mention ‘me’!
May 5th, 2008 at 13:47 #8 - Steven Roy said:
Am I the only person who finds it odd that a team that took over an existing factory and uses customer cars has debts of hundreds of millions of dollars after eighteen months. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Teams at the back of the grid should only need $70 million to survive so at most SA should only have spent $140 million. Assuming that they haven’t raised a penny in sponsorship that is the maximum debt they should have run up. If they have really run up hundreds of millions questions need to be asked.
In F1 teams come and teams leave. Many of the teams who leave go bust. Part of being competitive in F1 is being competitive finacially. If you can’t raise the cash you don’t get to play the game. The idea that a team should somehow be bailed out by Bernie or by other teams seems extremely odd to me. No-one would suggest that a football team should be bailed out by its opposition or that a poker player who blows all his money is bailed out by the people he lost it to.
I would like to see SA survive but only if they can raise the money themselves. Having been made redundant a few times as the UK electronics industry collapsed I feel sorry for the people who will lose their jobs.
May 5th, 2008 at 14:57 #9 - NONSENSE said:
Well, I think I wrote an essay on this subject on f1minute during the winter when the team was in doubt for Melbourne.
SA=Weird concept to be honest. It’s just another Prost syndrome victim, former F1 drivers suck at being team bosses, they all failed in the past and keep failing. I suspect they operate on a different level because they are so used to team orders and their managers handling the business side of things that when they become team owners they just sit there on the pit wall saying to themselves: “Cool! That’s an F1 car with my name on it, how can my team not win the championship in 2 years.” Especially if the whole thing is based on national pride theme – that’s a no-no.
But losing a team is never a good idea – I personally want more cars on F1 grid (if SA really goes bust this month).
May 5th, 2008 at 15:13 #10 - Alianora La Canta said:
Thanks for the mention, me.
According to grandprix.com, Super Aguri only owes $100m, and nearly all of this is to Honda. If Steven’s calculation about what a team needs to survive is correct, then it would make a certain amount of sense. Hopefully the Weigl Group will be able to get Super Aguri through the crisis (then the only team that would need to help would be Honda, who should have known they’d be asked to do so going in…)
The really weird bit is the SS United story. How does a company of dubious existence get to sponsor an F1 team anyway?
May 5th, 2008 at 15:15 #11 - Alianora La Canta said:
I think Super Aguri’s done a good job of running his team, unlike most of the F1 driver-turned-team-boss forebears – he’s just been quite unlucky with the FIA regulation changes and very unlucky with the sponsors. With the economy and governance of F1 as it is, it can happen to anyone…
May 5th, 2008 at 15:34 #12 - Scott Woodwiss said:
Hi, just wanted to say off topic that I got my second e-mail through from F1 Racing about the Reader’s Panel. This time, we get to put our questions to ol’ Baggy Overalls himself, Jacques Villeneuve. I’m a bit stuck on what to ask him though :/
May 5th, 2008 at 16:02 #13 - Christine said:
I knew it wasn’t just me who called him Super Aguri.
May 5th, 2008 at 16:14 #14 - Alianora La Canta said:
May 5th, 2008 at 18:19 #15 - Jordan Allen said:
Me:
You of anyone in Sidepodcastland, have the most vested interested in keeping team Super Aguri alive and well because if memory serves me well, Super Aguri was built to showcase Sato’s awesome talents for a Japanese Driver….
So if Super Aguri’s gone, where’s Sato going to go? back to Honda, one would imagine, to be given a race seat again. So with the the two current drivers in Honda right now, I think it is at least 55% / 45% that Braun would keep Rubens as opposed to Jens….. This could make a certain Button fan in very close phyiscal proximity to you more than a tad upset, and she might draw incorrect but understandable conclusion about you encouraging the demise of Super Aguri and the transfer of Sato to Button’s seat in Honda.
Hope you have a doghouse in the backyard, you might be looking of a new place to hang for a while…
Jordan (Allen) F1.
May 5th, 2008 at 18:36 #16 - links for 2008-05-05 » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog said:
[...] Cutting Them Loose – Sidepodcast Why Sidey is indifferent to the idea of Super Aguri’s demise (tags: SuperAguri Honda NickFry TurkishGrandPrix sponsorship) [...]
May 5th, 2008 at 19:27 #17 - me said:
jordan you are clearly insane. why would they keep rubens, he’s just about the least marketable driver in the pitlane?
if he puts on a watch that i happen to own, i put mine straight onto ebay. he’s the least cool driver in the world.
May 5th, 2008 at 19:35 #18 - lou said:
I don’t think they would get ride of Jenson, why would they? he is willing to extend his contract with them. Not many drivers would want to stick with Honda after the rough season they had last year. Rubens is closest to retiring, the only thing he has achieved in the last few years is getting the most race starts. sorry am in defence of Button all the way!
May 5th, 2008 at 20:56 #19 - Rich said:
Sorry I disagree – DC is the least marketable driver in the pitlane followed by Fisi.
Rubens is probably reading this and saying to himself why I did I bother giving those Sidepodcast duo by nice warm smile at the British GP – or am I wrong and you did not see him and he smiled at you? In my book Kubica, Vettel, Massa, Nakajima, Kovalainen, Truli, Sutil, Sato, Heidfeld with his beard, um it might be better to try and identify the genuinely cool drivers – lets start with Button, Alonso, Bourdais (especially when speaking but not sure about the red-framed glasses), Raikkonen when he is in his gorilla outfit and possibly Lewis (but definately not when he is wearing a suit).
I doubt if Button is in any danger.
May 5th, 2008 at 21:15 #20 - Jordan Allen said:
Well, the problem is, it is the Honda corporation, and not Jenson’s fans who pay the bills is it not? A word on the Japanese mindset, they firmly believe that revenge is a dish that is best served cold and an upright nail gets hammered….
Jenson sunk his own ship when he publicly complained about how poorly Honda was doing and we wanted to break his contract and rejoin Williams. That, I am sure embraassed Honda, to the point that Button got blackballed. To have tossed Button out the door would have given Button what he wanted, a possbility to join Wiiliams.
What Honda did was keep him. Thus, Button got Hammered, and he proability got more of the test and development work too. It would not surprize me if Button does the most test work of any driver this year. This not to develop the car, but also punish Button at the same time.
Finally the revenge part. When Honda has a awesome Championship willing car, Sato gets Button seat. Jenson becomes the third driver and a fourth driver is named. When all the other teams have fianlly named their drivers to the FIA, that’s when Buttons gets tossed out of Honda. All the good teams have no set line-ups, and all the teams that could use Button, well I would highly doubt he would want to join them. So Button is out of F1. Poor Baby.
Moral of the story. Do not tick off any Japanese corporation that employs you.
Sounds unbelievable? Ask Sir Frank Williams what engines he was using after he told Honda where to go when they told him that he will have Saturo Nakajima as your number 2 driver….
It appears Frank learnt his lesson well.
May 5th, 2008 at 21:20 #21 - lou said:
Thats what i like to hear
One question though, whats wrong with Kovi? surely his name is enough to garentee his cool status
May 5th, 2008 at 21:28 #22 - me said:
yeah, but not sure smiling at sidepodcast really increases your cool status does it?
May 5th, 2008 at 21:41 #23 - lou said:
lol it increases how you are seen to people. For example i now think of him as a really nice guy
May 5th, 2008 at 21:44 #24 - Rich said:
Don’t you support your fans! He seems to be a nice guy, well that is what I have read – but I am only an uncool guy/geek and anyway I think it is difficult for guys to judge other guys as cool or not-cool so we need to ask the WOMEN (as BBC would put it) to judicate the coolness factor. I think us men would mostly think of Danica Patrick as hot rather than cool were she to become a F1 driver.
Why not get the Sidepodcast community to judge which drivers have the coolest personal websites – much easier for all of us to participate without a gender bias. Just put the links up in a posting and then open it up for commenting with a closing date and then make neat little graphs with the Numbers software your discussed sometime back.
May 5th, 2008 at 21:45 #25 - Rich said:
Kovi certainly comes from a cool place!
May 5th, 2008 at 21:53 #26 - Alianora La Canta said:
Well, if you’re looking for women to judge the coolness factor of drivers, I would suggest you don’t ask me – I have considerable difficulty telling the difference between “cool” and “uncool”…
May 5th, 2008 at 21:58 #27 - Rich said:
Did not think of it in these terms, but Rubens also made some unflatteringly comments about last year’s car! However, Jenson in his ITV interview with Louise Goodman (with the Kombi camping) was very frank (too frank1). Possibly they both will go if Honda gets that awesome car!
May 5th, 2008 at 21:59 #28 - lou said:
lol if u ask me u know u ar just gonna get button at the top!
but i am happy to give u my oppions. 
May 5th, 2008 at 22:00 #29 - lou said:
Yes he does,
putting aside his name i suppose he is abit dull. BUT we have not really heard much from him in the year and abit he ahs been racing in f1.
May 5th, 2008 at 22:06 #30 - Rich said:
So what would be your next five coolest drivers (in order from coolest)? I am sure Jenson would be at the top of the popularity list.
May 5th, 2008 at 22:08 #31 - me said:
yeah, point taken, but from a marketing perspective he’s just no jenson. nice guy yes, the nicest guy probably, but i don’t see that as a reason for honda to keep him.
now that we can do
May 5th, 2008 at 22:24 #32 - lou said:
lol ok so…
(im sure its a massive shock to you all)
1. Jenson
2. Kimi
3. Nico
4. Alonso/ Heikki (i love Heikki’s name! One of my friends is obsessed with it, and she does not even watch f1!)
5. Bourdais (and before Christine kills me – he has only been in 4 races and no doubt he will climb up by the end of the season)
thats my top 5. but its not written in stone. would need to give it abit more thought before i did that
May 5th, 2008 at 22:35 #33 - Rich said:
Here in SA Jenson is popular, possibly not quite as popular as Kimi. I remember Jenson on Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson – he came over really well. Possibly Kimi could be fun after a few Vodkas. When Montoya was in F1, especially in his early days he was hugely popular. Problem with drivers like Lewis is that somehow in interviews his character seems forced, almost disingenuous. After reading “A race weekend with… Robert Kubica” he does not sound like a ball of fun. Finally I think Jarno could be quite interesting to meet – especially if the Trulliometer is on a high or if you got him onto discussing his wines.
May 5th, 2008 at 22:39 #34 - Rich said:
Lou has provided her list – no really surprises for me – except Heikki cos of his name. In my book he is just not cool when he has to wear the silly Macca top! So when he was with Renault he was way cooler!
I await Christine’s list with interest (I think it will be similar to Lou’s)
May 5th, 2008 at 22:50 #35 - lou said:
He is cool!
ok am gonna agree with you about the renault thing…..but if you see him in some of the winter testing photos when he is wearing his hat! ahaha thats pretty cool, also he seems very nice etc in interviews. But maybe he deserves 6th…..oh this is harder than i thought….
only Bordais will be either 1st or 2nd depending on the position of Jenson…will she want to include Franck?
Christine and i have similar views, one of which is the appreciation of Button
May 5th, 2008 at 22:56 #36 - Rich said:
I think we need to limit to current F1 drivers, what about reserve drivers can we include them? If so where would Vitantanio fit in?
I am sure leSeb will be second on Christine’s list and I think Alonso be on it.
May 5th, 2008 at 23:02 #37 - lou said:
Current f1 drivers it is then! reserve drivers? hmm yeah i shoudl think so….that may mean i need to fit in Wurz….mmm This may need to be a top ten list….or a top eight list appointing each driver with pionts (as in finishing pionts in a GP). Could have a little comp in a seperate thread and then each driver could get an overall ‘coolness’ score…have i taken this too far?…
Vitantanio? who? who is he reserve for?
May 5th, 2008 at 23:04 #38 - lou said:
on the subject of Button’s coolness take a look at this link i found earlier this weekend. i did post it on the wall on facebook but its relivant to this convo so…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngHf3HpkzA8
It just shows what PR can make you do. – For the record this does not change his coolness.
May 5th, 2008 at 23:11 #39 - Rich said:
I think a top ten sounds good. My dog’s favourite is Jenson, she has actually learnt to play with both a mouse and a touch pad (often trying to find the cursor) and she watches Sidepodcast TV for short periods (have some photos to prove it) – I think it is Christine’s voice and images of Jenson that she likes. If Me goes on for too long she jumps down from the chair and goes into her bed (makes herelf into a ball of fur) and waits until she hears Christine’s voice and then she might resume watching or just lies and listens.
May 5th, 2008 at 23:11 #40 - me said:
woah!
ok, hold fire then, that changes everything!!
one blog post coming up from christine in t-minus 2 mins
May 5th, 2008 at 23:12 #41 - Jordan Allen said:
See folks, Rich has the idea.
What’s saving Barrichello at the moment is that there is no forseeable Japanese Honda driver in the horizon with the exception of Sato. (Nakajima is a Toyota driver.)
One intersting fact that should move Barrichello up the coolness ladder, he will have the longest F1 career in history. And to those of you who think that is no big achivment on his part need to look back the Imola 1994 race. Not the Sunday when Senna was killed, nor the Saturday when Pacific driver Roland Ratzenburger was killed, but Friday practice when Rubeniro just missed the cast iron fence polls at the 4th gear Variante Bassa chicane. As it was he was unconscious, and if I recall, he was touch and go for a while there….
Imola 1994, truly F1’s weekend from hell.
May 5th, 2008 at 23:18 #42 - lou said:
ahaha
lol
May 5th, 2008 at 23:29 #43 - Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged | Sidepodcast : Your Weekly F1 Podcast said:
[...] not entirely sure how it happened, but the comments on this thread descended into a popularity contest, with us ranking the drivers by their “cool” [...]
May 6th, 2008 at 08:25 #44 - Scott Woodwiss said:
I regret to inform you that Super Aguri have officially pulled out of Formula One with immediate effect.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67170
May 6th, 2008 at 09:13 #45 - NONSENSE said:
RIP, Supa Aguri!
May 6th, 2008 at 10:34 #46 - me said:
awww, unfortunate, but probably for the best.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:40 #47 - me said:
do we think that spyker / fif1 are going to regret their legal action against super aguri, when they line up last and second last on the grid this sunday?
May 6th, 2008 at 11:12 #48 - Journeyer said:
Nope, they won’t. Without Aguri, they’ll definitely get 10th in the championship – and with it, some key funds. At least they’re a secure 10th out of 10 than a possible 10th or 11th out of 11.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:16 #49 - Scott Woodwiss said:
I would like to think that anyone who had anything against Super Aguri would regret it and be sorry to see them go. But, and not to put them down in any way, this can only be a huge weight off Honda’s shoulders. Now that SA sadly are no longer with us, it does mean they can focus all of their efforts on the main team.
Do you think we might see a slightly reinvigorated Honda in the next few races?
But for the record, R.I.P Super Aguri, we hardly knew ye. It was a valiant effort to last as long as they did, and they can be considered the same as Minardi – not very competitive, but always fighting to keep going. That deserves respect.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:30 #50 - me said:
fair point journeyer, but i don’t think 10th was ever in doubt this year though was it?
agreed.
May 6th, 2008 at 13:39 #51 - Journeyer said:
As I would say, “you can never can tell…”
I mean, had Aguri found a way out, who knows how well they could’ve done? Remember, Force India may be miles ahead, but they’re still on 0pts. All Aguri would’ve needed was a flukey race or two and they’d have been ahead of Force India!
May 6th, 2008 at 13:54 #52 - Alianora La Canta said:
Force India had reasons other than Super Aguri to launch the legal bid – not least that the customer car concept threatens small constructors like themselves – so I can’t see them regretting their legal action. The Concorde Agreement indicated that customer cars weren’t permitted, so it’s not surprising they were miffed when Toro Rosso and Super Aguri used them anyway. At least Super Aguri had the excuse of necessity!
Even with that proviso, the withdrawal of Super Aguri is sad and the way it happened leaves me fuming. Stupid Honda for not seeing that keeping Super Aguri around by letting the Weigl Group try to rescue it was better for Honda than dropping it, especially in the middle of the season when the PR hit would be hardest to Honda. It’s extremely rare that I wish bad things for a team, but in this case Nick Fry and the Honda executives have exhausted my patience…
Well done to Super Aguri for trying hard and fighting impossible odds for the last two-and-a-quarter seasons, and the memorable overtaking moves in Spain and Canada 2007. Good luck to everyone at the team for the future.
May 6th, 2008 at 14:13 #53 - me said:
see, my take on that is it would’ve just come around and bit them in the backside this time next year, and the year after that.
i’m still with nick fry on this one, but time will tell if the honda execs are too.
May 6th, 2008 at 16:36 #54 - Journeyer said:
So why not at least wait until season’s end before ending the team? Would’ve been much less painful for the people concerned – especially those at Aguri.
May 6th, 2008 at 16:47 #55 - me said:
that’s a good point. the magma deal was already off before the season got underway, maybe they should’ve pulled the plug back then?
May 6th, 2008 at 18:01 #56 - Joe said:
I’m quite gutted about this to be honest. F1 is now without another private team, and private teams are badly needed for it. Takuma and Ant are great fellas, I do rate both highly, I’m really disappointed for them, Aguri, hell, everyone that’s part of the team. What will the mechanics and those folks do now?
The end was coming for Super Aguri, but it’s still a shock to me. It’s sorta good though, because they wouldn’t have had a chance or running on their own by 2010. I don’t think this is the end for Taku or Ant, one of them should replace Rubens when he goes.
RIP Super Aguri.
May 6th, 2008 at 18:14 #57 - me said:
depends on what they did before, but at least now they have “worked for a formula 1 team” on their cv.
the problem ant has, is jenson is also british and that halves the teams marketing opportunities. i don’t see taku going back to the factory team any time soon either.
May 6th, 2008 at 18:30 #58 - lou said:
I can’t see Honda wanting to get ride of Rubens any time soon. He has the experience they need at the moment. And lets face it he will be happy to just get a drive so he would stay at Honda if they let him. Im sure i heard that together the Honda drivers make up the most experienced team on the grid, which is exactly what Honda need right now. They will probably not want Sato or Ant (for the reasons Me has already said).
May 6th, 2008 at 19:14 #59 - Scott Woodwiss said:
It kind of angers me that the way the big manufacturers dominate the sport. Willams, Red Bull and Force India are now the only true independant teams that aren’t a works manufacturer. F1 is scaring away the small teams because the FIA tell them they have to have this much amount of money just to pay the entry fee!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, why not go back to how it used to be, and allow as many as 18 teams to turn up on one weekend, and to sort out who gets the grid slots, bring back pre-qualifying. If anyone’s not familiar with it, PQ was to F1 as Bump Day is to the Indy 500. There would be a handful of teams who had to prove their car was fast enough to be able to make the grid in qualifying. Or something like that, I’m not entirely sure. I think basically it was a case of being able to beat a minimum laptime and those who did had the chance to qualify and those who didn’t missed out.
Anyway, while searching on the Web for stuff about PQ, I came across this amazing piece of info:
“Back in 1989, the year topping the all-time entry charts with 39 cars entered each race on a regular basis, there were no such rules forbidding the likes of Rial, AGS, Onyx, or EuroBrun fielding modern-day kit cars in their ill-fated attempts to mix it with the F1 greats. For the little people this meant getting out of bed early Friday morning with the prospect of a 30-minute all-out bash for four admission tickets to qualifying proper. Such were the days of prequalifying. Messrs Larini and Foitek couldn’t avoid the hectic half-hour as their teams belonged to the group of constructors that had been seriously underperforming in the final half of the previous season (Osella, EuroBrun, Zakspeed, Coloni), or plainly weren’t there (Rial’s, Dallara’s and AGS’s second car, Brabham, Onyx).”
39 cars. 39 CARS! How awesome would that be to see in 2009 or 2010? An extra session where you could see all these small teams going as fast as they possibly could just to get “admission” into Qualifying. It would be like a race weekend inside a race weekend. Plus, I think I have an idea to maybe solve the problem of all those leftover non-PQers. Maybe they didn’t have to go home. Maybe the FIA could run a seperate championship standings for non-PQing teams, where on the Saturday before or after Qualifying, those who didn’t make it had a race of their own. A championship of their own!
The grid placings could be decided by the PQ times, and it would provide an extra show for the fans. Also, the winners could still get some satisfaction and success from it. OK, they’re not in the main event, but at least they could still go away with a trophy or two and at the end of the day, have some fun and not have a completely wasted journey. It could encourage teams who want to enter to do so, because they could still fight for a championship and race competitively.
Maybe instead, as another idea, there could be some kind of promotional system. Say for example, Force India and Toro Rosso finish 9th and 10th in the standings this year (which is pretty much going to happen anyway). Now, this would mean, they have to drop down into a F1 ‘B’ championship, with teams who want to try and make it into the ‘A’ championship that is the main F1 grid. Then the first two teams in the standings at the end are allowed to move up. It would be like the F1’s version of the Football League!
Anyway, I think something needs to be done to encourage more small teams to make that step forward and join the F1 grid. It’s small outfits like SA and Minardi that add character to the F1 paddock and makes them stand out, I think.
Feel free to discuss my ideas
Here’s the link to the the aritcle I got the quote from:
http://www.forix.com/8w/pq89.html
May 6th, 2008 at 22:07 #60 - Joe said:
Nice idea, Scott.
Super Aguri were certainly never embarassed themselves, though they did upset Honda a bit. One team that I’m sure raised a few laughs for the wrong reasons though, right here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_%28Racing_Team%29
Simpler times. Kind of makes you miss those days, hhmm?
May 6th, 2008 at 23:50 #61 - Scott Woodwiss said:
LMAO! 7′16 at Imola! That’s just awesome
May 7th, 2008 at 01:26 #62 - Alianora La Canta said:
Oops!
May 7th, 2008 at 14:18 #63 - Scott Woodwiss said:
Just to pick up on that 1989 season, Pre-Qualifying was introduced just because of all those entries. In fact, here’s a run down of all the teams from that season and what has happened to them:
McLaren – still in F1
Tyrrell – became B.A.R in 1999, which became Honda in 2006
Williams – still in F1
Brabham – left F1 at the end of 1992, was then owned by Motor Racing Developments
Arrows – became Footwork in 1990, then back to Arrows in 1996, went bankrupt in 2002. Leftover chassis were bought by Super Aguri for 2006.
Lotus – left F1 at the end of 1994, but was in conjunction with Pacific in 1995
March – left F1 just before the start of the 1993 season
Osella – lasted until 1990, went on to make hillclimb sportscars
Benetton – became Renault in 2002
Dallara – lasted until 1992, created chassis for Honda’s abandoned effort to rejoin, then worked with Midland on their 2006 car somewhat. Now has cars running in Indycar Series, GP2, Le Mans Series and Grand-Am. Also helped desing KTM X-Bow car
Minardi – continued until 2005, was bought by Red Bull and is now Toro Rosso
Ligier – became Prost in 1997, lasted until 2001.
Ferrari – still in F1, reigning champions
Lola Lamborghini – Became Larrousse in 1990, lasted until 1994
Coloni – lasted until 1991
Eurobrun – left F1 before the last 2 rounds of 1990
Zakspeed – Last year in F1
Onyx – Scored a lucky 3rd place in Portugal that year, name changed to Monteverdi in 1990, built a car for ‘91, but was never entered.
Rial – Last year in F1
AGS – Lasted until 1991, now is run as an F1 driving school
May 7th, 2008 at 16:07 #64 - Jordan Allen said:
The Imola circuit was 5.040 km per lap back then…. that’s an average lap sped of 41.615 km/h. We have a speed limit of 50 km/h in built-up areas here in Canada!
41.615 km/h = 23.119 mph Why Everyone can do that speed and not get a speeding ticket….
Jordan (Allen) F1
May 8th, 2008 at 12:36 #65 - Alianora La Canta said:
Oh dear. When you put it like that, it makes Life’s performance look spectacularly awful. There are horses at my farm that could probably get round Monza in only a slightly slower time, and they only have single-digit horsepower…