Prodrive abandons its F1 plans, for now…
Prodrive has practically abandoned its plans to one day enter F1. This is the logical consequence of the resistance against introducing cars with certain components supplied by another team. The company based in Banbury had accepted the offer from McLaren-Mercedes for 2008, but had to reject this proposal following a legal opposition led by Williams. […]
Prodrive has practically abandoned its plans to one day enter F1. This is the logical consequence of the resistance against introducing cars with certain components supplied by another team.
The company based in Banbury had accepted the offer from McLaren-Mercedes for 2008, but had to reject this proposal following a legal opposition led by Williams.
Although there were some hopes for the team to revive its ambitions in 2009, Prodrive boss David Richards has now admitted that if the team remained in the mindset where their cars would be the work of another team, there would be little hope of entering F1.
« The new ‘Concorde’ agreement ultimately determines that each team must be a constructor, and the barriers to entry in F1 are therefore terrible, » Richards stated at the Autosport International Show.
« These barriers to entry and competitiveness are practically insurmountable, so I have to question a lot of things. »
« I am now waiting. There is nothing more I can do. I did my best and now I have to wait to see what happens. »
With the new ‘Concorde’ agreement which confirmed that teams will have to build their own race cars in F1, Super Aguri and Scuderia Toro Rosso were given an additional two years to become completely independent. Richards stated that there is no way to expect Prodrive in F1 with its own cars.
« I was very clear from the start, and I did not make any blunders on this subject from the first day, about how we could see the future, » he said about being a team that calls on another to provide different parts of the car.
« Now, the rules will be different, we will have to reassess the situation. I know there was a meeting (between the FIA and the teams) on this Friday, and there will be further discussions before the start of the season. So let’s wait and see what happens, » he continued.
Richards believes that the opposition from some teams to using ‘customer’ cars in F1 is a bad thing for the sport and particularly for its fans.
« I think it’s just madness. These teams play with unlimited resources and they do not contribute to increasing interest in this sport. »
« Such a large disparity today between the front-running teams and those at the back of the grid is not healthy for F1. And the fact that a new team can almost not enter the world of F1 is not healthy either. »
« I firmly believe that the ideas and concepts that the FIA had two years ago, about the fact that certain manufacturers could help smaller teams, was exactly the path to take, » stated Richards.
« If we were present, we could have introduced younger drivers into the sport, there would have been great momentum and that’s what the public wants. They don’t want the status quo, year after year with the same teams in the spotlight. »
Richards is not discouraged regarding his ambitions in F1, and has stated that his priority is now focused on his Subaru WRC and the Aston Martin team.
