Bump!
Its no secret that Prodrive was looking at customer options for the first year or so, but I think everyone expected Cosworth engines and someone elses year old chasis... certainly not McLaren customer chasis and Mercedes customer engine. Very interesting indeed.
Oh, and I have a feeling Sarrazin will jump ship and become a test driver for F1 again.
Quote:
Prodrive look at becoming McLaren 'B'
By Anthony Rowlinson Thursday, July 20th 2006, 09:55 GMT
Prodrive boss David Richards is making a bid for his new Formula One team to become a McLaren 'B' operation, this week's Autosport magazine reveals.
With the imminent collapse of Japanese investment firm Direxiv's plans to link up with McLaren, Autosport reports that Richards has held talks with McLaren about running customer chassis and Mercedes-Benz engines from 2008.
Richards has made no secret of the fact that his new F1 team could have a better chance of success becoming a customer team, rather than trying to create everything from scratch.
Speaking to Autosport, Richards said: "One of the things I am trying to do with Prodrive F1 is to bring in fresh ideas and fresh thinking.
"We have an opportunity to do things in a new way, a much less labour-intensive way and in a manner that we believe will shatter some of the entrenched beliefs about how a Formula One team has to be structured."
Richards attended last weekend's French Grand Prix as part of the early groundwork for his team. It is understood that he held talks with team personnel, as he prior to him drawing up a wish-list of key staff that he wants for his outfit.
|