F1Zone

The Gravel Trap wrote:
Yours for £1 – nearly

In the current global credit crunch, all apparently caused by somebody in America lending money to somebody they shouldn’t have, you can find some real bargains.


Last week for instance, for just £1 you could pick up 800 branches of Woolworths, great if you are a ‘pick and mix’ fan and this week you can buy your very own F1 team, complete with factory, wind tunnel and a bearded playboy – also for just a quid.


However, as F1 fan, Liam O’Callaghan discovered yesterday it is not quite that straightforward.


Liam, 24, said: “I have placed my offer of £1 to the Honda board which seemed to be acceptable before being told they would want another £50 million after Christmas which is like a really bad time for me.”


He went on: “I went to the building society and they said that as a first time buyer I would need to put down a 25% deposit and that they then need to conduct a full structural survey on the team before confirming the loan which would then take me 175 years to pay off.”


Mr O’Callaghan is not believed to be planning the trip to Melbourne next March.

blizzard wrote:Why are the top teams investing around and over 400 million dollars a year? No engine development, limited testing, no tyre war. Opposed to that in 2002 when Toyota entered, they had a 250 million dollar budget and were the absolute front runners in that area, everybody was in awe back then. But that was with unrestricted development and testing!

So the logical consequence for 2008 must have been about 60-80 millions less, because no engine dfevelopment etc.

I don´t understand this massive cost increase, all because of inflation or what?

AzShadow wrote:

blizzard wrote:Why are the top teams investing around and over 400 million dollars a year? No engine development, limited testing, no tyre war. Opposed to that in 2002 when Toyota entered, they had a 250 million dollar budget and were the absolute front runners in that area, everybody was in awe back then. But that was with unrestricted development and testing!

So the logical consequence for 2008 must have been about 60-80 millions less, because no engine dfevelopment etc.

I don´t understand this massive cost increase, all because of inflation or what?

When they stop developing on one thing, they focus their resources on another. So the costs don't really get any less unless you restrict the whole development. When you can't get huge advantage from superior engine for instance, you have to use a lot of money in things like aerodynamics to get those few tenths that give you the winning car.

Rachael-The-Great wrote:I read in the paper that Bruno Senna is rumoured to be taking Rubens place at Honda if it is sold.
I don't know if that's true but it says he's tipped.

f1-live.com wrote:The French manufacturer PSA, selling cars under the names Peugeot and Citroen, has reportedly expressed interest in buying Honda's beleaguered Formula One team.

Anonymous sources apparently told the Belgian motor racing magazine Autosportnieuws that the carmaker, last involved in F1 as an engine supplier with the now-defunct Prost team, has made enquiries to buy the Brackley based team as an active F1 competitor.

Citroen's world rally team is the reigning drivers' and constructors' champion, and Peugeot is involved in Le Mans racing.

It is suggested that, given F1's willingness to vastly reduce operating costs, PSA is interested in stepping because it has not been hit as hard by the world economic crisis than some of its peers abroad.


The French government is also pledging financial support to the car sector, in return for Renault and Peugeot-Citroen promising to limit job cuts and plant closures.

It is suggested that Sebastien Bourdais, the French F1 driver whose Toro Rosso seat is in doubt for 2009, would be part of a PSA buyout, with Jenson Button as his team-mate.

Source: GMM
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