Jul 14, 2008

Private Formula One Teams Endangered

There was a time when you could have purchased a high-performance car and entered it in a Formula One race. If all the odds (and Gods) were in your favor, you might have even had a chance to win. The stories of teams on shoestring budgets that captured Grand Prix victories abound. But that was very long ago and very far away. Now we are confronted with the real possibility that not only do private F1 teams have no chance to win -- something that has been crystal clear for years -- but also the new possibility that private teams really have no chance to even compete. The latter has profound implications for the well-funded “factory teams” in F1 because, very frankly, they need teams to beat.

The news item that prompts this column is the report that the Japanese Super Aguri team’s assets are to be sold in an online auction later this month. If you’d like to purchase yourself a Formula One team, you might want to contact auctioneers SHM Smith Hodgkinson, because they are the ones who will sell all the assets of the team, such as they are, including a race car and transport trucks, in an Internet bidding to conclude on July 31.

Founded by former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki, largely to preserve the F1 racing career of Japanese favorite Takuma Sato, the team got some significant support from Honda. In fact, it was characterized by some as the Honda “B team” when it began to race in 2006. But the team’s history was a long litany of DNFs, and this year it descended into broad comedy. After failing to compete in the opening Australian Grand Prix, it was only able to compete in the Spanish Grand Prix upon receiving reported financial aid from F1 major domo Bernie Ecclestone. When the team followed that embarrassment by being denied entry to Istanbul Park for the Turkish Grand Prix, things became absurd, especially when it was revealed that the team was barred because Honda Racing’s CEO Nick Fry told race organizers that the Super Aguri team wouldn’t run in the race, unbeknownst to the team itself. After a planned takeover by Dubai-based Magma Group collapsed in May, even Bernie couldn’t keep the independent team going, though his involvement demonstrates just how desperately F1 needs also-rans to give the viewers the show they want to see.