Oliver White
Dutch test driver Giedo Van Der Garde caused a little controversy earlier in the year when it became clear that he had managed to sign two contracts, one with Super Aguri and one with Spyker. Van Der Garde is hoping to use his time testing in 2007 as a springboard to a full time drive in either 2008 or 2009, but hadn’t bargained on working for two different teams. And almost unbelievably, the 23 year old driver is still without a Super License, having not yet managed to complete enough miles in a Formula One car.
The issue arose when, after racking up some mileage with Super Aguri, his girlfriends father bought into the Dutch team Spyker. Van Der Garde then signed a contract with the Silverstone-based team, leaving Aguri somewhat confused. Geido supplemented Spyker’s impressive testing line up being one of four drivers in total dedicating their services to testing the F8-VII.
The people behind me, the management, are working really hard to get it solved. Hopefully we will fix it soon. Geido Van Der Garde.
If I may offer one piece of advice, Geido: Once you’ve penned your name on a contract, you normally have to seek permission to break any requirements contained within it, which surely must include driving for a rival team.
Geido’s contracts a currently being pondered over by the FIA Contract Recognition Board.
No kidding about the advice there, Oliver… …signing two contracts at once makes absolutely no sense. Especially when, as is likely in Giedo’s case, his sponsors are paying for him to be in both (unless they’ve frozen payments, in which case both contracts may be invalid).
If Giedo had tested for Honda rather than Spyker, then maybe the two teams would have come to some arrangement. However, given that Spyker appears to have a grudge against Super Aguri anyway, the chances of Giedo getting a full-time F1 contract anywhere after the CRB has had its say is almost as low as mine…