Oliver WhiteDave Richards, majority stakeholder in Aston Martin and chairman of Prodrive, has officially lodged his application to join Formula One in 2010. Under his Prodrive company that has previously won three World Rally Titles with their self-prepared Subaru Imprezas, Richards hopes to make it all the way into the sport this time around. In 2006, Richards was awarded a chance to step up to Formula One but soon pulled the plug when the FIA said they would disallow customer cars.
However, with budgets being reduced and technical partnerships with existing teams being allowed, Richards has decided that he can afford to enter Formula One. The Prodrive boss has backing from the Middle-East-based finance and logistics company Dar Capital, who helped Richards when he bought Aston Martin from Ford in 2007.
We are very appreciative of the support we have been given in putting together our entry, not least by both the FIA and FOM. With the help of Dar Capital, in raising the finance, coupled with our understanding of the latest proposals to assist new teams, we now feel the conditions are right to formally request the FIA for an entry.
The level of next year’s cost cap has risen substantially since we originally considered entering. However everyone appears committed to major reductions in future years and when one takes into account the transition proposals for new teams we are confident that we now have the opportunity to be both commercially viable and competitive.
As we have said all along, we don’t want to be in Formula 1 just to make up the numbers. Dave Richards.
No other details have been released as of yet, but it is possible for Prodrive to continue the previously-planned association with McLaren. Although the Woking-based team currently work with Force India, they could extend that to Prodrive with the FIA’s approval.
It also isn’t known if the entry will have any association with the famous Aston Martin name. The entry has been submitted under the Prodrive banner, a name famous in motor racing circles in its own right. However, the appeal of Aston Martin is strong and as Ferrari have proven, Formula One does help road car sales – Ferrari posted only a very small reduction in sales recently over their previous year’s efforts.
Prodrive have become the third new entry to the 2010 Formula One Championship, following Campos and USF1. Many news sites are also expecting Lola to submit an entry before the end of the day, the 29th being the cut-off point unless places remain available.
So, none of the existing teams want to put in their applications, but a flood of new teams are?
Ah, the politics of F1. It’s almost becoming more interesting than the racing.
That all changed this afternoon when the nine FOTA teams submitted. But they have conditions they want met first.
Do you know where USF1 said they’d lodged the entry? I can find places pre-dating the Monaco weekend which said they would, but nothing to say they were definitely in under the current conditions.
As for FOTA, I think Max will refuse their proposal. The reasons probably fit better in the dedicated entry.
I’m afraid I don’t. I think the news happened while I was on my short hiatus, and I’m going by what the majority are saying. I’ll have quick scan myself though and see if I can find anything.
Ken Anderson said ‘Team US F1’ had officially lodged an entry while in the Monaco paddock at the weekend. Autosport Link.
[…] is back to blogging, with two posts today – one on Prodrive, and one on the teams conditional entry to 2010. Both are excellent reads, and detail what’s […]
Thank you, Oliver!
Trouble is, this means there are 15 teams trying for 13 positions, 9 of which have submitted what appears to me to be an invalid entry. So by the time that’s sorted out, there will be 7 vacancies for the FOTA Nine…
F1 helps Ferrari sell cars, it certainly didn’t help Jaguar, and it’s probably not helping Toyota or…Honda
[…] then back out because of the issue with customer chassis. He then pushed earlier this year for an entry on the 2010 grid but was beaten by three other […]