Monday, October 29, 2007

Constructor roe

Constructor-Constructor what’s your function? Err, Casey Jones better slow down! Yeah, I’m still a bit loopy from my “Jet Ragg!” Not to be confused with… Oh, never mind!

And I’m still trying to play “Ketsup” over the last two weeks of Motorsports fodder as well as watch all of the Brazilian Grand Prix action along with the Surfers Paradise Champ Car race.

Meanwhile prior to leaving for Japan, the International Court of Appeals announced two upcoming court appointments. First Scuderia Toro Rosso was appealing Vitantonnio Luzzi’s 25 second time penalty that cost him eighth place at Fuji. This was set to be heard on Oct. 12.

Secondly, and far more important is the Oct. 25th date set to hear Williams assertion that Prodrive is NOT a legal entity for the upcoming 2008 Formula 1 season under the guise of customer chassis.

This court date ties in nicely with current speculation over what would happen in the never ending schumozzle of chassis cloning, of which the Spyker team brought to light at the start of the 2007 Formula 1 campaign Down Under.

Perhaps you recall Spyker claiming that Scuderia Toro Rosso and Super Aguri’s race cars weren’t legal under the current Concorde agreement, the sports governing document for all team entrants.

This was due in large part to the nefarious loop holing techniques both squads employed, with Gerhard Berger telling Spyker to go bleep itself! As Berger claimed that the chassis were designed by a “third” party, while Super Aguri utilized a satellite design company to tweak the prior season’s Honda chassis.

And although I assumed this cat fight was over due to the financial enticements Spyker has enjoyed via the FIA’s prize money restructuring along with Super Aguri sending Guido Van der Garde and Sakon Yamamoto to Holland… Nevertheless the issue has not been settled, as the matter was previously scheduled to go to the Court of Arbitration.

This issue has been languishing on the entire season, with reports that Sir Frank Williams is also less then impressed with the Max Mosley proposed customer chassis being eligible beginning in 2008 as the current Concorde agreement expires on December 31st.

Yet it appears extremely unlikely that all of the current Constructors will be in agreement on this issue, which would see the Concorde agreement simply rolling over for another season, This of course would cause big headaches for Emperor Bernardo, Max “Whipping Boy” Mosley and the FIA, as Prodrive is scheduled to become the Formula 1’s twelfth entrant next year. And Bernie claims that David Richards already has the $48 million entry bond secured, along with a brand new title sponsor. Prodrive is reputed to pay McLaren $100 million for a supply of 2008 turn key chassis which of course would be in direct conflict of the Concorde agreement!

And I firmly agree with Spyker, Williams and Professor Matchett that part of the lure of Formula 1 is that ALL teams MUST create their own chassis… Instead of becoming a watered down version of Spec car racing!

Yet with that said one must recall that McLaren ran separate F1 teams in 1974 with a satellite operation known as Yardley Team McLaren, which was spun off after being the teams title sponsor from 1972-73.

In 1974 Emerson Fittipaldi claimed his second F1 Driver’s title with Marlboro Team Texaco, McLaren’s new moniker. Emmo’s teammate was 1968 World Champion Denny Hulme.

while Yardley Team McLaren ran a solo chassis for Mike “The Bike” Hailwood, with guest appearances by David Hobbs and Jochen Mass. While a one-off entry was made for Dave Charlton entered as the Lucky Strike Scuderia Scribante in the South African Grand Prix. (1974-75)