Ecclestone to rescue Campos F1 project?

[TJD2003]

Feb.11 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone and Jose Ramon Carabante have joined forces to rescue the Campos team, Spain’s Diario AS newspaper reports.

The deal will reportedly see team partner and president Carabante take over from Adrian Campos and lead the outfit to its Bahrain debut next month, before the German car giant Volkswagen steps in for 2011.

AS said the team intends to change its official name from Campos Meta 1 prior to the start of the season.

The Valencia headquarters will remain for now, and the multi million euro debt to Italian car constructor Dallara will be paid.

AS, explaining that the touted investment of A1 chief Tony Teixeira never materialised, said former Force India boss Colin Kolles will be team principal.

The newspaper said Bruno Senna’s contract as race driver will be honoured, and that the hopeful Serbian outfit Stefan GP will instead need to look to assume USF1’s official entry.

http://www.yallaf1.com/2010/02/11/ecclestone-to-re...

Regards
TJ

[dpbird90]

Hmm, isn't that conflict of interest for Mr Ecclestone?

[BoRED S2upid]

Get your money on Campos for a race win if Bernie is behind the team!

[Mazda Baiter]

Before VW steps in for 2011. Really? Doubtful.

[Nick M]

Mazda Baiter said:

Before VW steps in for 2011. Really? Doubtful.

I can see VW joining F1 *IF* it's cheap enough to do so.

They've been making big in-roads into F3, they've won the Dakar, SEAT (granted not VW directly) have had a big presence in touring cars over the recent years), and they've made positive noises about the 'spec' engines which were proposed by the FIA. They're obviously taking their motorsport seriously again, possibly with a view to steering the VW brand away from the rather dull and sensible image they have at the moment - the VW brand doesn't really 'excite' at the moment.

I can see them coming to F1 as an engine supplier 'plus', a bit like Sauber and Mercedes when they first appeared, rather than a full-on manufacturer entry.

[plg101]

dpbird90 said:

Hmm, isn't that conflict of interest for Mr Ecclestone?

Not really he's lent money to teams throughout the years, and lobbied for them, and applied pressure to suppliers.

Frank Williams book is most enlightening. Bernie would lend money, no security asked for, to support his rivals. In this case - nothing wrong with the commercial owner providing support - financial or deal brokering - to one of it's stakeholders - fortunately he doesn't write the rules...

Problem with Bernie is they always look for the worst and we rarely see the good stories about him...

[Bill Carr]

Don't VW own Cosworth? So they're pretty directly involved in F1 already.

[Mazda Baiter]

Bill Carr said:

Don't VW own Cosworth? So they're pretty directly involved in F1 already.

Cosworth Racing is still owned by Kevin Kalkhoven (of the defunct Champ Car series.) Iirc. I don't remember hearing about another change of hands.

Cosworth engineering (I think that's the name of the company) is owned by Audi (and therefore VW) which is the road engine division of Cosworth.

I would be very interested to hear if any takeovers were to be happening.

There was a spurious rumour put about last season by a PHer, that Red Bull were to be running Cosworth engines in 2010 badged as Porsche engines.

[Flying Toilet]

Mazda Baiter said:

There was a spurious rumour put about last season by a PHer, that Red Bull were to be running Cosworth engines in 2010 badged as Porsche engines.

That was me, it was an option as the Cosworth is down on power but very economical. It has been revealed that Red Bull shopped about for different engines this week...

[rev-erend]

Flying Toilet said:

Mazda Baiter said:

There was a spurious rumour put about last season by a PHer, that Red Bull were to be running Cosworth engines in 2010 badged as Porsche engines.

That was me, it was an option as the Cosworth is down on power but very economical. It has been revealed that Red Bull shopped about for different engines this week...

See Q & A with Adrian Newey here :

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

[dpbird90]

Nick M said:

Mazda Baiter said:

Before VW steps in for 2011. Really? Doubtful.

I can see VW joining F1 *IF* it's cheap enough to do so.

They've been making big in-roads into F3, they've won the Dakar, SEAT (granted not VW directly) have had a big presence in touring cars over the recent years), and they've made positive noises about the 'spec' engines which were proposed by the FIA. They're obviously taking their motorsport seriously again, possibly with a view to steering the VW brand away from the rather dull and sensible image they have at the moment - the VW brand doesn't really 'excite' at the moment.

I can see them coming to F1 as an engine supplier 'plus', a bit like Sauber and Mercedes when they first appeared, rather than a full-on manufacturer entry.

I can't see them entering as VW, they have so many brands to choose from. I'd stick a bet on them being badged as Audi, after all Audi has won at rallying, touring cars, and Le Mans; as I've said before, F1 is the natural progression. They could choose Bentley or Bugatti, although with them both being makers of luxurious yet devastatingly fast cars I'd doubt it. Lamborghini is a possibility I suppose, they were in F1 before, and if they make a good one it'll annoy Ferrari.
Or they could go down the comedy route; Skoda F1

[Scuffers]

dpbird90 said:

Or they could go down the comedy route; Skoda F1

that would be a winner!

It would be one better than Volvo entering an estate car into BTCC

[plg101]

Interestingly Skoda have moved a lot up the cost/value curve recently. Not scientific, but look at the price points of:

http://www.carpages.co.uk/guide/seat/
http://www.carpages.co.uk/guide/skoda/

Is Seat becoming the low ball / value brand of VW - where Skoda was 5 years ago?

[Nick M]

dpbird90 said:

I can see them coming to F1 as an engine supplier 'plus', a bit like Sauber and Mercedes when they first appeared, rather than a full-on manufacturer entry.

I can't see them entering as VW, they have so many brands to choose from. I'd stick a bet on them being badged as Audi, after all Audi has won at rallying, touring cars, and Le Mans; as I've said before, F1 is the natural progression. They could choose Bentley or Bugatti, although with them both being makers of luxurious yet devastatingly fast cars I'd doubt it. Lamborghini is a possibility I suppose, they were in F1 before, and if they make a good one it'll annoy Ferrari.
Or they could go down the comedy route; Skoda F1

Well they're going big on using the VW brand in F3 and the Rally Raid stuff, so why not take the VW brand into F1 and get people associating it with technological excellence in a highly competitive environment ? It will take a while for people to associate their perception of VW with F1, but it can happen. I'm still getting my head round seeing F3 cars with VW and Mercedes on them, rather than Vauxhall/Opel or Mugen.

It took a long time for people to acknowledge that Audi 'belonged' at Le Mans, but I think they've just about cracked that now. The fact that they go there to *race* and have a desire to win is what I think people felt was lacking before, i.e. there was no real competition so people felt it was purely a maketing exercise. As a result, I don't think they'd want to let go of that hard-won brand awareness and take it into an area where Audi has never been before (well, not for 70 odd years....).

Skoda ? Always been a 'rallying' brand.

Lamborghini ? GT cars, with a somewhat misguided foray into F1.

[AndrewW-G]

Of all VW's brands, surely the one with the most illustrious GP history would be Bugatti, whether they would think it worthwhile having a Bug branded F1 team is another matter.

[//j17]

Nick M said:

Lamborghini ? GT cars, with a somewhat misguided foray into F1.

A somewhat misguided foray in to GT cars in the hands of the JLOC at Le Mans too

[mdm123]

Mazda Baiter said:

Bill Carr said:

Don't VW own Cosworth? So they're pretty directly involved in F1 already.

Cosworth Racing is still owned by Kevin Kalkhoven (of the defunct Champ Car series.) Iirc. I don't remember hearing about another change of hands.

Cosworth engineering (I think that's the name of the company) is owned by Audi (and therefore VW) which is the road engine division of Cosworth.

Cosworth engineering is now Mahle powertrain. Audi sold it in 2005

[FourWheelDrift]

plg101 said:

Is Seat becoming the low ball / value brand of VW - where Skoda was 5 years ago?

They always were, previously had versions of old Fiats like Stradas and Pandas all rebranded SEAT. It's only when VW bought them that they added VW'ness just like they did to Skoda.

[Ahonen]

VW won't enter F1 as long as Piech is involved. Nissen made a few F1 related noises recently, but I hope he was just tired as it would be very dissappointing to see Audi reduced to competing in F1.

It would be an expensive way to race against Mercedes, especially when they already race (and beat) Merc in DTM.

As for Campos, USF1 etc - I think it's very amusing. Months ago, even when Campos looked solid, a friend in the know said there was big trouble at mill for at least two of the new teams (Campos being one of the names mentioned). Looks like he was right.

[bobthemonkey]

Mazda Baiter said:

Bill Carr said:

Don't VW own Cosworth? So they're pretty directly involved in F1 already.

Cosworth Racing is still owned by Kevin Kalkhoven (of the defunct Champ Car series.) Iirc. I don't remember hearing about another change of hands.

Cosworth engineering (I think that's the name of the company) is owned by Audi (and therefore VW) which is the road engine division of Cosworth.

I would be very interested to hear if any takeovers were to be happening.

There was a spurious rumour put about last season by a PHer, that Red Bull were to be running Cosworth engines in 2010 badged as Porsche engines.

Engineering was then sold of Mahle, where it operates as Mahle Powertrain.

Was linked to the MP4-12C project, perhaps building the old 3 valve AMG either under licence or acquiring the IPR outright with new heads.