New Teams, Same Old Problems
Written by George Katinger · October 16, 2004
On top of the Midland Group’s F1 team entry for 2006 comes word of another new team on the grid; the Dubai F1 Group. There must be something in that desert water and Canadian air that blocks common sense and basic computational skills. New teams in F1 just do not add up, even using new fuzzy math!
motorsport.com: Dubai team plans 2006 debut
grandprix.com: Buying and selling teams
f1central.net: Jaguar sale “in process.”
bbc.co.uk: Stoddart warns Midland
bbc.co.uk: Dubai plan for 2006 team launch
grandprix.com: Why would anyone start a new F1 team?
A start up F1 team requires more than just a desire to go racing. The challenges (financial and otherwise) to building a new team from scratch are overwhelming. Just ask Toyota. Over a billion dollars invested, no podiums and hardly any points, to show for three years effort. The task of assembling team quarters, equipment, personnel, wind tunels, and a host of other details large and small preclude anyone from having success with a new team for at least five years.
And the potential rewards?
“The acquisition of an existing team would never enable us fully to demonstrate our own commitment and excellence,” said spokesman Tim Fulton.
The above is the Dubai Group’s rationale for NOT buying out an existing team. The excellence he refers to will take years to achieve, but the commitment will be crushing in it’s cash devouring relentlessness. Even with a budget of 100 million a year, as Midland intends to spend, what is the point when Ferrari, Williams and McLaren spend two to three times that amount?
While encouraging to see new blood enter the sport, where will it all lead and what is the point when there is no chance of success? I fear the new entries will only stiffen the old guards resolve to resist change and maintain the unreasonably high cost of competition.
Comments
2 Responses to “New Teams, Same Old Problems”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I can’t speak to the Midland F1 project, but I lived in the UAE in 2001, working for Abu Dhabi TV. Dubai is just up the road from Abu Dhabi. While Abu Dhabi is the government center of the UAE, Dubai has become the business, cultural and tourist center of the UAE, run by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (also Defense Minister for the UAE). The Maktoum family are doing everything possible to make Dubai the Maimi and Las Vegas (wraped into one-sounds like Monte Carlo) of Europe and the Middle East. Whereas, it is illegal to drink in much of the Muslim world, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, Dubai permits drinking for all non-Muslims. The Maktoums pay Tiger Woods $1 million just to appear at their Dubai Classic. The Maktoums own one of the two major airlines in the Persian Gulf - Emirates Airline. It goes on and on.
The point is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his Sheikh Maktoum sons are doing anything and everything to build and promote their city of Dubai. When I lived there the Sheikh was trying to bring an F1 race to his city. (That race eventually went to Bahrain, just up the coast in the Gulf).
My guess is Dubai will race in Formula One for several years, get some publicity for it’s city, and then die.
Sheikh Maktoum’s got all of his oil money and he wants to buy toys that bring attention, and business to his city that was once just desert sand, but now is truly a “beautiful town.” I don’t think he really expects to beat Ferrari.
A few photos of Dubai:
http://dubai.intercontinental.com/
http://www.dubaidesertclassic.com/index.php?module=Content&func=display&ceid=9&meid=-1
http://www.lemeridien.com/united_arab_emirates/dubai/photographs1_ae1629.shtml
Unlike showbiz where the axiom is “it doesn’t matter if they say bad things or good things about you, as long as it’s about you”, the marketing benefit of F1 and Hi-tech motorsports is about achievement.
There will only be shame and scorn, with little positive benefit to running at the back of the grid with the likes of Minardi. How will that make his empire grow or demonstrate excellence?
The new A1 series, I can understand, as everyone is starting from scratch. I guess true wealth casts a different perspective on things.