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Super Aguri Barred From Istanbul Paddock
Written by George Katinger · May 4, 2008
Transporters for the Super Aguri F1 team were barred from entering the Istanbul paddock by their number one creditor. Honda! A portent of closing down the financially strapped team or a hardball negotiating ploy?
Nick Fry notified Formula One Management that Super Aguri would not be participating in the forthcoming Turkish Grand Prix, and track officials formally blocked their access to the track.
Is this the end of SAF1? Or just another way to close the deal with Weigl Group, the potential buyers? Fry has flat out stated he doesn’t believe the company has the resources to fund and support the team, not to mention paying off the $60 million debt Honda has run up. Here’s Nick’s comment:
He said “It would appear unlikely that a company the size of Weigl is able to support a competitive Formula One team, unless of course there are other partners of which we have not been made aware.”
“Our position is that Honda have given Super Aguri every available bit of support over and above what was anticipated,” said Fry in Barcelona. “We tried to help as much as possible and Honda never intended to fund two F1 teams. We’ve gone way beyond what was ever originally anticipated. Now Aguri has got to find some money.”
I guess the sticking point is Honda and Fry want Weigl to reveal his partners and their sources of funding before continuing lending support to the team. Can’t say as how I blame him or Honda for playing hardball. It’s time to fund or flee for Aguri as a team and Weigl as a suitor.
Just another legacy of Max Mosley’s misguided meddling into the business of Formula 1. His arrogance led him to believe he could ram the concept of customer cars down the throats of the sport, and consequently SA and Toro Rosso may both be down the old porcelain convenience.
Thank you Max, add a couple of extra lashes to your bum at this weekends session with your favorite dominatrix.
Comments
My heart says that Honda/Fry are a bunch of bastards for putting the knife into the little team, but my head says that they have carried the team financially & have to draw the line somewhere.
Too late now, but considering the huge public support for Sato that started this whole venture in the first place, Aguri didn’t exactly turn this support into paid Japanese sponsors.
And Yes George, another example of Max’s Presidency. Vote No, Max Must Go!
Man! We should consider printing that on a t-shirt, a Fastmachines limited edition merchandise line of anti Max consumables…..JOSH!!!!!
George you forgot to add on line to your post….. Article 151c, from the Concorde Agreement, to which Mosley is a signatory: “Bringing the sport into disrepute. Any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally.”
Peter I agree with your head thinking about the lack of Japanese backing sinking the super best friends ship.
The barring of the transporters is suppose to save face for Honda, but I’m not seeing it that way myself. It only shows the heartlessness of the Honda way.
Does it cost anything to park the transporters in the paddock? If the team is folding this weekend at least they can throw a going away party for them.
The idea behind the customer cars was to make it more accessible for lower funded teams to participate in F1. I don’t see it as one of Maxine’s worst rules or damaging to the sport. The pillaging of the TV rights is Maxine’s biggest crime against racing, hang him for a true crime instead of making up excuses that don’t hold much water.
I think we need to make some t-shirts saying how much faster Ferrari is now they don’t have to share their setups with another silver Ferrari.
Mo, I left it out so you could have the pleasure of pointing it out for our readers.
As for the idea of customer cars, I tend to agree with the concept. My point about Max “please punish me dear” Mosley was he tried to unilaterally mandate the concept, and Honda, Red Bull and Prodrive all bought (with millions of dollars) into the idea.
Hey, as far as who “setup” Maxy baby, why not throw Dave Richards into the fray as well as Ron, or Herr Matschitz, and Berger. Or maybe it was Ninja operation by Suzuki Aguri to get even for where his team is now, parked in a lot outside Istanbul, looking in. They all stand to loose millions because of their misguided faith in Max’s decision to foist customer cars on the sport. Just like the millions of dollars he allegedly saved the teams by constantly changing the rules; from V10 to V8, to two race engines and rev limiters, and now millions more will be spent on ERS.
Now you’ve got the tin foil hat tuned to perfection George.
Your right about every point you’ve made on the rules changing.
All of us long time fans have been upset about the lack of innovation F1 has been forced into. It is slowly being turned into just another spec series.
Remember some of those rules were supposedly made to even out the competition.
If you look at the ALMS and it’s constant fiddling with the rules while the season is going it almost makes F1 rules look stable. The rules makers of any series are always going to be the bad guys in someone’s eyes. In F1 Maxine, at the behest of Bernice, have ruled with an iron fist. Almost the same as the France family’s grip on NASCAR. The FIA is a private company and has the right to govern itself as it sees fit.
It is past time for a group of racers to either take back the FIA or create a new governing body and go to war with the FIA.
Maxine is not the only culprit in the crimes against true racing, but getting rid of him is a good start. I am more than happy to join the bandwagon to evict the slimey bastard. We have many reasons in common why we feel that he needs to go.
I prefer to let Maxine sort out his personal life in his own time. As in the cases Peter brought up (Watergate, Monicagate), the true evidence will eventually emerge as it did last year with Mclaren. I am more than willing to eat all of my previous posts if it was proven that Maxine requested this little party with all the costumes. If he was unaware if the costume party until he arrived yet still participated he is still a bit weird. If I were put in his shoes and had the same opportunity to party like it was 1944 with 5 good looking consenting women of legal age it would be hard to say “no I don’t like the way you girls party” But that will probably help explain some of my weird posts. I don’t speak German so the party I attend would be more like an episode of Hogan’’s Hero’s than anything else.
P.S. Isn’t there a disclaimer on some of these Viagra type products that say “”ïf an erecrtion lasts for more than 4 hours seek medical attention immediately”?
I think he may have another lawsuit to ponder there. Those slimey whores should have carted him off to the hospital and had him checked after 4 hours.
In reality I think the only people who set up Max were the hookers themselves. Max has admitted he does this several times a year, who else could have the camera operational within the “dungeon”? Remember, they’re hookers who will do things for money.
PS- He spent most of his 4 hours spanking, getting spanked and having himself inspected for lice. The hookers stated he could barely perform where and when it counted.
so your saying he should sue Viagra for false advertising?
[peterg-rolls-his-eyes] Back on the topic of this thread.I can see both sides of the coin.The customer car concept would have been great for F1 as we all know that it is basically impossible to set a team up from scratch (unless your Toyota). As a F1 fan this is a easy concept for me to accept.
However, if I were Frank Williams I would be screaming from the highest hilltop. His logic that the idea of just walking in to the sport, without paying for the 30 odd years of investment he put into building his operation & then devaluing that entity is understandable…….if your in Frank’s shoes.
Now we go back to watching the same old teams & the same old backmarkers. Long term I dont think this is good for the sport. A competitive Prodrive, Torro Rosso & Force India would have been great.
BTW, how long before Berger & Materschitz sell the Red Bull B-team? Were it not for the collapse of the customer car regs they would have already sold to Texeria. He wanted a F1 team to place his A1GP champions in………. Pity.