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Posts tagged with "Albers"

Thursday Thoughts - Blogging

December 2, 2010
Filed under: Site by Alianora_La_Canta — 0 Comments

Date: March 4 2010

 

The inspiration for this blog entry is this week's Thursday Thoughts question, posed by Maverick at Sidepodcast:

"Which blog article or articles have you written that you were most pleased with writing and why?"

This is a tough question for me. In the 1301 days since I started blogging, I've written hundreds of entries, some of which have pleased me greatly for different reasons.

In chronological order, the blog entries that have most pleased me are:

Renault and long-term driver strategy - April 29, 2007

This entry broke some boundaries for me. I'd happily discussed general F1 matters, stuff I'd done and stuff relating to Spyker, but this was the first time I'd done a blog entry at length on a team with no particular connection to the one I supported. Also, it was the most speculative blog entry I'd done up to that point.

Writing the entry entailed a lot of consideration of consequences and getting into the mindsets of various people to figure out what the situation was most likely to become. Getting my first link from another blog gave me a lot of confidence (thank you, Ollie!) It was also the entry that "launched" the blog into the minds of readers and established its reputation - I'd been writing articles nearly nine months with a readership in single digits up to that point.

To celebrate, I've reserved April 29 for Renault strategy discussions ever since. One Year On and Two Years On describe Renault's path to stagnancy pretty well, but I feel neither of them are quite as good as the original.

Spyker, Albers and the search for profits - July 10, 2007

This was the first time I felt that I'd managed to make a series work (later entries include driver speculation, sponsorship cookery and a thinly-veiled bit of Winklehock cheerleading. It wasn't a formal series; it just so happened that the Albers affair inspired me to write large amounts about the intersection of money and driving.

As Media Collide (Part 1) - October 26, 2007

I really enjoyed doing the thinking for this one and the ideas just flowed onto the screen. Unfortunately the FOM haven't implemented any of these ideas yet... (Oh, and it's a three-part series, with instalments on the FIA and Mosley on TV).

OK, Now I Believe The Rumour - January 10, 2008

Scoop by hairdo. That is all.

Racing For Ethics - February 24, 2008

This is my favourite blog entry of all. It started out with a news story, steamed in my head for three weeks and after a lot of passionate typing, resolved itself as a call for morality unfolding through the prism of festivals gone wrong, business "ethics" and counter-productive visas.

I felt incredible after I'd finished. Even more so when I saw that my research had caused fellow fans' thinking, and possibly behaviour, to change. Two years after I wrote it, I still smile - and try, so far in vain, to write so well again.

Pros and Cons of Driver Hierarchical Arrangements - July 16, 2008

This was an entry where I felt I made a distinctive contribution to the understanding of a concept in F1. I looked at how teams tended to structure their driver arrangements, categorised them and drew up advantages and disadvantages. While that may sound simple, it is also something I've not seen elsewhere before or since - and something that goes a long way towards explaining the diversity of driver arrangements seen on the grid.

It still doesn't explain everything about them though. Or why I still haven't got round to writing the driver-culture link entry...

Advantages Of Travelling By Rail Instead Of By F1 Car - September 25, 2008

Of the humorous pieces I've written for my blog, this is probably the one that will date slowest. The sheer absurdity of the analogy helped a lot.

Re-Analysing The Championship Duel - November 16, 2008

As soon as I picked up the question of whether Massa had lost through misfortune or something more arose, I knew there was going to be a good blog entry in it. The analysis was a lot of fun and there was a nice mathematical edge to the whole thing. I even ended up attempting to discuss objective v. subjective interpretations of Singaporean performance (in Portuguese) on a Brazillian blog (not easy considering I didn't even have my own Portuguese dictionary at that point...)

Leavetakings

When Honda left F1... ...I found myself thinking a lot about why manufacturers bother doing F1. While it didn't do much for my December 2008 theme of thanksgiving, I felt that it explained the whole sorry affair rather well. Thankfully, Honda did get a buyer as I'd hoped at the end of the article.

(There are some stupid sticky trackbacks here that I can't remove Sad )

My Silverstone Trip (Saturday) - June 30, 2009

My first full live F1 weekend made a huge impression on me. There's an entire swathe of entries about it, covering Thursday, Friday, Sunday and fuel stints.

Saturday, though, was the one I felt captured my feelings and the atmosphere of a magical weekend best. I think I managed to convey that whole sense of a special, shared sporting spectacle.

Fisi To Ferrari - An Emotional Moment

Any topic involving my favourites tends to read fairly well. However, this one was particularly tricky to write because I felt so many conflicting emotions... ...but I couldn't not write about something having that big an effect on me. The resulting entry expresses the bittersweet happiness pretty clearly.

Analysis of the 2010 Technical Regulations

FIA regulation documents, although frustrating, work well for me. They also seem to flow better each time. That said, this document almost defeated me - which made me particularly pleased when the result worked so well as a document.

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Spyker Albers and the search for profits

November 26, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized by Alianora_La_Canta — 0 Comments

Date: July 10 2007

 

[ Mood: Embarrased ]
[ Reading The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett et al Currently: Reading The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett et al ]
Warning! Long post alert!

What has been suspected for a long time by many in the forums was confirmed this morning - Christijan Albers will not finish 2007 with Spyker. Granted, I thought Ralf Schumacher would be out of Toyota before this happened, but given Alber's recent well-publicised problems, including the now-infamous fuel-rig aero test.

That said, it appears that nothing Christijan did on the track contributed to his dismissal. According to the official statement, Michiel Mol decided on this course of action because "it enables Spyker F1 Ltd. to safeguard its strong financial footing needed to fulfil its technical and commercial goals." In other words, this is all to do with money.

Talk about washing your dirty linen in public!

Spyker are almost certainly telling the truth when they say money talked. For one thing, it is rarely in a team's interest to say in public that they cannot afford one of their drivers. It puts sponsors and suppliers alike on edge, and two things any team needs are confidently generous sponsors and suppliers. If sponsors worry that their investment is going to sink without trace, they are liable to abandon ship at an early opportunity. Suppliers that cannot assume payment of their services are less likely to extend the credit that teams often need to get from one month to the next.

In fact, I suspect that a sponsor lacking confidence may have been ultimately responsible for Christijan's exit. The sponsor in question is believed to be Mingya European Resort, which F1-Live.com thinks is over $1m in arrears. Obviously, this figure is unlikely ever to be confirmed, but it should be noted that this company is a Spyker sponsor as well as an Albers sponsor. This leads me to believe that Spyker sacked Christijan to wake Mingya up to its responsibilities.

This theory is not the only reason why I believe money rather than underperformance sealed Albers' exit. Spyker is F1's lowest-income team, even though it is a manufacturer squad. Recently, Spyker announced the car company could be de-listed from the Dutch stock exchange as a result of the current restructuring. This restructuring is necessary because Spyker is a very small manufacturer with a precarious financial balance. In fact, unconfirmed rumours persist to the effect that Spyker F1 is propping up the road car operation. While I sincerely hope this is not the case, my gut feeling tells me this situation may indeed be the case.

If this rumour is only slightly true, there would be a lot of pressure for Spyker F1 to raise more money than it actually needs for itself. Since Spyker F1 intended to be funded largely by Spyker Cars, this is a serious problem. Imagine, for example, what would happen if Toyota F1 were asked to send money over to the Toyota Motor Company instead of receiving the expected money from there. You would probably see the team principals pull out and sell the team off pretty sharpish (ensuring that they themselves either went with the company or got a profitable nest egg for retirement purposes out of the deal).


It is a mark of the Spyker management's tenacity that they have not gone down that route. However, the team cannot run on fresh air, and sacrifices are being made as a result. Though sacking Albers probably wasn't as much of a sacrifice as Mol believes it to be.

As for replacements, I believe the monetary basis for Albers' dismissal itself reduces the possible candidates to three - van der Garde, Karthikeyan and Klien. Of the three, van der Garde has tested for Spyker despite a start-of-season tussle with Super Aguri over the guy signing two contracts. Jean Alesi may famously have done the same when he signed for Williams and Ferrari for 1991 (Ferrari sent Williams a car in apology when Jean eventually chose the latter), but this does not mean van der Garde is as fast. However, he seems destined to find this out the hard way, by being slower than Sutil in a Spyker...

Karthikeyan would probably be able to muster more money than van der Garde, but he's at Williams as secondary tester and he doesn't appear to have made recent contact with Spyker. However, this could be because he knows the team well from his Jordan stint in 2005 and doesn't have to be obvious to get the initial negotiations done. Remember he came out of the blue to get the 2005 drive as well. Whether Frank Williams would allow this without financial compensation is another matter, and Spyker F1 is probably not in a position to pay a transfer fee. Maybe next year, Narain...

As for Klien, he's been spotted at the Spyker factory, and something tells me this wasn't for a social chit-chat. In fact, it could have been for a seat fitting, in which case he might already have the seat subject to financial considerations. However, I have my doubts as to whether he has the necessary backing to do the rest of the season. A test at Spa this week, however, is entirely possible, so don't be surprised if you see him there then. This will put more pressure on van der Garde to meet or exceed Spyker's demands if he wants his "charmed life" reputation to remain intact. What this will do to Klien's long-term Honda prospects remains a mystery - and given Honda's reluctance to allow Anthony Davidson to do more than test for other teams, Klien may not get a choice about his seat for the rest of the year.

I will probably write more on Albers later on. However, my fingers are getting tired, so I think I'll just let you read this post and comment on it Wink
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Albers Spyker (again) and the search for a replacement driver

November 26, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized by Alianora_La_Canta — 0 Comments

Date: July 17 2007

 

[ Mood: Beating a Dead Horse ]
[ Reading The Ship Who Won by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye Currently: Reading The Ship Who Won by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye ]
This entry follows on from the Spyker entry I did last week.

At some point today, I expect Spyker to state who will be their driver for the rest of 2007. The candidate list appears to have narrowed to three, if you believe the speculation.

Pitpass points out that Narain Karthikeyan "had a chat" with Colin Kolles, and given that he's not done a lot of driving for Williams this year, you have to assume the chat wasn't purely social. We know that Spyker needs more money if it is to be competitive - or even supply the requirements of the car company that is its parent - and I was impressed by his speed in the first part of 2005.

That said, his technique kinda fell to pieces in the second half of the season, and I don't know whether the testing he's done for Williams will have sharpened his edge enough to make him the best candidate. Also, Frank Williams is unlikely to relinquish his secondary tester easily, given that he brings a lot of sponsors to Williams (which is an independent team and needs all the sponsors it can find).

Spyker are considering Klien as well. We know this for a fact, because Klien has tested for Spyker. He did pretty well too, though it's difficult to tell how well, given that every team has different objectives when testing. However, he was much better than Giedo van der Garde, which is as good a reason as any to throw van der Garde off the shortlist. Klien's strong points also include being the most experienced driver on the candidate list. The catch is that he probably doesn't have significant funding and Nick Fry has a track record of not letting testers go without strings attached (ask Anthony Davidson).

That most reputable of rumour machines, Bild, thinks that Winklehock will drive next race. He would be my preferred choice - he looks fast, is familiar with the Spyker and doesn't have to be negotiated out of a test seat. However, even he admitted (to a site called f1grandprix.it that I've never heard of before) that he doesn't have enough sponsorship money for the season.

There is another point in his favour, though - one that proves that mid-season sackings are always messy. Christijan Albers may be starting legal proceedings against Spyker (as if we didn't have enough high-profile court cases in F1 at the moment!) Christijan claims that his drive had a guarantee clause that meant that in the event of a sponsor default. With Mingya claiming it hasn't sponsor Albers or Spyker for some time (despite signage on this year's car), this is set to run and run in the background.

The point of stating all this is that there is a theoretical chance that Albers may claim unfair dismissal and ask for his seat back. The compensation Spyker would have to pay Christijan if his or Mingya's claims are accurate would probably exceed the amount of spare cash Spyker has got. It is possible that Spyker may therefore have no choice but to take Christijan back for the duration of the contract. I would not like to be at Spyker if that happened. However, any contract Spyker enters into now has to have provision to remove the substitute driver in case Albers has to be placed in the team. This is a point that goes heavily in Winklehock's favour.

My tip? Winklehock for the minimum amount of time needed to sort out the Albers debacle, followed by either Albers or Karthikeyan for the rest of the season. Klien will use the lost opportunity as leverage to negotiate a race seat at Honda or Super Aguri for 2008, and Albers will not be seen in F1 after 2007 regardless of what happens next.
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