Hey there! Thanks for dropping by my blog! Take a look around and grab the RSS feed to stay updated. See you around!

Posts tagged with "Anthony"

Formula BMW Europe Primer for Silverstone Viewers

December 4, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized by Alianora_La_Canta — 0 Comments
Warning! Long entry alert!

Note: I do not consider this to be completely finished, but am posting this because it is unclear whether I'll get time to finish prior to Silverstone.

This is the second in a four-part series (the first, on GP2, can be read here). Formula BMW Europe, one of the feeder series for F3, is the subject of this entry.

Formula BMW Europe is in its second year of existence, having been formed by an amalgalation of Formula BMW UK and Formula BMW Germany. Everyone uses a BMW/DesignworksUSA/Mygale chassis, BMW engine and tyres supplied by Michelin.

Of the non-guest drivers who left Formula BMW last year, their destinations were:

- 1 to World Series by Renault
- 5 to F3 Euroseries
- 1 to British F3 (International)
- 1 to F3 Sudamericano
- 2 to Formula Renault UK 2.0
- 1 to Formula Renault UK
- 1 to Toyota Racing New Zealand

Bruno Juncadella may still be racing, but I couldn't figure out where. His brother Daniel is in Formula BMW this year, though.

Thomas Hillsdon, Bastian Graber, Asad Rahman, Kyle Mitchell, Anthony Comas and Juan Cevallos do not appear to be racing anywhere in 2009. Junior formulae can be harsh testing grounds.

The highest-positioned 2008 competitor in the championship this year is Michael Christiansen (who came 6th), who is very much a championship contender this year.

Points are awarded for the first 15 places, in a format of 30-24-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. There is also 1 point for pole in each race. The team and driver points do not match up, even on the BMW official site, and no clear reason is given for this.

Teams generally have three drivers each, rather than the two more usual in higher single-seater formulae.

Roster

Eurointernational
Current 2009 position: 1st (91 points)

Felipe Nasr
Current 2009 position: 1st (110 points)

Daniel Juncadella
Current 2009 position: 4th (76 points)

Olivier Lombard
Current 2009 position: 13th (15 points)


Josef Kaufmann Racing
Current 2009 position: 2nd (62 points)

Robin Frijns
Current 2009 position: 3rd (79 points)

Facundo Regalia
Current 2009 position: 10th (27 points)

Kazeem Manzur
Current 2009 position: 11th (24 points)


Mücke Motorsport
Current 2009 position: 3rd (43 points)

Michael Christensen
Current 2009 position: 2nd (80 points)

Timmy Hansen
Current 2009 position: 14th (14 points)

Jack Te Braak
Current 2009 position: 19th position (5 points)


Eifelland Racing
Current 2009 position: 4th (40 points)

Jazeman Jaafar
Current 2009 position: 6th (44 points)

David Mengesdorf
Current 2009 position: 7th (36 points)


Fortec Motorsport
Current 2009 position: 5th (27 points)

Jack Harvey
Current 2009 position: 5th (59 points)

William Buller
Current 2009 position: 17th (7 points)


Fisichella Motor Sport International
Current 2009 position: Equal 6th (13 points)

Ramon Pineiro
Current 2009 position: Equal 11th (16 points)

Doru Sechelariu
Current 2009 position: Equal 11th (16 points)

Kevin Gilardoni
Current 2009 position: 23rd (1 point)


DAMS
Current 2009 position: Equal 6th (13 points)

Jim Pla
Current 2009 position: 8th (30 points)

Javier Tarancon
Current 2009 position: 9th (28 points)

Côme Ledogar
Current 2009 position: 18th (6 points)


Motaworld Racing
Current 2009 position: 8th (6 points)

Ollie Millroy
Current 2009 position: Joint 15th (8 points)

Mikkel Mac
Current 2009 position: 21st (4 points)


Raikkonen Robertson Racing
Current 2009 position: 9th (4.5 points)

Rupert Svendsen-Cook
Current 2009 position: Joint 15th (8 points)

Gregoire Demoustier
Current 2009 position: 22nd position (3 points)
Read More & Comment
​

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
Read More & Comment
​

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.
Read More & Comment
​