Max Says Carmakers In Cuckoo Land

Max Mosley dimisses the Framework for Post 2007 GP Racing as a mere fairytale. So reads this story here on F1Racing.net. Max says : "It reads like a fairytale -- wealth for all and beautiful weather every day." Furthermore, he calls the recent boycott of the teams meeting in London as "silly" and "childish."

Quite rightly though he points out that there are no concrete action plans and agreements in place to put that vision to reality. But Max, old boy, what is so wrong with wealth and beautiful weather for all? Should GP Racing simply remain the premise of you and your collaborators, Bernie and Luca alone? The framework I believe should represent the ideals of competing in GP Racing. An objective or mission statement. A constitution if you will, that serves the basis for future discussions and regulations.

I put further that the lack of such a framework or constitution is the reason we have all these silly rules put in place right now. One tyre per weekend, two weekend engines, one lap qualifying to name a few. And what about such proposals from Max as age limits for Formula 1 drivers? Amusingly, such limits do not apply to the team's number one driver. Obviously to keep Michael Schumacher, Formula 1's oldest driver in the game. It is you who are "silly" and "childish" Max. As one reader of PlanetF1 was moved to say, age limits should be set on Max himself! I thought former FISA Jean Marie Balestre was biased. However, I cannot recall this level of silliness that Max displays today.

Max and Bernie are confident though that post 2007, all of these guys will be back on the grid. They do have history on their side though. When Bernie led the FOCA rebellion against FISA in the 80s, FOCA started a breakaway series called the World Professional Drivers Championship. Albeit it only held a single race and it was a failure at that. Nevertheless, it forced FISA to continue their discussions with FOCA that resulted in the Formula 1 you see today, overseen by the Concorde Agreement. So will the manufacturers cave in to Max and Bernie this time?

Formula 1 2005 Prospects

Less than 5 weeks remain before Melbourne and the start of another season. Thank god for that. The lack of racing action on Sunday is really killing me. For the fans, this could be quite a good year and I'm betting it ought to be better than the last. So many teams have so much to deliver.

Let's start with BMW. This is I think their sixth season in Formula 1 with Williams. Their last successful bid for the championship was 1983 with Brabham and Nelson Piquet. The board at BMW must be getting extremely nervous. True, they have managed to outperform Mercedes most of the time but that just isn't good enough to justify the enormous amounts of dosh spent on the F1 programme. By now, they should have had at least one championship in hand. Williams know that this year they have to deliver the goods. Frank Williams, Patrick Head and Sam Michael have publicly admitted that there can be no mistakes this year. You can see it in the design of the new car. Good looking but conventional in contrast to last year's walrus. If they don't take the championship this year, I think Johanna Quandt's men are going to start thinking about pulling out. So obviously Mario Thiessen and Frank Williams are going to go balls out.

Renault declared at the launch of the R25 that they are targetting to win the world championship this year. They have a brand new engine and some neat tricks in their new challenger and it generally looks alright. I'm not sure if a world championship winning performance is in its repetoire but never underestimate these French blokes. They can pull a surprise when you least expect it. Cast your minds back to 1991 when Williams Renault put in a mighty bid for the championship surprising everyone. They nearly took it too but for Ayrton's blistering start to the season. Still, Renault really MUST deliver something. At least that same mighty bid for the championship. New Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn is not a big fan of Formula 1. His preference is for championships where Renault's road cars are directly involved like rallying or touring cars. Le Cost Cutter I'm sure has warned Patrick Faure that the rabbit had better come out of that hat real soon else its the cleaners for everyone. Need I say more? Renault too are going to go balls out.

This brings us to McLaren. Its been 6 years since Mika Hakkinen's last driver's title. 7 years since the constructors championship was last won. They've been beaten time and again by BMW Williams. The situation cannot continue for too long I would imagine. Mercedes used to have a reputation for being an unbeatable juggernaut in the 30s and 50s. Now, FIAT is running them to the ground time and again. Their form in testing recently has been quite good. The new MP4/20 in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen and Alex Wurz have been blisteringly fast at the Valencia test. Kimi setting the fastest lap in the whole test session despite running mammoth number of laps. One can say that their testing form was great last year but look what happened. Thats true but generally I believe they are looking far better. The drivers seem to be happier this year than last. The ever optimistic Mercedes bosses seem even more pleased this year than ever. Even Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella admits McLaren and Ferrari are probably the ones in front this year. God I hope he's right. I'd have a reason to smile this season. I just hope all this business with Dubai F1 will not get in the way.

BAR are looking solid again this year with their new 007. Although the Honda's reliability is looking suspect, generally they are going quite well and seems to be on the pace with the Ferraris. After a great last season, they would do well to repeat the feat again this year. The way McLaren and Williams are going, I doubt it though. Last year I believe was more of a case of McLaren and Williams fumbling about than BAR topping them. This fact can be illustrated that it was consistency that brought the spoils to BAR last year. McLaren, Williams and even Renault I believe had more pure pace. All these teams won races. BAR did not. It'll be great to see how they do without David Richards but I'm sure the Honda management will produce good things. Geoff Willis is an excellent technical director and BAR I think have a lot of innovations on that car. I'd like to see them do well again.

You can never discount Ferrari. They may have been outpaced comprehensively by McLaren at Valencia last week but after 5 drivers title on the trot would you bet against them? Or more to the point, would you bet against Michael Schumacher? They are starting the season with the brilliant F2004, suitably altered to comply with the latest regulations. Juan Pablo Montoya thinks this is a mistake. He might be right. Although Frank Williams is openly worried that Ferrari are up to something and Rory Byrne just might have dreamt up something really innovative and spectacular for the F2005. Michael Schumacher in this article on PlanetF1, thinks its going to be hard work. But then he always says that doesn't he, before he hammers the opposition to dust. Rubens Barrichello isn't one to be worried. He's dismissed the Valencia test as a blip. Ferrari he says don't test there regularly and they haven't been spot on with the tyre choices in Spain. No worries according to him, come Melbourne, its business as usual. Much as I would prefer to see a McLaren cross the finish line in the lead I know this warning cannot be ignored.

Toyota are a difficult one to quantify. Jarno Turlli actually set a really quick time outpacing his surly team mate Ralf Schumacher. Jarno's best time was actually quicker than Michael Schumacher's best, prompting Ralf Schumacher to comment that the new car is better than expected. But then Toyota always does well in the winter world championships only to flounder during the summer. Its as if when they get to the actual race itself they are left lost without a clue. However, with more and more F1 experienced personnel replacing rallying and sportscar men under the leadership of Mike Gascoyne, they might do better this year. And they really need to. Toyota doesn't really need the F1 programme. They are after all the most profitable car manufacturer already. Public humiliation (especially humiliation heaped on by arch enemy Honda) in one of the most widely watched sporting events in the world is something they can do without.

The rest? Has beens. Jordan are in their final year as Jordan Grand Prix before being reborn as Midland F1 next year. Interestingly they have hired Narain Karthikeyan as a driver. Narain is quite highly rated. During the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix he outpaced teammate Takuma Sato in the Carlin Motorsport Dallara Mugen. And everyone agrees he'd slaughter Alex Yoong anytime, anywhere. He's also now got himself into a better team than Alex did. It must have been frustrating for him to watch Alex Yoong in Formula 1 embarrasing himself whilst he waited in the sidelines. Now he has his chance. I'd say its odds even he'll get the better of his team mate Monteiro in the other Jordan. Whether he'll go further in Formula 1 is entirely up to him but it is really going to be tough for him despite his talent. I hope Eddie Jordan will go down fighting. He won't be at the races this year apparently but with that Toyota engine behind the car, they'd be able to do some real damage if they had a chassis that was of the quality of the 1999 Jordan.

I think nobody expects Sauber to win anything. Ferrari simply won't let them. Still I wish the battling Jacques Villeneuve good hunting. He really deserves better than what he's got. I wonder if he'll let Michael Schumacher through if they end up battling for position. I suppose not but Sauber are the junior team after all. Ferrari can have them take their pants off anytime.

Last of course if poor old Minardi. Devastated by the pullout of Ford from Formula 1, they are of course going to struggle yet again. Paul Stoddart has been heard as saying that should someone want his team he wouldn't hesitate to let it go. With sponsorship hard to come by in this current economic situation, staying in Formula 1 is a heroic effort in itself. I think Minardi won't have anyone to race against this year now that Jordan's got those Toyota engines. I think the FIA should pay them to make up the numbers although there are some pundits who think that they should just go out and let people like Ferrari and Williams supply third cars to make the show much more interesting.

So there you have it. I think everyone is praying that this year will not be a repeat of the last. On the face of it, it looks like its going to be a interesting championship at least, if not a spectacular one. The battle lines aren't fully drawn until Ferrari put the F2005 on the grid, so McLaren et al would be smart to take full advantage of that. My tip for the championship? I'd have to say Michael Schumacher again. Although you'd get better odds and a reasonably good chance of winning if you place your money on Kimi. I'm just hoping for a good show.

Different Points Of View

In this part of the world magazines arriving from Europe usually arrive a month or two later. So it is with F1 Racing magazine that I read most months. The January 2005 issue of the acclaimed journal has a feature on the demise of Jaguar Racing. Of course, like a lot of people in the F1 world apparently, the magazine heaps praise on the founder of Pi Research and Jaguar Racing MD Tony Purnell and David Pitchforth. By the time the January issue went to press, news of their dismissal from Red Bull had not yet been made public.

F1 Racing has a good relationship with Tony Purnell. I remember a past issue urged readers to write to the FIA in support of the Purnell / F1 Racing qualifying proposal. That proposal was never a success and quite frankly, I didn't agree with it neither, but it highlighted the good relations between the two parties. F1 Racing magazine points out that it was Tony Purnell and David Pitchforth that stabilized Jaguar Racing after tumultous periods under the reigns of Niki Lauda and Bobby Rahal.

This isn't saying a great deal. Lauda had been advisor to Ferrari for ages but success never came whilst he was involved. Bobby Rahal is a person with some questionable judgement. The Rahal team competed in Indycars and was the works Honda team when Honda first became involved. During the course of their single season together, Rahal droppped his Honda engined cars in the Indy 500 and consequently dropped Honda altogether at the end of the year. The very next year, Honda completely dominated the scene. Rahal cited the need to pacify his sponsors in preference to a long term relationship with Honda. The very same Honda that had not long before that time, dominated Formula 1. A naive yank I'd call him. Even with my limited knowledge I just knew that Honda would repeat the trick in Indycars.

Now it has emerged though that Tony Purnell wasn't really the noble knight in shining armour that F1 Racing likes to potray him. Tom Rubython of Business F1 Magazine had some harsh words with regards Tony. Rubython's described Tony Purtnell's appointment to the head of Jaguar Racing as "catastrpohic." Purnell is branded as a "a political schemer with an ability almost akin to a conman to persuade people black is white and vice versa." Purnell according to some sources deliberately sabotaged the aerodynamics of the Jaguar R3 in order to usher the departure of Niki Lauda. In addition, it is alleged that Lauda's private documents were altered and fiddled with. Once dismissed he managed to get himself installed as Jaguar's MD.

Tom Rubython is Planet F1's Man Of the Year. He doesn't get an accreditation from the FIA because he steps on too many toes. His magazine is catered to sponsors and the money side of F1. But he tells it like it is apparently, whereas some magazines like F1 Racing likes to cozy up to the "establishment" and team bosses. Its obvious F1 Racing magazine cozies up to Tony Purnell. But given that Red Bull principal Dietrich Mateschitz has axed both Purnell and Pitchforth, perhaps the allegations made by Rubython does have some merit. Mateschitz cites the need to change the organizational structure of Red Bull to achieve a quantum leap of performance. Hence he says in this article in F1Racing.net, that's the reason for the duos departure.

I suppose the differing points of view can partly be explained by the relationships journos have with third parties. Witness one Nigel Roebuck of the highly respected Autosport magazine. His Fifth Column editorial in said magazine used to really infuriate me back in the days of Senna, Prost and Mansell. Nigel Roebuck and Alain Prost are clearly good mates. It shows in his articles. Reading him, you'd think that Alain could do absolutely no wrong at all.

The Australian Grand Prix season finale of 1993 was a good example. Senna won the race from Prost and Hill. It was Prost's final race of his career. Senna and Prost as you know hadn't been on speaking terms since 1989. At the podium for the Aussie Grand Prix however, Senna pulled Prost up to the top step and raised Prost's arm in a show of friendship and admiration. Not to Mr Roebuck's eyes. He branded the gesture as a complete fake, happening only because Prost was leaving. Later on of course, it emerged that Senna and Prost really were on speaking terms again and their friendship rekindled. Prost in fact was a pallbearer for the late Senna during his funeral. Not really that fake huh, Mr Roebuck. I guess Mr Roebuck must have been gutted to hear Prost himself admitting that Senna was better than him (at least during qualifying).

Whilst Mr Roebuck was cozy with Prost, everyone else knows just how political Alain can be. Like Schumacher, Alain's politics are very subtle. But you just know that he swung McLaren and Ron Dennis round his side when Niki Lauda and Keke Rosberg were his team mates. The always charging Keke simply couldn't get a look in at McLaren. After he left, he termed McLaren as Alain Prost's personal team. Prost couldn't do the same to Senna since he had Honda's support. Eventually outmanuvered by the Brazilian, Prost left for Ferrari extremely pissed off. Yet, I don't think Mr Roebuck because of his friendship with Prost ever saw it like that.

And so it is with F1 Racing and Tony Purnell. Views coloured by good relationships or maybe they are just different, like looking at one side of a coin. Whatever it is, one must always take these information with a pinch of salt. Yes, not even this Blog is free from bias I'm afraid. I, too, have my preferences but I too, have different views on things. But hey, that's the great thing about a Blog. You can express your opinions. That's the whole point of Blogs. Some people I think simply don't get that point. Well, unlike Tom Rubython I think I'm still eligible for a pitpass. If I don't then I know that the establishment is taking this Blog seriously. I doubt it but I don't care. Hey Bernie how's about that pitpass?