Patresalboretangelis

Mi ricordo di quella livrea. Però i miei ricordi, potrei fare confusione però, mi riportano al gioco GP4, che originalmente era di default settato con le vetture della stagione 2001, undici scuderie. Quando apparve il "Mod stagione 2002", o comunque i lavori di progettazione per lo stesso,per riempire il "buco" lasciato dalla Prost, si fece la finzione di far restare la Prost immaginando quella livrea. Ripeto, potrei essere inesatto, perchè la prima volta che vidi la livrea, è stato nel 2005, quindi alcuni anni dopo. Comunque per fare luce sulle "fonti" che ho usato: grandprix.com forum atlasf1bulletin Vi metto la cronistoria presa da grandprix.com della storia Prost nei primi mesi 2002, ovviamente ci sono informazioni maggiormente dettagliate in materia: JANUARY 5, 2002 Two serious offers for Prost Grand Prix? THE protest by Prost employees at the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry drew attention to the team's plight - as it was intended to do. The Prost men said that they had little hope of any government assistance for the team but said that they hoped that the publicity would attract a big French company to rescue the team. One of the Prost men Franck Doyen told the media that the team has two serious offers but he did not give any details. Our spies in Australia say that the organizers of the opening round of the World Championship in March have been told not to expect 24 cars... JANUARY 10, 2002 Prost confirms (provisional) Ferrari deal ALAIN PROST has finally confirmed that his team will run with Ferrari engines in 2002 - if it survives the January 15 deadline which has been set by the team's legal administrator. Prost told Radio Monte Carlo that if he can find $40m there will be no problems for the year ahead. Prost said that he is also counting on Heinz-Harald Frentzen being the team's lead driver. This will come as bad news for Tom Walkinshaw who wants Frentzen for Arrows but will be great news for Australia as the Minardi team is thus likely to conclude a deal to run Mark Webber. Prost said that there were two or three options for the second driver but did not name names: one is thought to be Tomas Enge, Webber is another possibility and the third is thought to be a French driver, either Stephane Sarrazin or Jonathan Cochet. The deal is not yet done but after months of uncertainty there is a lot more positive feedback from Guyancourt. Whether the deal is completed remains to be seen but the signs are that Prost may yet be able to send cars to Melbourne. "It is just a matter of money," Prost said. JANUARY 11, 2002 Prost's second driver AS France waits for news as to whether or not Prost Grand Prix is going to be saved, there is speculation that as part of the deal the team will run a young French driver in the second car. Much will depend on who buys the team but the obvious candidates at the moment are three young men, only one of whom has actually raced in F1 before. Stephane Sarrazin is now 27 and has been waiting for a break to get into F1 for three years. In 1999 Sarrazin deputized for the injured Luca Badoer in the Minardi team in Brazil and did an impressive job until a front wing failure caused him to have a very large accident, although he emerged unscathed. He was the Prost test driver again in 2000 but had a bad year in Formula 3000 with the McLaren Junior Team and since then he has been struggling to keep his career going. Jonathan Cochet is younger than Sarrazin and won the French Formula 3 title in 2000. Since then he has acted as a test driver for Prost while racing only in a handful of international Formula 3 races. He has been very successful in these and his most recent victory was in Korea at the end of last year, where he beat all the 2001 stars of F3. The third man to watch out for is Franck Montagny. He is just 24 but has had to fight his way through the junior formulae in France. He was on course to win the French Formula Renault title in 1996 when he broke both legs in a big accident but then came back to win in Formula 3 in 1997, winning four races. In 1998 he won eight times but was beaten to the title by David Saelens who had use of the new Renault engine. He moved to Formula 3000 in 1999 but struggled for money in 2000 and this year decided to switch to the Spanish Formula Nissan Open series and won the title. He is due to test for Minardi next week at Valencia but could be in the running for the Prost drive. France, it should be remembered, has only one Grand Prix driver this year and Olivier Panis is no spring chicken. The arrival of Renault Sport should improve the situation for young French racers. JANUARY 15, 2002 Prost waits for the administrator to decide ALAIN PROST has done all he can do to save his indebted Formula 1 team and he is now waiting to see if the latest offer - which he says is worth around $40m - is enough to convince the team's legal administrator that the team can be saved. Prost owes around the same amount of money but says that the team is aiming to pick up more backing as it goes along. The administrator Franck Michel must now decide if this is a sensible solution. It is entirely up to Michel as to whether he thinks there is enough money to keep the team in business. In all probability he will let the business go ahead because the major debts will have been covered and the team has some income already pledged for the season ahead (including money from the TV fund and travel costs). There are many suggestions as to who is behind the attempt to save the team but clearly whoever it is not throwing money away. In exchange for the money being pledged, the new backers are expecting to get the majority of the shares in the team, although Prost may himself be kept on as a figurehead. _______________ JANUARY 16, 2002 Who goes where if Prost closes down? THERE continue to be suggestions that Alain Prost is going to be forced to close down his Formula 1 team later this week as the proposals he has put forward have not done enough to convince the judicial administrator Franck Michel that the team can survive. There have been reports that none of the offers are very serious and that Prost's last-ditch plan was to miss the 2002 season and try to make a comeback in 2003. In France speculation is rather more optimistic but it remains simply speculation. For most of the team the closure of Prost would be a disaster but there are a number of high level employees who would almost certainly be able to find jobs elsewhere. The technical team is generally fairly young in age and so more mobile than some others. Technical director Henri Durand has lived for 10 years in Britain while working at McLaren and if Prost does close down he is likely to be snapped up by another team (although it is not clear which team that might be). The team's managing-director is Spain's Joan Villadelprat. He lived in England for 20 years while working with a variety of F1 teams and it is quite possible that he would be welcomed back at Renault Sport, which he ran for Flavio Briatore in the old Benetton days. Also likely to find work in Britain is Sporting Director John Walton, who has worked with a variety of teams in the course of the last 20 years. Whispers suggest that Walton could end up at Minardi as the team is trying to pick up experienced F1 personnel at the moment. JANUARY 24, 2002 Prost is still in business THERE is a delay in the decision but that means that Prost Grand Prix is still in business. The court in Versailles says that it has received several similar proposals for partnerships in Prost. All of these seem to be structured in the same basic way with Alain Prost giving up equity to gain immediate funding to pay off the debts. Although no choice has been made by the court, which has asked for more information and guarantees to ensure the long-term future of the operation, it is clear that the decision is likely to be positive when it is finally announced on January 28. The court did however remind Prost that if the guarantees demanded were not good enough then the team would be liquidated. The effects of the decision are going to be felt first in the driver market with the resolution of the final seats for the F1 entry this year. If Prost survives Heinz-Harald Frentzen will stay. Jos Verstappen will thus stay at Arrows and so Minardi will have room for Mark Webber. This will leave only the second Prost seat up for grabs. Alain Prost has hinted that this might go to a Frenchman but it really depends on who buys into the team. If, for example, the team is taken over by, let us say, Flavio Briatore, it is safe to assume that he will want one of his drivers in the seat. Thus Webber could go to Prost and then Minardi would have to make a different choice. JANUARY 26, 2002 Prost going to the wall THE word on the street in Paris is that Prost Grand Prix is going to be liquidated on money, Alain Prost having failed to find a suitable package to save the team. This would mean that Prost himself will disappear from the F1 scene and Heinz-Harald Frentzen will be free to race for Arrows. It is thought unlikely that he will wait around any longer to see if there is to be a buyer for the assets of Prost. However the Prost-Ferrari package was obviously enticing enough to keep him from doing a firm deal with Arrows and so there might be some value in waiting to see as Heinz-Harald's salary this year is being paid by Jordan Grand Prix whether he races or not. "We do not have all the assurances that would allow us to continue under better conditions," Prost said on Friday, "but I will have fought to the end." JANUARY 28, 2002 Prost Grand Prix goes out of business THE Prost Grand Prix has been put into liquidation by a commercial court in Versailles after team boss Alain Prost failed to find a solution to pay debts of $28m. The company has been in receivership since the end of November but no rescue package has been possible to date. The assets of the team will now be sold off by the courts. JANUARY 31, 2002 Who will buy the Prost factory? THE biggest question since the collapse of Prost Grand Prix is what is going to happen to the team's 70,000 sq ft. factory in Guyancourt. Built in 1998 at a cost of $7.5m the Prost factory houses many of the machines that are needed for modern F1 engineering businesses. No team is expected to buy the factory but it could be a useful purchase for either of the Paris-based F1 engine companies. Asiatech is located not far from Guyancourt in a building it shares with the Peugeot Sport World Rally Championship program. The deal is a long-term lease arrangement and if Asiatech is considering staying in F1 for the long-term (and there has long been talk that ultimately the organization would like to buy an F1 team) it would be an idea to buy the Prost facility. Asiatech may have been one of the groups bidding for Prost Grand Prix although the team principals have said that they want to have a chassis operation based in Britain if and when they do acquire a team. The chance to buy the Prost facility could provide Asiatech with the chance to move to more modern facilities as the Peugeot Sport factory dates back to the 1980s. Asiatech could transfer all the machinery, which it owns, and end up with a much better working environment. However, Renault Sport might also be interested in buying the facility because the current factory at Viry-Chatillon was established by Amedee Gordini in 1965. It has been enlarged and modified on several occasions but this has meant that it is not as effective as a new facility might be. The facility at Viry-Chatillon cannot easily be enlarged because it is squeezed between an access road to the industrial estate and a motorway. It is decidedly unglamorous. The advantage of moving to the Prost facility is that this is located just around the corner from the Renault Technocentre and is much more in keeping with the glittering image that Renault likes to present to the world. The other major asset belonging to Prost is the windtunnel in Magny-Cours. This is only a 40% scale facility but it was upgraded in 1999. Prost had plans to replace it with a new bigger facility near Guyancourt and a site was chosen but there was never enough money to begin work. Inside the factory the team has a variety of machinery including autoclaves, five-axis cutting machines and computers all of which could be useful to either Renault of Asiatech. ___________ Fronte Arrows FEBRUARY 1, 2002 Chello struggling THE cable company United Pan-Europe Communications, the parent company of Arrows sponsor Chello, has announced plans to pay off $7bn of debt by issuing new shares, thus diluting the existing shareholdings. The company's share price is a fraction of what it was a year ago and the announcement is likely to drop the value of the company still further. UPC is being forced to make the move as it cannot make interest payments on its debts. FEBRUARY 5, 2002 Walkinshaw loses in court (again) THE Court of Appeal in London has rejected the appeal by the Arrows Formula 1 team against a ruling in February last year that the team should pay Pedro Diniz $700,000 in compensation after it failed to convince a court that Diniz broke his contract with Arrows at the end of 1998. The court ruled that was the team was "in breach of certain provisions of the contract and that the defendant (Diniz) was therefore entitled to terminate in the way he did". Arrows appealed the decision but that appeal has now been rejected and the team have to pay up unless it wants to take the case to the final court of appeal in Britain, the House of Lords. FEBRUARY 4, 2002 Who goes where from Prost GP? THE liquidation of Prost Grand Prix will free up a number of team personnel to work with other Formula 1 teams. The team's managing-director Joan Villadelprat will be one man who should soon be snapped up. He ran Benetton for most of the 1990s before trying to establish his own team with backing from Telefonica. The bid to buy Minardi failed and so Villadelprat moved to Prost. It is possible that the new Renault F1 team would like to have him as part of the team. Prost technical director Henri Durand is also likely to be a man in demand as he spent 10 years with McLaren before moving to Prost as technical director last year. Durand was not able to have much influence on the Prost AP04 but his development work in the course of the season did improve the performance of the car. A number of top teams are believed to be interested in signing the Toulouse engineer, who came out of French space program in 1984 to join Ligier. He went to Ferrari in 1987 and worked on the revolutionary 639-640 chassis before moving to McLaren in 1990. Also worth watching will be Prost's chief designer Jean-Paul Gousset, a man who came to F1 from the Citroen rally raid program in 1993 when he joined Team Lotus. After Lotus closed he worked in research and development at Lotus Engineering before being taken on by Arrows. He then moved on to Prost. Prost's chief track engineer Vincent Gaillardot was also a former Arrows man after cutting his teeth with ORECA, DAMS and Renault Sport. Gaillardot is rare in that he is qualified both as a chassis and a motor engineer. While at Renault Sport he worked with Williams, Ligier and Benetton so he is widely known in the F1 paddock. Another man who may be in demand is composite specialist Ian Thomson who spent nearly 10 years at Sauber before moving to Prost. The other point of note about the closure of Prost is that it will free up John Barnard's B3 Technologies to work for other F1 teams. Barnard has not been able to do much in recent seasons because of a lack of budget but he remains one of the most influential thinkers in the sport and runs a tidy design and fabrication business in Shalford in the former headquarters of Ferrari Design and Development. FEBRUARY 8, 2002 Sponsor loyal to Verstappen, dumps Arrows WHILE Tom Walkinshaw and Arrows have abandoned Jos Verstappen, Dutch sponsor, Trust, will remain loyal to him. Verstappen's official website has posted a message saying that, in response to Arrows' decision to dump the Dutchman in favor of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the computer peripherals company has pulled out of their sponsorship deal with the team, and will continue to support Jos. FEBRUARY 8, 2002 Arrows forgets to tell Verstappen... JOS VERSTAPPEN has a right to be less than pleased with life at the moment but to add insult to injury he says he has not heard from the Arrows team that his services will not be required in 2002 - except by reading it on the team website. Although the Dutch media are reporting that Verstappen's manager Huub Rothengatter was surprised by the news this is not strictly the case as it had been expected that the team would break Verstappen's contract. Rothengatter has hinted that there will be legal action against Arrows. The team will not be intimidated by this as it seems to have at least one law suit going at any given moment - usually more. FEBRUARY 15, 2002 Arrows and the Verstappen/Frentzen mess A week after the signing of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and the firing of Jos Verstappen by Arrows without any comment by Tom Walkinshaw, the team boss has finally justified his decision to the world. "We wanted a driver who was capable of winning races and in the past had won grands prix, because it will provide us with no hiding place," said Walkinshaw. "It will be up to us to achieve results." "We wanted Frentzen because we feel we have a good car and we wanted to make the most of it." The F1 world knew these were his reasons, and saw the move coming weeks in advance, but it was not exactly professional protocol for Walkinshaw to tell Verstappen he was fired after he told the public. With all the race seats in F1 taken at the moment, Verstappen can now only hope a seat opens up during the season. In the immediate future, Verstappen has decided to pursue a claim against his former team in the courts, the Dutchman's manager, Huub Rothengatter, has confirmed. "We will start to have a substantial claim against Arrows and we are prepared to pursue this through the courts," said Rothengatter. "People think it is the end of the story but it is not. This has been very disappointing and we will take action that's for sure. What is the value of a signed contract? We did not just shake hands or smile at each other. It was a signed contract which had been registered at the contracts recognition bureau in Geneva." FEBRUARY 6, 2002 Buying the Prost design A number of Formula 1 teams seem to have found themselves in difficulties because they decided not to copy the Sauber aerodynamic principles which were introduced in 2001. Several teams tried the ideas in the windtunnels but did not find any substantial gains but they are now beginning to worry that they are going to be left behind as other teams have gone down the Sauber route and are going faster. It is reckoned that it will take a team three months and a great deal of effort to switch its cars to the Sauber suspension and aerodynamics, assuming that a design has been completed and all the necessary research and development has been done. In effect this means that a switch is impossible as it would take the best part of a season to complete the changeover. However, the fact that Prost designed a car with the Sauber front end but then had to abandon operations might open the way for a rival team to buy the intellectual property rights to the design and adapt the design to fit whatever engine is being used. This may sound strange but it would not be the first time that a team has bought the design from another. In the 1950s Ferrari acquired the design of the Lancia F1 car and it became a very successful Ferrari racer. In modern times Reynard's F1 design of 1991 was used by several F1 teams in the years that followed. FEBRUARY 7, 2002 Prost says US bid came close ALAIN PROST revealed in his outspoken interview with Autohebdo magazine that there were two American groups which bid to buy Prost Grand Prix. He said that one of them was serious and that the plan was for the team to remain based in France but with an American offshoot. Prost said that the deal did not come together as there was just not enough time left to get everything in place. FEBRUARY 7, 2002 Prost attacks ALAIN PROST has lashed out in an interview with the French weekly magazine AutoHebdo at those people who he feels bear some of the responsibility for the failure of Prost Grand Prix. Prost said that he was naive and made mistakes. "One of the mistakes I made was to be too nice to Peugeot," Prost said. "In 1994 Ron Dennis recognized immediately what was going to happen and broke the contract with them. That was easy for him because he had Mercedes-Benz waiting behind the door. My mistake was not to have the force of character to say: 'No". Prost said that five big companies all agreed deals but then failed to deliver the money promised. He claimed that Yahoo! signed a deal worth $100m over three years but withdrew after just a few months because of problems with the Internet economy. Prost said that one of his biggest mistakes was to hire Alan Jenkins as technical director. " I worked with him at McLaren," Prost said. "He was pleasant, open and available. When he was with me he was closed up and totally anti-French. He destroyed what Bernard Dudot had created within the team and with the suppliers. That was an enormous error of casting. A catastrophe that I ended as quickly as I possibly could." Prost was also very critical of his partner in 2001 Pedro Diniz, describing Diniz as being "not very serious, immature and Daddy decided everything". Prost claimed that on one occasion he had a meeting planned with Diniz and his lawyers to discuss the Brazilian buying the team and Diniz did not even turn up as he was "on his boat in St. Tropez". Prost also criticized the French government for its 35-hour week legislation and huge social charges when at the same time it is a 30% shareholder in Renault and allowed the company to buy Benetton Formula to get around these problems. Prost said that he was "disgusted by the way in which things happened" in France and said that he feels that he has a better understanding of "the Anglo-Saxons and even the Italians!" Prost also said that in four years the team underwent three tax investigations and one from the social security authorities. _____________ FEBRUARY 17, 2002 The Prost does not have a Sauber front end WE may never see the Prost AP05 in action but photographs of the windtunnel model reveal that the car does not have the Sauber-like front end aerodynamics. The team did complete one chassis and this went to through the FIA crash-testing procedures without any problems.There is not much chance of the team being revived but for the moment there is still the core of the company in place and a very impressive design staff headed by Henri Durand and Jean-Paul Gousset.

La Sauber ha deciso di far restare la dicitura "BMW" nel nome ufficiale della scuderia: Motorsport.com Peter Sauber has "not decided" when an application to change the name of his Hinwil based Formula One team will be made. In the wake of BMW's withdrawal and the collapse of the Qadbak buyout, the 66-year-old Swiss stepped in to rescue the team he founded in the early 90s.But in conversation with the Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag, Sauber revealed that formalising a new name for the team is "one of my smallest problems"."The team is currently called BMW Sauber F1 Team, because we registered ourselves as such with the FIA, and that's how we will line up."It is not decided at present when we will submit an application for a change of the name," Sauber, whose 2010 car will use a Ferrari powertrain, added. He also admitted to disappointment that, after 15 years with Petronas, the Malaysian company decided to switch its sponsorship to Mercedes for 2010 and beyond."We knew that Petronas wanted to be with an automobile manufacturer," said Sauber. "I am disappointed but not surprised."It has no direct impact on the budget for 2010, but of course it hurts. More money is always better, although of course we will try to have a title sponsor," he added. _____________ E forse, ha deciso di mettere sotto contratto De La Rosa, fonte motorsport.com Pedro de la Rosa is expected to be Kamui Kobayashi's teammate at Sauber in 2010, according to "Blick".The Swiss daily newspaper, with close ties to the Peter Sauber-led team, said the news is likely to be confirmed soon barring "an earthquake in Hinwil".Spaniard de la Rosa, to turn 39 next month, last raced full-time in 2002 with Jaguar. He already lives in Zurich, which is only a short drive from Sauber's team base.He has since been McLaren's main test and reserve driver, and the El Mundo newspaper said recently the British team had given him until the last day of 2009 to decide his F1 role for 2010.The Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag on Sunday quoted Peter Sauber as admitting only that "an experienced man" with "new knowledge for the team" has been signed to partner Kobayashi in 2010. He also all but confirmed that Nick Heidfeld is not the driver in question.

Circa le foto dovrei fare una ricerca, ma è abbastanza difficile trovarne, ci provai tempo fa. Prima mi sono espresso ambiguamente, Walkinshaw , a quanto dicono le fonti, sembra fosse coinvolto nel senso che aveva l'intenzione di fornire un aiuto "tecnico" - (per poi prendere le redini del comando a lungo termine, aggiungo io ndr). Mi paiono però strane queste indiscrezioni, quella dell' impegno preso su due fronti, visto che nel 2002 la Arrows di certo non se la passava bene e si senti' per tutta la stagione "odore" di ritiro. Una curiosità: il nome DART (Dunlop Automobile Racing Team) ricorda vagamente un altro acronomico della stessa sfera semantica, ARROWS . In più i motori "Arrows" erano i motori della compagnia di Brian Hart, che Tom Walkinshaw aveva rinominato "Arrows" ed usato nel 1998-1999. ___________________ Comunque ho trovato questo articolo, è in lingua inglese ed è datato 15 Febbraio 2002: When The Mole was a child he was fascinated by stories of smugglers and pirates and one of his favourite poems was Rudyard Kipling's "The Smuggler's Song". The Mole can still remember it now: "If you wake at midnight and hear a horse's feet, don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street. Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie. Watch the wall, my darling, while 'The Gentlemen' go by." The Mole has always found this to be good advice when dealing with pirates, spies, terrorists, smugglers, drug barons and all the other interesting people one gets to meet at dinner parties. It is also good advice when dealing with some of the people in Formula 1, although this is not to suggest that anyone in the paddock is in any way reminiscent of any of people involved in the above list of occupations. The Mole has found that some people in F1 are best if they are just left alone to get on with their wheeling and dealing because they get very upset if anyone asks too many questions. They then start throwing law suits. The Mole thought originally that Tom Walkinshaw was somehow involved in the Phoenix Finance Ltd story and as Thomas Dobbie Thomson Walkinshaw (as he is legally known) has a habit of going to the High Court when he does not agree with people The Mole felt that it was better to "watch the wall". The Mole is not perfect (despite what his mother used to say) and when Walkinshaw told the world that the whole business was nothing to do with him and that his only involvement with Phoenix was "to support the engineering side of it" The Mole realised that he had made a mistake. And so out went The Mole operatives to investigate the rather curious Phoenix operation. Charles Nickerson, the man behind (or in front of) Phoenix is a friend of Walkinshaw. In fact the two men have done much business together over the years. They were even team mates in touring car racing 20 years ago when Nickerson used to race under the pseudonym "Chuck Nicholson". The Mole's "watchers" have spotted Nicholson/Nickerson at a variety of F1 races in recent years. Usually he was hanging out in the Arrows motorhome. Suddenly, it seems, this quiet gentleman has been transformed into a whirling dervish of corporate gymnastics as he tries to turn himself into a Formula 1 team owner. Why a wealthy man who is probably now close to 60 would want to do such a thing is a bit of mystery, but it seems that he does and by all accounts he is expending a great deal of energy to make it happen, despite being told by the FIA, by Bernie Ecclestone and by the other team owners that he is wasting his time trying to turn a pile of Prost parts and some old Arrows engines into a racing team. Nickerson does not seem like a man who is often driven to desperate measures and this is the odd thing about the whole Phoenix business. If the organisation is so keen to compete in Formula 1 and has the money to do it, why is it messing about with all this secondhand material and sending cars off to Malaysia where they become impounded by the customs because someone has not thought the whole idea through? The Mole feels it would be infinitely more sensible to go along to the FIA and get a proper entry for the 2003 World Championship. The entry is available and one does not even have to pay for it. All that is needed is a deposit of $48m which is then refunded with interest in the course of the team's first season. If Phoenix does not have enough money it could always ask Walkinshaw for a good word at the bank as Tom has managed to convince his bankers to lend Arrows vast amounts of money in unsecured loans. Walkinshaw appears to have an impressive Midas Touch when it comes to bank managers. If Phoenix cannot afford to pay for everything, there seems to be little point in going on because even the smallest team is spending around $40m this year. So if Phoenix does not have the $48m necessary to enter the World Championship next year why on earth is it trying to botch together a racing team from leftover bits and pieces from defunct companies which were never competitive? One must add that time is an important issue as well. Walkinshaw may be helping out with technical things and staff but it is hard to see how he can do this for long as 2002 is a vital year for Arrows. The new car looks to be quite good when it manages to start a race but if it is not developed it will fade back towards the Jaguars and Minardis. Phoenix cannot use the Prost facilities in France and does not have its own headquarters at the moment. The logical thing to do, therefore, rather than wasting money on sending half-built cars to Malaysia and then having 30 people sitting around in a hotel with nothing to do, would be to use the time available to get things set up properly for 2003. Diplomatically, as well, the attitudes of Phoenix have been very poorly viewed in F1 circles. The sport is looking ahead to an era of clean-cut, efficient businessmen with nothing to hide and open attitudes. This is the future and yet here is Phoenix challenging the FIA, ignoring Bernie Ecclestone and sticking up a finger at rival teams. It is changing company names from Phoenix to D.A.R.T and then back to Phoenix for no obvious reason (although there presumably is a reason) and has produced documents purporting to prove things that it wants to prove but which oddly were not included in the original sale documents. In France the investigative journalists are so amazed by what has been going on that they are now looking very closely at the activities of the Prost liquidator and even the Prost creditors are demanding a judicial review. The result of it all is that Formula 1 looks at the whole sorry business with distaste. Even some of the less savoury people in the F1 paddock are saying that Phoenix is doing bad things for the image of the sport. Tom Walkinshaw must be delighted that he is not involved.

Franchitti ha rinnovato il contratto con Ganassi, mentre Hunter-Reay sembra si sia assicurato la partecipazione a tutte le gare prima di Indianapolis e le qualifiche della 500 Miglia con Andretti.

Alla fine del 2001 Alain Prost aveva debiti per un ammontare di circa trenta milioni di sterline. Il problema, evidenziato dallo stesso Alain in alcune interviste dell'epoca, si era dimostrato a partire dal 2000, anno in cui fini' il sodalizio con Peugeot e Gauloises, reperire un "grande sponsor". Il team andò in bancarotta, e nel Gennaio 2002 "Prost Grand Prix" fini' in liquidazione: fu fissata dal giudice Cosme Rogeau una scadenza per rilevare la società (circa trenta giorni, cioè entro la fine del mese successivo - Febbraio ndr). Un limite non da poco, visto che avrebbe potuto permettere al team di "rientrare" per gareggiare nel 2002. Però non arrivò nessuna offerta per rilevare la società, e si decise di vendere il team "a pezzi": materiali tra cui i telai AP04, e i diritti legati al Patto della Concordia. Il compratore, prezzo 2,5 milioni di euro, sembrò essere la società "Phoenix Finance Ltd", il cui rappresentante era impersonato da Charles J.Nickerson, un ex-socio di Tom Walkinshaw (all'epoca team manager della Arrows). La FIA bloccò l'operazione subito, sostenendo, sulla base delle relazioni del giudice di cui prima, che nè il nomenclatura, né la società erano stati assegnati, né l'iscrizione del team al campionato 2002 avanzata. Quindi, in definitiva, un' iscrizione irregolare. In un comunicato ufficiale, Nickerson scrisse che gli avvocati della FIA avevano operato un' interpretazione errata della sentenza del tribunale francese, e che la loro decisione era stata viziata dal fatto di non essere in possesso di tutte le informazioni corrette. Allegò anche una lettera del giudice Rogeau, dove si avvalorava la tesi che la Phoenix, oltre al materiale tecnico, aveva acquisito dei "benefits" (tra questi ricompresi i diritti di iscrizione). Contemporaneamente, in una conferenza tenutasi a Melbourne nella settimana pre-gp, Walkinshaw rivelò il suo personale coinvolgimento nell'affare Phoenix. Ecclestone ribattè a Nickerson, sostenendo che sarebbe stato impossibile pensare di vedere la Phoenix correre a Sepang. Tuttavia dopo il gp Australiano, tre giorni prima delle libere ufficiali della Malesia, si presentarono all'aeroporto di Kuala Lumpur circa trenta membri della TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing), due vetture blu (un misto fra due telai AP04 e retrotreno della Arrows A22), i motori V10 Hart-Arrows del 1998 e tre piloti : Mazzacane, Enge e Marques. Il team non raggiunse il circuito, eccezion fatta per Mazzacane: viene rifiutata l'iscrizione al gran premio, e la 'Phoenix' operò un cambio di nome ('DART' - nome di una vecchia azienda di Walkinshaw che operava nel settore degli pneumatici). Arrivò un comunicato stampa della 'DART' dove si esprimeva sopresa e sgomento per la decisione FIA, confermando però l'intenzione di voler emergere come scuderia in un futuro alquanto prossimo. In Brasile la FIA rifiutò ancora il team, argomentando sulla base del regolamento del Patto: un team non poteva saltare due gare ( non importava se consecutivamente o meno) a stagione, pena l'esclusione per tutta la durata del campionato. A sostenere la posizione intransigente della FIA, si aggiunse anche Stoddart. Infatti la Minardi avrebbe ereditato il decimo posto nella classifica costruttori - in base alla classifica 2001 (Prost 9° e Arrows 10°) ed al ritiro sopravvenuto della Prost dopo il 2001 (la Arrows zoppicherà per tutto il 2002, per poi ritirarsi dopo Australia 2003). Questo avanzamento di classifica ovviamente avrebbe significato soldi per Minardi European, quantificati in circa dodici milioni di dollari. La DART ricambiò il nome in "Phoenix", si appellò alla Supreme Court of the United Kingdom e "creò" una nuova vettura, denominata "AP05" - stesse componenti di quella di cui si è parlato prima in occasione di Sepang, con la differenza del motore, Ford stavolta. Sul fronte piloti, Marques avrebbe dovuto in teoria sostituire Thomas Enge, che nel frattempo ripiegò in F3000, prima dello sbarco in IRL. Il risultato fu che nel fine settimana di gara, si videro solo il motorhome, i piloti, i meccanici e quant'altro, ma non il posto assegnato in pitlane. Come colpo finale l'Alta Corte di Londa, respinse l'appello presentato contro la FIA, ordinando anche il risarcimento delle spese processuali a carico della "Phoenix". Come si è detto prima Walkinshaw voleva salvare baracca e burattini avendo preventivato il fallimento della Arrows, ed infatti il team fini' in un mare di debiti già nella prima parte di stagione (da Belgio in poi diedero forfait).

"Potrero de los Funes" ? il circuito che hanno costruito nel 2008? Quello che corre attorno ad un lago per intenderci... Grazie della precisazione, non sapevo ne esistesse un altro, di circuito, con lo stessa nomenclatura "San Luis"...

Si, vero! Quasi 6,6 km. A proposito, OT: ho saputo qualche giorno fa che il circuito di San Luis (quello argentino) è stato reinserito nel calendario 2010 FIA GT (ne parlavamo qui sul forum qualche settimana fa proprio con te, "S.Bellof") ____________ http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=353695&FS=FIA-GT) 12/12/'09 The FIA has ratified the Potrero de los Funes circuit in Argentina's return to the GT1 World Championship calendar, as predicted by this week's AUTOSPORT magazine. The dramatic semi-permanent circuit, near the city of San Luis, had been due to kick off the new championship in March before being axed for financial reasons. But now FIA GT boss Stephane Ratel has brokered a last minute deal to get the event back. "I went to the governor [of San Luis province] and said I wasn't prepared to leave it," said Ratel. "We have finalised a deal with Interlagos, so it made sense to have a Brazilian/Argentinian double-header." San Luis was first used by the FIA GT Championship in 2008, when its highly-challenging layout around a volcanic lake proved a huge hit with drivers. It was dropped this year as Ratel felt the additional cost of the long-haul trip would be tough for teams to afford in the last year of the existing rules package. The definitive World GT1 calendar approved by the World Motor Sport Council on Friday features 10 rounds rather than the 12 originally planned. The mooted Canadian meeting is no longer on the schedule, which means GT1 will not visit North America in 2010, and the Chinese and Hungarian events have also been shelved for next year. But the race in Durban in South Africa is still on the calendar, although it has moved from its original April date to November.

Tra l'altro a riguardo del gp di New York ho appena saputo che anche nel 2009 è stato avanzato un progetto (Zona di Central Park): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3251594 Quanto al progetto 1983 di Flushing Meadows, ho trovato una foto:

Altre foto: ]

Ti ringrazio per l'aiuto Gio, prenditi il tempo che vuoi... Riguardo la configurazione attuale di Long Beach, non mi piace granchè: nulla a che fare con quella di cui si è parlato poc'anzi del 1975. Tra l'altro mi è capitato di mano proprio un numero di Rombo dove c'era un articolo sulla prima gara assoluta di Cart a Long nel 1984, e mi è sembrato di capire che gli americani non vedessero tanto di buon'occhio quel gp. Certo il layout era stato snaturato nel corso degli anni - anche in F1 - e la Cart riprese più o meno quello usato nel 1983, eliminando la parte del "Gasometro". Poi c'era anche la diatriba per cui lo ritevano "uno scarto" della F1... Oggi, invece, è considerato uno dei gp storici del campionato, da preservare sempre e comunque come prova valida per il titolo (altri eventi come Surfer's , Elkhart o Cleveland non ce l'hanno fatta)..

Non c'entra con l'argomento "GP Roma", però con quelli di "circuiti", si: ho letto in Biblioteca qualche giorno fa, su alcuni Rombo del 1984 e 1986, alcune notizie su papabili circuiti dell'epoca: - in un Rombo (non ricordo il numero) del periodo Gennaio-Marzo si parlava di un calendario semiufficiale stilato, che prevedeva i primi tre gp, Brasile, SudAfrica e Belgio ancora in forse, mentre erano stati inseriti, tra Settembre ed Ottobre, rispettivamente, un gran premio - ennesimo - Usa a New York ed uno il 21 Ottobre da disputarsi a Fuengirola (ripetutamente spostato di mese in mese). Poi in un numero seguente ho letto dell'abbandono del progetto statunitense (ci fu poi la sostituzione con Estoril che debuttò). Ho controllato sul sito "gdecarli" ed effettivamente si dice che tra il 1983 ed il 1985 il gp fu inserito in calendario (primavera 1986 definitiva rinuncia), trovando però discordanze sulla mappa (Rombo non la riportava in quei due numeri che ho consultato). - Riguardo il gp di Fuengirola (Spagna), all'inizio i promotori erano decisi ad ospitare F2 e F1, in un Rombo del 1984 c'è anche un bel servizio fotografico di quel cittadino, oltre a vari, approfonditi aggiornamenti anche in altri numeri di mesi seguenti. - Si parlava anche di un inserimento di un gp ungherese a Budapest nel 1984 (7 Ottobre mi pare) con una location che però cambiò due volte. Fu scelto Népliget, ma non il tracciato usato nel 1936; non ho fatto in tempo a leggere altri numeri ma dal sito di decarli ho letto che per evidenti difficoltà di allestimento non solo fu abbandonata l'idea, ma anche che per circa due anni sono state proposte altri luoghi e conseguentemente altri tracciati, prima di scegliere Hungaroring. Nepliget doveva essere un semipermanente cittadino (un parco come Albert Park). - Si dice, però molto vagamente, che Ecclestone stava premendo per un gp svizzero da disputarsi in terra elvetica a Sion, (un aeroportuale con tanto di mappa), con ispezioni preventive anche di alcuni piloti di F1. Di tutti questi progetti (una piccola parte) di metà anni Ottanta , che testimoniano il grande fermento che c'era all'epoca per creare nuovi cittadini o permanenti e cercare nuovi mercati - un pò come adesso, solo che si è spostato il baricentro dell'interesse di Bernie - sono riuscito a carpire solo qualche sprazzo, insufficiente a comprendere l'intero iter di gestazioni di ognuno dei progetti elencati. Per caso, avreste la possibilità di reperire qualche scansione di Rombo o Autosprint concernente questi argomenti? Mi piacerebbe sapere, se per esempio Autosprint parla più approfonditamente di Rombo circa Sion, o se ci sono altri articoli (1985 e 1986) riguardo i tentativi di allestire il gp a Budapest, oppure anche rileggermi con calma i tre articoli su Fuengirola del 1984 di Rombo (Rombo 2/1984 (pag. 78) - Rombo 4/1984 (pag. 30) - Rombo 6/1984 (pag. 12) - Rombo 7/1984 (pag. 15) )... Grazie a tutti per la disponibilità.

E dunque sia ... Merry Christmas!

Uno degli innumerevoli eventi, verificatesi, che mi fa tornare in mente il tuo post sul coinvolgimento Brawn nella spy-story... Auguro a Michael di fare bella figura, anche se, obiettivamente, sar? difficile ritornare in piena forma (sempre che corra...)

Si ? vero, ha smentito nel primo pomeriggio.

Gerhard Berger team principal della Renault!! http://www.autotrader.co.uk/f1/story/0,25552,3213_5778761,00.html Il link non funziona. Vi riporto l'articolo apparso in quel sito.C'è qualcosa di simile anche su motorsport.com. Gerhard Berger is set to be named as Renault's team principal, according to reports in the French press.The Austrian, who won ten grand prix during his time as a driver, has previously worked as Competitions Director at BMW and until a year ago owned 50% of the Toro Rosso.Now, according to reports in French publication Auto Hebdo, Berger will take over the role of Renault chief.The French manufacturer recently sold a controlling stake in the team to businessman Gerard Lopez and his Genii Capital investment firm, securing its participation in Formula One for the immediate future. _____ "Auto Hebdo" sarebbe una rivista simil "Autosprint" o simil "Rombo" (defunto). ___________ Cade l'ipotesi Ho-Pin Tung in Renault. Motorsport.com A member of Ho-Pin Tung's management team has confirmed reports the Dutch-born Chinese is not guaranteed a race seat at Renault in 2010.27-year-old Tung tested the R29 recently at Jerez because he is managed by the Gravity Sports company. Closely involved with Gravity is Gerard Lopez, the new majority owner of the Enstone based Formula One team.Tung's manager Bert Winkler has admitted the possibility of a role at Renault for the Superleague and A1 driver.But Eric Bouiller, a director of Gravity, told the Dutch portal formule1.nl that Tung's link with Lopez is no guarantee of a seat next season."Of course we are working hard to get Ho-Pin into Formula One," he said, "but it is not automatic."It also has to be considered if he is ready, so that what happened with Romain Grosjean does not occur (to Tung)," Bouiller added.

La USF1 si ? assicurata il primo sponsor. http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=353908 ________ The new American entry USF1 has signed a long-term agreement with a supplier.The deal is with Umeco's Oklahoma-based Advanced Composites Group (ACG)."ACG's composites expertise will be critical for us to meet our goals and expectations in 2010 and beyond," said team principal Ken Anderson.Of F1's four new teams for 2010, USF1 is the only team yet to announce at least one driver.

Dovrebbe trattarsi di Yvelines Flins-Les Mureaux, a circa quaranta km ad ovest di Parigi. Proprio qualche giorno fa leggevo che il progetto era stato abbandonato definitivamente. Dal sito http://www.itv-f1.com: _____________ French GP project abandoned Hopes of reviving the French Grand Prix in the near future have been dealt a major blow, after plans to build a Formula 1 circuit on the northwestern outskirts of Paris were scrapped on Tuesday. In January the French Senate gave the green light for work to begin on a new venue at Flins-sur-Seine to replace Magny-Cours, which dropped off the F1 calendar this year due to the unprofitability of the event. The plan was to make the ?112m F1 circuit the centrepiece of a high-tech ?Automobile Valley? designed to attract investment to the Yvelines area, and formed part of a recession-fighting stimulus bill that accelerated construction projects. But after resistance from green groups and farmers? unions, and complaints by residents about a lack of consultation, local officials have decided to abandon the F1 project, claiming that their objectives of supporting economic development can be achieved without it. ?After consulting supporters and opponents of this project, I?ve taken the decision to abandon construction of the Formula 1 circuit,? said Alain Schmitz, president of the general council of Yvelines. ?I really felt that we were not supported in the way that I?d hoped. ?In contrast, our goal is achieved ? namely the continuity of employment in the automobile valley and the creation of new jobs.? Schmitz previously claimed the F1 venture had the support of French prime minister Fran?ois Fillon, but the country?s environment minister Chantal Jouanno lobbied hard for it to be abandoned and hailed Tuesday?s decision as ?excellent news?, adding: ?I am delighted that the General Council has taken the responsible decision.? France?s hopes of re-establishing its place on the F1 calendar now appear to rest on either an upgraded Magny-Cours or a return to the Paul Ricard circuit in Provence, which held the GP for most of the 1970s and 1980s.

Kobayashi confermato alla Sauber. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80608 http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/formula-1-news/225120/kobayashi-signs-with-sauber/ http://www.autotrader.co.uk/f1/story/0,25552,3213_5776795,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8417603.stm

Che io sappia Fisichella nel Dicembre del 1996 a Jerez.

In alcune fonti di lingua inglese mettono tra i papabili Sauber anche Kobayashi http://www.f1network.net/main/s491/st152482.htm

Si, su Grosjean siamo sulla stessa lunghezza d'onda allora, visto che dal post volevo far intendere che alcuni piloti hanno appoggi validi immeritati e porte spalancate a prescindere per la riuscita potenziale della loro carriera ...

Appunto! Proprio questo ? il nocciolo del problema. Ci sono piloti che per una contingenza di motivi diversi sembra debbano essere sempre celebrati a prescindere, e Robert sta imboccando nolente o no questa via. Purtroppo siamo noi stessi appassionati che molte volte ci facciamo condizionare psicologicamente, quando "si dice un gran bene" (nel caso di Robert) di un pilota, prima del tempo. Pu? accadere anche il contrario. Poi una volta accaduto, ? difficile che il tempo ci faccia cambiare idea repentinamente. Un esempio recente e almeno per ora lampante ? stato Grosjean. Il fatto ? che in F1 ci sono estremamente pochi sedili al "top", molti piloti sono destinati a fare scelte forzate che poi il pi? delle volte deturpano la loro carriera ed anche poi il ricordo, terminata la loro carriera, nella memoria collettiva. Heidfeld non ? mai stato un fulmine di guerra, per? come dicevo ? stato regolare e concreto. Sicuramente, se potete passarmi il paragone, pi? di Button, che ora ? diventato campione del mondo dopo anni di anonimato, se si eccettuano il 2000 ed il 2004, e che fra l'altro rischiava di essere escluso dal giro ...

Bè Heidfeld è un pilota abbastanza regolare e costante, una mezza chance l'ha avuta con Williams nel 2005, ma il team era già in fase calante, e comunque ottenne alcuni bei risultati, cosi' come i primi due anni in Sauber. Non dimentichiamoci poi che in base alle tanto bistrattate statistiche (anche da me) ha battuto ai "punti" il suo compagno Kubica per due stagioni su tre. Con questo non voglio dire che Heidfeld sia un fenomeno e meriti a prescindere, anche perchè fino a pochi anni fa anche io lo ritenevo un pilota "scaldasedile"...

Di Grassi confermato alla Virgin-Manor http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80577 Ps: quelli della Lotus sono la Proton, la compagnia che detiene i diritti della "Lotus Cars". "The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineer Colin Chapman, a graduate of University College, London, in 1952[...]Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited which focused on road cars and customer competition car production respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year.[1] I diritti de il "Team Lotus" dopo il 1994, li ha avuti David Hunt, e da Maggio (o Giugno) 2009 la Litespeed, che di fatti avrebbe voluto entrare. Comunque mi pare sia una notizia recente, quella secondo la quale la Litespeed dovrebbe avere una partecipazione del 10% nell'avventura Proton "LotusF1" oltre alla affiliazione annunciata. Ecco qui: http://www.lotusf1racing.my/article/items/lotus-f1-racing-announce-more-senior-appointments.html

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15122009/23/mercedes-gp-hit-sponsorship-blow.html 30 Milioni di euro non vi ricorda qualcosa?