FIA’s cost-cutting measures for Formula One, to be put into effect from 2010, are becoming an attractive proposition for many prospective entrants. The latest party to have expressed keen interest is David Richards, chairman of motorsport and engineering specialist Prodrive, which manages all Aston Martin’s motorsport activities, such as its Le Mans 24 Hours programme.
Richards, who was the team principal of Benetton and BAR Honda F1, remarked that the initial signs coming out from the FIA were encouraging. “They hold the promise to return Formula One to its fundamental ethos, where success comes to those with the most ingenious engineering and best organisation not simply those with the biggest budget,” Richards said. He added that the team was very serious about entering Formula One in 2010 provided it was commercially viable. FIA had recently proposed a drastic cost cuts from next year keeping the budget cap to 30 million pounds. Daily News & Analysis
David Richards, who is also chairman of Aston Martin’s racing arm, Prodrive, said that plans for a F1 team had been in the pipeline since he sold his last racing team in 2004, and he explained that his current visit to Qatar was part of a trip to outline the team’s plans to prospective investors.
Aston Martin has already received Gulf investment, with Kuwaiti supporters investing in the company two and a half years ago.
Richards said that environment had become a cause for concern, not just for the motoring industry, but for the whole world, and that everyone had had their lives affected by environmental concerns.
“I think it because our product is not so ‘in your face’,” he claimed. “Aston Martin is a more acceptable luxury car to buy, especially in the current financial climate,” he added. Gulf Times
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