Spyker heading to Formula 1!

[jamz]

Filed under: Motorsports
In the convoluted corporate world that is Formula 1, the most sensible way for a new team to enter the fray is to buy the franchise of an existing team, and that's just what a Dutch consortium has been trying to do for the past year, with their most recent target being the struggling Midland (ex-Jordan) team.

It now seems that the Dutch 'M-Consortium', led by Michiel Mol, owner of long-time F1 sponsor Lost Boys, has been joined in their bid by the Dutch supercar manufacturer Spyker, whose racing team, the Spyker Squadron, are active in endurance sports car racing. The consortium issued a press release, which says in part, "The outcome of the negotiations is still depending on a number of conditions and circumstances. In the event that such acquisition [of Midland] would materialize, Spyker will consider a share issue to (partially) finance the transaction. M-Consortium has expressed its willingness to subscribe to this issue for a large part. At the appropriate time further announcements will be made."

Spyker is 17 percent owned by the Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Company, which also owns 5 percent of Ferrari and is building the Ferrari theme park in Abu Dhabi. A further 15 percent of the company is owned by the MerchantBridge venture capital group, which counts Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdallah Al-Khalifa, a member of the Bahrain royal family, among its shareholders.

Word is that the team will run Cosworth engines in 2007, but with 2008 rules allowing teams to buy chassis and engines from other teams, we could well see the team's Ferrari connection resulting in a transformation to a Ferrari 'B-team.'

[Source: GrandPrix.com]

Read | Read | Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments




More...