Super Aguri - To Be or Not To Be
April 16, 2008
Not-so long time ago we report about Super Aguri in talks with an Indian consortium for a possible investment in the team, which didn’t worked out. Later on they got a deal with a Magma Group [backed by a Dubai based investment company]. Super Aguri team owner Aguri Suzuki announced that the deal has collapsed.
It is said that the Dubai based investment company is no more interested in putting in the money. As a result, it has again put a big question mark on whether Super Aguri would participate in Spanish Grand Prix next weekend. Though Aguri Suzuki is again talking to potential investors and Honda as well.
The possibility of the Indian Consortium [Spice Group] again talking to Aguri Suzuki depends on Honda. Since Honda has been adamant that Anthony Davidson has to be second driver in Super Aguri’s lineup, the earlier talks between Super Aguri & Spice Group failed due to same reason.
So what future holds for Super Aguri, we’ll get to know in few days time. But it will be disappointing for Sate & Davidson’s fans not to see Super Aguri on the grid in Spanish Grand Prix.
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April 27th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I am not that big fan of Anthony Davidson so I feel that they should look for alternatives as well.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:57 am
I was always quite impressed with Anthony Davidson’s driving when he was a test driver for BAR/Honda, but he doesn’t seem anywhere as good as a racing driver.
I do hope Super Aguri can find the financing. I want more cars on the track not less! If I had my way an infinite number of cars would be allowed to qualify and then the top 24-28 start the race.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Agree with Matthew - more cars not less is the way forward.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Did the Dubai based investment company state any specific reason for pulling out?
June 20th, 2008 at 12:00 am
[...] he should stick to Radio 5 Live Formula 1 commentary. No opinion has been expressed on this good F1 Blog, but the write up is a good objective take on the whole [...]
June 20th, 2008 at 12:05 am
I think the Dubai company simply couldn’t see the money coming in. The numbers simply didn’t stack up, not even a racing consortium like Magma wanted to touch it. I do think working towards fixed budgets will bring more cars to the grid which is great for F1.
September 28th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I was speaking with a number of Grand Prix drivers who drive for the various cups and they reiterated what the drivers have said off the record. The F1 is pretty much rigged since Ecclestone decided to raise viewership by mimicking golf but at least Tiger Woods has talent. They predicted that Lewis would be in either 2nd or 3rd place before the Singapore race started and just after the qualifiers. We were in the Paddock of a GP car during F1 qualifiers and his team was timing Hamilton and Trulli to make a point. F1 Race control had Trulli 11 and Hamilton 10 when it should have been the other way around. Then Hamilton got 2nd pole position eventhough he qualified abysmally compared to Alonso who they almost disqualified, more on that. What couldn’t be answered by race control was why Massa got a drive through when Coulthard also drove off with the fuel pipe attached, knocking over a mechanic who was stretchered off but miraculously did not get a drive through penalty. Hamilton was ninth, but Rosberg and Kubica were subsequently slapped with a 10-second stop penalty for coming into the pits after the Piquet crash before the pits were open and received bogus penalties from Ecclestone’s race control although it was questionable as to whether or not they truly were in the pits before they opened. The replay showed otherwise, the pits were in fact open. Why was it done? Because with Massa now out both Kubica and Rosberg had a spectacular lead over Hamilton. So a penalty was next issued to both Kubica and Rosberg but even with the penalty Rosberg was in total advance of Hamilton which obviously made Ecclestone’s golden child seem to be the silly driver that he is. So then came race control that now insisted that Alonso (who now developed the spectacular lead) and Rosberg should pit. Oone should question since when does race control dictate when a driver should pit when it is the purview of the team’s pit manager when his cars should pit. It was blatantly obvious once again that they wanted to stop Alonso and Rosberg from stealing the limelight. Moreover, “ironically”, it was Alonso’s team-mate Nelson Piquet’s “heavy crash” on the 14th lap that brought out the safety car and triggered the strategy chaos that sped Alonso to the top and took out Massa even before his mistake in the pit. I was walking toward the paddocks when it happened in front of me. Piquet seemed to deliberately drive his car into the wall.
As far as Massa’s fiasco, the replay showed that the man at the bonnet of Massa’s car cleared him for take off, so why was the refuelling hose still coupled? The final straw came when at turn 18 (I was standing right at the track) where I happened to be after walking from the paddocks. Alonso was cruising with a 23-second lead when Adrian Sutil shunted his Force India into the wall, bringing the safety car out again and wiping out the Spaniard’s advantage. Sutil literally slowed to a crawl at turn 18 and deliberately drove his car into the softest part of the turn. For any driver watching it wasn’t technical or a problem with the car. He slowed down to a crawl and literally drove it into the water containers so as to have little damage to the car. This instantly wiped the 23 second lead of Alonso that obviously made Hamilton look like a real moron. This once again brought out the safety car in an attempt to now wipe Alonso and Rosberg’s lead and allow Hamilton to place. At this point Raikkonen had just about enough. His accident looked like a race control-induced crash as he took himself out to prove a point.
Rubens Barichello the gentleman of the sport knew what was coming and decidedly retired early with an “electrical problem” a euphemism for this is going to be an Ecclestone circus and I will opt out thank you very much. Jaro Trulli who was also in a lead on lap 28 after a safety car shuffle decided to retire with “hydraulic problems” rather than be told to damage his car.
This sport really has become a sham and a hollow shell of what it used to be. 7 manufacturers are left and only 20 drivers. This Ecclestone has single handily brought down F1. Hamilton is a useless driver, all he did was sit in the car as others ( which looked like race control paid off the the various teams to trash their cars) did the work for him. It was disgraceful and shameless, Hamilton certainly doesn’t deserve the accolades or to be on the podium. Hence the reason why he’s so hated by the other drivers on the F1 circuit and the GP circuit to boot. He doesn’t belong. But what can you do when a short myopic senile man is running F1 as a dictator.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:24 am
I am not that big fan of Anthony Davidson too
November 5th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Super Aguri team boss Aguri Suzuki said he was exhausted after weeks of work to try and secure the future of his Formula One squad, who announced on Tuesday they were pulling out of the sport.