Comments on: Honda Not Keen On Bailing Out Super Aguri

By: nik

nik — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:59:11 +0000

They aren’t buying in because it is cheaper and more effective to just let the team die, and then pitch a new team and pay the $45M deposit and build from scratch. Aguri are straddled with debt, bad investment deals, poor facilities, an old chassis and not the best team. An investor would have to be very brave to not only pay $100M, but then to take all of that on – considering that entering a new team is so much cheaper.

I would hasten to guess that most of the Aguri revenue from each race is probably going straight back to paying down debt – since they rush to secure more funding on a race-by-race basis. It wouldn’t surpise me if the team just went bankrupt, and then whatever assets are left are picked up by one of the new teams at auction.

It is almost a re-run of Arrows in 2001 – nobody willing to pick the team up but many waiting for it to die to pick up the assets (same thing with Prost – Walkinshaw ended up buying the assets of both teams but still didn’t get an entry). Speaking of Arrows in 2001, I wonder if the Aguri drivers are being paid? That issue is what eventually forced Arrows to close, when Frentzen took them to court.

Also, Torro Rosso is on the market – and undoubtedly is better value than the Aguri team for any financiers looking to enter F1.

By: Domferrari

Domferrari — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:58:20 +0000

I think the bigger problem is that this sets a precedent for other prospective entrants. What chance has any new team got, when such an apparently heavily subsidised squad falls by the wayside

By: Alianora La Canta

Alianora La Canta — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:09:13 +0000

It would be a golden opportunity, except that it costs $100m plus the need to build new facilities in fairly short order. Had this occurred this time next year, David Richards might have been in a position to do something with it, but since he doesn’t have his new factory yet, even he doesn’t have the production capacity to take on a full F1 team as well as his other responsibilities.

The thing with the 12th team thing was that it only cost $300,000, the cost of staff plus the cost of facilities. And even the staff of Super Aguri quality are not worth $100m to a team. It makes no financial sense for a team to buy Super Aguri out, unless they need to make a marketing bang immediately

By: Domferrari

Domferrari — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:54:15 +0000

Im curious, considering the amount of applications the FIA had when putting out the tender for a 12th team, why more prospective buyers are not keen on boarding the SA bandwagon. What happened to Direxiv and Carlin motorsports? Eddie Jordan talked about coming back, Eddie Irvine was even rumoured to want to run a team at one spell, surely this is a golden opportunity for a foot in the door for someone.

I realise the customer car situation is causing some worry for 2010, but surely with enough effort this can be overcome?

I really hope SA can put something together, after all, in a world were headlines constantly read “suchabody rules out points” and “driver x write’s off chance of a win” and the words “for sure” are repeated ad nauseum, it’s nice to see a team of individuals with unique fighting spirit and a genuine will to survive

By: Super Aguri Will Go To The Ball » BlogF1

Super Aguri Will Go To The Ball » BlogF1 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:09:26 +0000

[...] was rumoured last night that Aguri had managed to cobble together a new deal with Magma, who were left high and dry after [...]