In July Zoran Stefanovic did two things which suggested to Formula 1 insiders that he was not very serious about entering a team in F1. He lodged a complaint with the European Union claiming the FIA forced the potential new teams for 2010 to use engines supplied by Cosworth; and he said that he had taken on Mike Coughlan as his main technical man. If he had not done this Stefanovic would have been taken more seriously, as neither course of action seemed even vaguely sensible, and smacked of someone who was heading into F1 without anyone guiding him as to what to do and what not to do. Since then, to give him his due, he seems to have understood that rocking the boat gets you nowhere in F1 circles and has adopted a rather different approach. It is not clear what has happened with the EU complaint but these things cannot be withdrawn.
After Toyota pulled out of F1, Stefanovic popped up again, talking to Toyota about taking over elements of the F1 team. He clearly has some money to spend, presumably from his AMCO, manufacturing business which does automotive, aerospace and other such work from its base in Belgrade, Serbia.
Yesterday Stefan GP announced that it had successfully passed some of the necessary crash tests to compete in F1, with a car it called the Stefan S-01. The team announced also that it would complete further tests at the end of January. It is clear that the car in question is the car that was to have been raced as the Toyota TF110, although very little else has been announced, not least what engine would be used. Stefanovic visited Toyota in Cologne on December 22 and met with several Toyota people.
Stefanovic is very unlikely to be granted any F1 entry – even if teams drop out – as he has not been through the necessary procedures and the FIA cannot afford to bend the rules for him as that would create a precedent which would not be a good idea.
On the team website Stefanovic is advertising for staff with some posts being “located in Germany” and “the rest of team” in Belgrade, Serbia.
If an entry is not forthcoming, Stefanovic says that he will run the team anyway and use the cars to prepare for an entry in the future, while also providing other teams and young drivers with the chance to test a full-spec F1 car which is not covered by the testing ban. Thus, if Ferrari needs to test a new driver – as happened last summer – Stefan GP will be available for rent. Similarly wealthy drivers can get mileage in the car, if they pay.
Stefanovic obviously has money to spend, but perhaps not as much as he needs as he could very easily have acquired the Toyota entry after the Japanese decided to quit. One can argue that Toyota might have wanted to hold on to its Toyota Motorsport GmbH company, but a little administrative juggling could have sold that company to Stefanovic and created another with the old name in just a few days. That would have got Stefanovic a guaranteed F1 entry for 2010.
If this sounds far-fetched, remember that in 2005 Ilmor Engineering Ltd was acquired by Mercedes-Benz and renamed Mercedes-Ilmor Ltd. At that point founder Mario Illien set up a new company called Special Designs Ltd. Soon after that happened Mercedes-Ilmor changed its name to Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd and Special Designs Ltd changed its name to Ilmor Engineering Ltd.
Well if Steph’s prepared to have a go at the establishment then good on him. A lot of people thought the Cosworth requirement was out of order and couldn’t understand why people conceded so easily.
I can remember a time when my favorite F1 journalist used to have a go at the powers that be! He seems to be towing the company line these days.
RobbieMeister,
One thing you will find is that when this journalist goes after someone then the attack is based on solid ground. Find me someone mainstream who will go on the record about Cosworth ebing a requirement and I will bang that drum. We all suspect this was the case but if no-one will stand up and say it. how are we supposed to risk going into a court without anyone who will back up such statements. In libel you must prove what you say. Holy Cow, if I could write all the things that I think are true, you would be sitting with your mouth open for months…
[...] What is Stefan GP? « Joe Saward’s Grand Prix Blog. [...]
All very rum, but if he has got the 2010 Toyota, my money would be firmly on him if there was a race between Stefan GP and either US F1 or Campos.
Of course there won’t be any such race, but F1 followers are being remarkably sanguine about the new teams. They are likely to be very uncompetitive and even with blue flags, they could ruin some of the races by holding up the leaders on tracks where it is difficult to overtake. Monaco for example could be a joke.
Fundamentally it is a ridiculous situation. When I first started following F1, anyone with a fast enough car could race. What was wrong with that?
Is there a chart of the 2010 entries & available grid slots somewhere for those of us who are losing track?
How many cars can Stefan possibly field? How many monocoques have been made? Not more than 4-5, surely?
How many cars would be cost effective to run? Is there a genuine demand for his idea? On the surface, I would say yes dependant on pricing.
Just visited their website and found this on the jobs page… “Slightly advantage if you are ex Toyota F1″… Before entering F1, Stefan GP must understand the EU laws, which amongst others, are against job discrimination.
Joe, I don’t mean to be rude here- but I asked you on another post whether Toyota could sell it’s entry. You said flatly ‘Toyota GmbH is not for sale’.
You said it with such authority everyone dropped the issue. It was as if you had heard from Mr. Sakichi Toyoda himself that they would not sell.
Is that not the case? Don’t Toyota still have the right to enter a car in 2010 – infact a contractual obligation too? I can’t see Bernie letting them off the hook with a slap on the wrist – he’ll demand real money. I would laugh if they said ‘actually, we have a car to race (as StephanGP). See you in bahrain!’
Any chance of that Joe?
Dave in NZL
I was told by very good sources in Japan that the team was not for sale. The fact that Lotus and Sauber have been granted entries underline this because their candidacy could not have been accepted if Toyota was still going to run a team. Thus one must assume that Toyota has made it clear that there is no intention to compete and so the have given up any claims on an entry.
“Holy Cow, if I could write all the things that I think are true, you would be sitting with your mouth open for months…”
Joe – this is why we all love the site. Your ability to allude to the fact without coming out and saying it are ledgendary! Please- don’t stop.
“Holy Cow, if I could write all the things that I think are true, you would be sitting with your mouth open for months”
Surely a ‘wild rumours of 2009′ post is ok?
Crid, I keep a list of announced drivers on my blog which you can access by clicking my name and scrolling (past the plug for the Aside podcast, stopping to listen if you haven’t already) to the end of the Schumacher entry, although given how quickly news seems to be appearing these days I can’t guarantee the accuracy of the list.. I knew Weber was good at this but I never would’ve expected The Big Reveal the day before Christmas Eve!
Stefan GP wants to do a year of testing… ‘cos that worked so well for Toyota…
Happy new year Joe and all his readers/commenters. 2010 is going to be one of the most fascinating seasons in years.
Joe
I’m surprised to hear you say that there is nothing on the record about the Cosworth requirement.
I’m afraid I don’t have the time to check but am pretty sure that it was reported several times on Autosport.com which gave me the impression of being fact. And does not Stefans EU compaint represent being “on the record”?
Anyway, no sweat – I hope you enjoy the New Year festivities.
Robbiemeister (again),
If there was anything other than claims to back them up I would have done something more about it. Sadly, a claim is not a fact. I did report that complaints had been made but just because some unknown bloke in Serbia says something happened, does not mean that it did. All the others I know will not go on the record on this matter and thus nor can I.
“Stefanovic is very unlikely to be granted any F1 entry – even if teams drop out – as he has not been through the necessary procedures and the FIA cannot afford to bend the rules for him as that would create a precedent which would not be a good idea.”
Surely the FIA wrote the book on creating, re-creating, and ignoring precedent??
@S2K
“Slightly advantage if you are ex Toyota F1″… Before entering F1, Stefan GP must understand the EU laws, which amongst others, are against job discrimination.
You are allowed to discriminate based on relevant experience. For example if I advertise for a baker and a hair stylist applies, the hair stylist does not have relevant experience and I can discriminate against him/her on those grounds.
In this scenario, someone who has previously worked on the same car design has more relevant experience than someone who has previously worked on a different car design (lets ignore the fact that the different experience may actually be relevant…).
This is not illegal under EU, it just basic common sense hiring. Discrimination that is illegal is when you don’t hire them because of factors that have nothing to do with the job (for example, for most jobs skin colour is not relevant *).
* Fashion modelling is the only thing for which I think skin colour could be a specific requirement.
Right back, to Joe’s diet of F1.
Happy New Year everyone.
S2K, there is no discrimination in saying that people who have experience with Toyota F1 team will have slightly advantage. No EU laws are broken there…
Joe, could there be market for a 2010 spec’d car to run new parts on for testing and development throughout the season? It appears to be a grey area. I imagine they will burn any F1 team aspirations- but the money might be worth it from the big teams. Thoughts?
Sometimes one has to read between the lines.
Regarding the new teams, I found it very interesting that Nick Wirth is a former March employee and that Max Mosley and Nick Wirth established Simtek Research, a racing technical consultancy firm, together, in the old days. Is that a disadavantage when applying for slot on the grid? Not necessarily, I expect….
Nothing this Stefanovic guy has done so far has convinced me that he knows what he is getting into and so its hard for me to take him seriously.
I suspect all of this is a bit of an elaborate showboating scheme and may be he thinks he has cracked a plan to lay hands on some prize and TV money without spending much, like the so called Phoenix Grand Prix tried with Prost GP’s bankrupt sale of equipment.
Even if he gets an entry (which i am near to certain he wont), i predict he will become the laughing stock of the paddock.
“Toyota might have wanted to hold on to its Toyota Motorsport GmbH company, but a little administrative juggling could have sold that company to Stefanovic and created another with the old name in just a few days.”
err, Mr Saward, whilst what you say literally is possible, there simply isn’t enough space here to even start exploring the ramifications.
I’ll suggest only this, that the few times i’ve seen such artificial transactions, there’s crookery afoot.
This is why companies have registration numbers, and why if you intend (UK at very least, which is considerably less strict and infinitely less enforced than the German equivalent) even as a third party to register a company with a similar, let alone identical name to one demised (including both struck companies and those renamed) you have to make detailed and formal explanation.
FOM / FOA et.al would in any event have the right to privity of contract, unless they waived this. Getting back to my perpetual Q. as to whether the Concord Agreement is severally binding, not merely a agreement with FIA/FOM. If severally bound, change one term, and everyone gets to start playing about. Don’t see that being readily permitted by B.E.
This new “Stefan GP” plan is interesting. But really, if there si a test ban, just using a third party to do the same is surely in breach of the intent of such a ban, if not the wording. So suddenly there is the suggestion that “Stefan GP” heralds a new era of rule bending and, to this fan’s view, cheating. How can that be good?
“Stefanovic obviously has money to spend”
Really?
I don’t currently subscribe, but there is a database called “Amadeus” which is available in the British Library and many other places without charge, where one can discover the most recent accounts, and usually much much more of any EU or EU-Satellite based company. I’ll be in the BL next week when it opens, and am minded to look. Of course, even this research remains a partial picture, but it would be for me the absolute starting place for understanding any financial strength of this outfit, and hence potential involvement with F1.
“If this sounds far-fetched, remember that in 2005 Ilmor Engineering Ltd was acquired by Mercedes-Benz and renamed Mercedes-Ilmor Ltd. At that point founder Mario Illien set up a new company called Special Designs Ltd. Soon after that happened Mercedes-Ilmor changed its name to Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines Ltd and Special Designs Ltd changed its name to Ilmor Engineering Ltd.”
None of which is a sequitur to your earlier conjecture regarding Toyota Motorsport GmBH.
Throughout every discussion of the Concorde Agreement i have read, there has been the strong inference (though no proof) that entry is tied to the legal entity. You yourself, if i read correctly, asserted as such earlier in this series of stories. You are i believe incorrectly extrapolating entrant legal options from those of comanies subsidiary to an entrant.
In summary, i think you are very wide of the mark, but thanks as always for the believable updates and Happy New Year to you from this poor wretch who has had to conisder each of the recent days as working ones regardless! (Meaning, wonderful you are writing during the holidays, but i must say i believe none of this report has a chance in reality). Thank you as always for this blog, seriously good stuff, but please dig deeper when it realyl would help a developig story / rumor.
all best,
– j
John,
The Concorde Agreement very clearly links the legal entity with the entry. That is all that matters. Stefan GP does not have an entry. End of story.