There is some odd talk at the moment of Stefan Grand Prix, an obscure Serbian company with no international racing record, suddenly popping up and getting an entry in the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship. This is simply not possible given the current rules, regulations and contractual arrangements.
The FIA issued a 2010 Formula One World Championship entry list at the end of November. There were 12 teams on that list. Toyota was not one of them. There was a note saying that “Toyota Motorsport GmbH remains formally bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forward a team for participation, though it has indicated that it will not be in a position to do so”. The FIA added that an announcement regarding the Toyota entry would be made “in due course”. On December 3 that announcement was made. The federation announced that it had written to BMW Sauber AG telling the team that its application had been successful and that – subject to their signing the Concorde Agreement – BMW Sauber would be awarded the 13th entry in the World Championship, “taking the place of the departing Toyota team”. This made it fairly clear that there was no longer a Toyota entry.
Toyota had announced on November 4 that it intended to quit Formula 1 “at the end of the 2009 season”. At the time it said that it intended to find a solution for “those parties who will be affected by any inconvenience this decision may cause”. It subsequently laid off the majority of the F1 staff in Cologne. There seems no change of heart in this respect. A few days ago Toyota put out a statement suggesting that the Formula 1 media should direct fans to a website so that the company could say goodbye. Click here to see it.
Legally-speaking there are probably lots of clauses in the Concorde Agreement defining when a Constructor is a Constructor and when one ceases to have that status, but as these are all confidential it is difficult to judge the arguments that may (or may not) be going on. We believe that the moment a team declares itself to be leaving the sport its rights and obligations are immediately terminated, however there may be a three-month period required for that to be legally confirmed. If this is the case, the confirmation would come on February 4.
In any case, the Formula 1 entry is limited by the Concorde Agreement to 13 teams, apparently for safety reasons and while there are believed to be rules of priority about the way in which entries are granted, the decision by Toyota to leave Formula 1 meant that these should not apply any longer. If Toyota changed its mind and is now arguing that it has a right to an entry then that would presumably have to be taken to arbitration – which is the defined way in which such disputes are solved – but this takes a long time and is not really a workable solution.
All of this means that people who are promoting the idea that Stefan GP will miraculously be given an entry if Campos Meta 1 fails to materialise have probably not been told the whole story. The FIA cannot simply conjure up a new entry from nowhere. The other teams would not agree. In theory, Stefan GP might purchase the Campos Meta 1 entry but then the team would be known by that name until such a time as the other teams agreed to a change. Thus Stefan could use Toyota equipment and the Spanish entry – if there was money enough to pay for it all.
But if there was money enough to do all this, Stefan GP could simply have purchased the Toyota entry back in November. Clearly there was not money enough to do that in the run-up to the Toyota decision. If Stefan GP now has the money to invest then the best route would not be a deal with Toyota. It would be to buy the Campos entry, which rumours seem to suggest, is for sale.
But that may not be easy as the word is that A1 Grand Prix boss Tony Teixeira is going to do that.
Entering Formula 1 is not just a question of having cash and banging on the door.
You have to bang on the door in the right way…
joeblogsf1 
Is it sad when I see a F1-related story titled “Running fast and loose with reality,” I instantly think it is a story about USF1?
Hi Joe,
Every report I’d heard so far said they were looking at 2011 – am I missing something?
With regards to the Toyota ‘goodbye’ site – why would they want their legacy to include images of their cars in pieces by the side of the track?
Crazy marketing, although I suppose it does fit in with the ‘leaving a piece of ourselves behind’ line…!
Had they given the entries to Prodrive and the other 2 or legitimate racing outfits, this would be a non-issue. I guess we can thank Max Mosley’s infinite wisdom.
In the software field, this is “vaporware”: creating a product out of rumors and innuendo, without having anything to actually sell.
really i thought Flavio
That would be the best deal that the Toyota guys have ever made in the last 10 yrs then ! I hope they also threw in the extended warranty for the gas pedals? But seeing as the cars might not be racing, it might not be necessary…
Isn’t the restriction of the F1 entry to 26 cars something to do with the number of pit garages available at a high proportion of the circuits ?
John D
I believe the Concorde Agreement says “on the grounds of safety” but as this document is not available it is hard to say.
I think that USF1 is doing a good job, they will probably be at Bahrein.
Campos on the other hand… oh well, I really don’t think it’s going to happen. And this is really sad, I was looking forward to see Bruno Senna on the grid. The guy seems to be a decent driver. No Ayrton, but who knows.
I didn’t think of USF1 when I read the title. I expect USF1 to turn up in Bahrain…I’m less certain they’ll make it to Brazil.
Curious.
Toyota seemed to be competitive, or at least improving, last season.
How much of their decision to drop out of F! do you think was motivated by advance knowledge of the huge cost they are now incurring in the US, and perhaps elsewhere, over the sticking accelerator issues?
At the moment, they may need to save all the millions they can.
Could it be that there was a background deal between Toyota and FOTA in which the team promised not to sell its entry (and give Sauber a chance to get back in)? I thought there was some kind of a penalty payment in case a team left FOTA early, which could have been used as leverage.
This is just a latest note to the effect that nearly every putatively respectable publication is playing fast and loose with their readers. A press release is not, nor ever has been, a story.
Nor, to be frank, is a entry which could have simply read, as Reuters’ house style might put it: “UPDATE #nearing infinity: Stephan GP still in la la land, ego stroking promoted by industry press. Some observers unsure whether self – promoter infringes FOM trademarks, not having sporting team”. (I like the way Reuters merely appends brief information it receives when there’s nothing of substance to actually report on. The waffle purely mine, of course.)
I had rather hoped this was so thrashed to death here on this blog, that this kind of circular commentary would be ignored until such time, should it ever pass, that SGP did something other than put up a shoddy website.
However . . . if someone wanted to annoy a new and financially insecure actual entrant, or to cause subscribers to wince when reading a well known title whose name begins with “A”, they’d have done pretty well.
Maybe it’s just me, but were i in SGP’s shoes, i’d have wanted the press release to at least contain a single line from Toyota lauding the deal as an outlet for all the hard work their employees put in over the years, a little validation that all was not wasted and that the results were wanted, somewhere. I imagine why they don’t offer such a line, and that’s simply Toyota are as uncertain about SGP as any vaguely informd observer would be.
My only guess as to why this is going on is SGP want in, but by a bak door, somehow aiding a new entrant with data and designs. I’ll take another guess, and wnder aloud if any money has changed hands, the deal being contingency only. SGP’s idea to run F1 cars for testing “for hire” was crackpot enough that i’d believe anything.
Having said all that i really do wish we could bring back pre – qualifying, just so as to include all these crazies. It would at least sort out who was only ever hot air, and who had actual resources and ability, even if they turned out well off the pace. If we had that, then i believe there would be a good spot for all of this to be noteworthy, on Fridays before raceday.
Surely it was the FIA that was playing fast and loose with reality when they ‘chose’ the new teams to be allowed to enter F1. It appears that the person who carried out the FIA selection process has now been sacked by Jean Todt, which is at least one rare piece of good news.
There’s no need for thirteen teams in F1 anyway, so if Campos Meta can’t race that would be more good news. One less pair of mobile chicanes to get in the way of the leaders and spoil the racing. Certainly no need to look for a replacement.
As far as Stefan is concerned, no more due diligence has been done than was done with Campos Meta, so we don’t know if they have the capacity to run an F1 team. In some ways, taking over the 2010 Toyota is a plus and puts them in a similar position to the people now running the Renault team. Except that they haven’t got an entry. And that the Renault team kept on developing their car for 2010 and the Toyota engineers presumably stopped work with the job half done, seeing as they were all sacked.
Still if they were to turn up at the first test and were allowed to run and their driver (let’s just imagine it was Nick Heidfeld) massively blew off all the other new teams, it would surely be quite good fun. But they still wouldn’t have an entry. I think vainglorious is the proper word for it, isn’t it?
Anthony
Rules is rules!
And Toyota blowing everyone away? As I recall (sorry, wrong word for Toyota at the moment) they have done it in the past with a light fuel load…
It may say that, but I always got the impression that it’s to limit the market in entries and retain their resale value.
Thank you Joe for everything that you have done to fill the bleak wasteland of the off season. There will be more to wet our parched lips after Monday testing starts. That will still give us Sunday to live through but contemplating Stefan GP’s plans to enter six ex Blackpool Corpation tramcars should do that nicely.
All that this proves is that the original selection process was a complete mess. Are ‘BMW Sauber’-Ferrari still being treated as a new entrant? If so, it is bizarre that Mercedes can buy Brawn and keep their prize money, yet Sauber can’t keep theirs even though a junior shareholder has re-taken control.
BTW, I guess all UK tax payers should support Virgin-we own 43%-of-10% of it, but then Branson will no doubt use the team to promote a direct competitor in “Virgin Money”. VM appointed a 78 year old director in the week-obviously the youngest former bank director he could find that wasn’t a complete crook.
Which of the above industries is less transparent?
Be fair Joe, I only said they might blow away the new teams!
If – and I don’t believe they could, but if – Stefan turned up with a development of the car in which Trulli finished a handy 2nd in the Japanese GP and was 2, 4 and 6 on the grid in the last three races, then we might expect it to be hugely faster than the new entries.
But it did seem remarkable that the Toyota was able to run so strongly in the Japanese GP when the team’s future was under consideration. I just wonder – are you hinting that you know some insider’s secret about how they got it to go that quickly at such a convenient time?
This is a FIA related problem, so if Campos goes bye bye I expect them to solve it by seriously considering other ventures who do have a solid organisation. Stefan Gp is a big unknown as well, but at least they have shown profesionalism in how they act and do, not unlike VirginGp and Lotus.
It is clear now anyway that the FIA selection process was just a game of politics to play, no way did anything really solid come out of it because it’s one big mess.
Well now SGP have released news that they are shipping hardware to Bahrain in preparation for the race….
Are they planning some legal injunction forcing the FIA to allow them on the grid? Are they going to buy Campos’ entry?
Any further developments from inside sources you can share Joe?
Or are they still just dreaming….. but wasting cash while they dream?
FletcherB,
The word I hear is that Mr E is very keen to make sure there are 13 teams and is not confident that all will make it. If one is missing then Stefan can buy the entry a the last minute. Having said that I still do not see where the money is coming from. No visible means of support is never good in F1