The curious case of Zoran Stefanovic

Zoran Stefanovic is the man in charge of a Serbian company called the AMCO Korporacia. This is based in Belgrade and describes itself as “one of the rare highly experienced hi-tech companies in Central/Eastern Europe”. The company says that it is engaged in “research, design, development and manufacture of advanced technological products; in a nutshell, hi-tech cars, aircraft and individual parts thereof”. Stefanovic has ambitions to enter Formula 1. He tried to get an entry last summer, was turned down and then took the curious step of going to the European Competition Directorate to complain. This showed that while he may have been upset at the way things had been done, he did not really have much grasp of how to get things done in F1, a place where rocking the boat is the worst thing that one can do. He then raised eyebrows by telling the F1 world that he had hired the disgraced McLaren engineer Mike Coughlan, who left the Woking team after the 2007 scandal, in which he was implicated for having received a huge dossier about Ferrari’s technical package from Nigel Stepney, an old colleague of his from Lotus days in the 1980s.

The fact that Toyota has been willing to do business with Stefanovic indicates that he has some money behind him (He is seen below in the Toyota simulator).

Bernie Ecclestone says that he has spoken to the Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and that he has confirmed support for the project. There have been suggestions – logical enough – that this cash is coming from SIEPA, the Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency, a government-funded agency which promotes and manages direct foreign investment, offering information, data, direct assistance and advice for companies wishing to invest in Serbia. This was created in 2001 as the country began rebuilding after the disastrous wars of the 1990s, following the toppling from power of Slobodan Milošević. This organisation has been headed for the last couple of years by the glamorous Vesna Peric, who replaced Jasna Matic when she was promoted to become the Minister of Telecommunications and the Information Society. SIEPA comes under the control of Mladjan Dinkic, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and Regional Development. The organisation has enjoyed much success in recent years with investments being made by international companies such as Commerzbank, Lafarge, Carlsberg, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Siemens, US Steel, Japan Tobacco, Tetra Pak and the Metro Cash & Carry chain of supermarkets. There has also been a significant investment from Fiat, which will produce two new models at a Serbian factory, in a joint venture with the government. SIEPA helps to organise financial and tax incentives with grants of up to 25% of the investment amount for automotive, electronics and IT companies. The downturn in the economy in 2008 meant that this task became much harder and thus it makes sense for find a way to raise the profile of Serbia as a business destination.

The problem for Stefanovic is that he does not have an entry for the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and he will only get one if one of the 13 entries fails to materialise – and even then he will have to juggle to get things sorted out in the time available. In expectation of this happening Stefanovic has freighted equipment to the first races, despite the potential drawbacks of such a manoeuvre.

The car, which will be called the Stefan S-01 is basically the planned Toyota F110 car, which was axed when Toyota decided to quit the sport. Toyota has agreed to keep on a smallish group of experienced F1 engineers in Cologne to build the cars and do the development, although Stefan still has Coughlan and another former McLaren man Phil Adey on his books in Belgrade (the three are pictured below).

The cars will be powered by the ex-Toyota engines which will now be known as the Stefan RG-01. These will be serviced by Toyota. Stories suggesting that Dave Ryan is involved in the project have been denied but it seems that Stefan has agreed some kind of a deal with former Midland/Spyker/Force India chief executive Colin Kolles.

Stefan says that the car will be presented soon with a test planned to take place in Portimao, Portugal between February 25-28. The aim is to have two drivers and the team says that the first “already has two years in F1”. This is clearly Kazuki Nakajima, who has been busy working at the Toyota simulator in Cologne. It makes sense for Toyota to help Kazuki out as his F1 career came to a dead end when Williams ended its engine supply deal with Cologne.

Other names that are being mentioned are all the obvious candidates who are floating around at the moment, although it seems that Takuma Sato has now given up his F1 hopes and has signed to race for KV Racing in the IndyCar Series in the United States. Others being mentioned include Ralf Schumacher (although it is hard to imagine that he will agree to such a deal), Christian Klien, former Renault man Romain Grosjean and, of course, Bruno Senna, if it turns out that his arrangements with Campos Meta 1 prove to be unsustainable.

One would also expect to see Serbian racing driver Miloš Pavlović involved in the team in some way. The 27-year-old Belgrade driver was a top class karter in his day and in recent years has done relatively well in GP2 and most recently in Formula Two (below).