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Ford supplied the cash to 888 to spend on their race team. Prior to the Ford involvement with this team, 888 received Ford parts assistance, as offered to other private teams running that brand.
Thinking broadly, if a team was already able to operate with the commercial funded from Betta/LG/Sunbeam, any new, additional funding would logically be spent on fast tracking new car developments in the team.
So the logical immediate choice for a team with a mountain of technical equipment & expertise based in the UK, and with this new influx of funding from the motor manufacturer, would be to find the local equivalent of Ludovic Lacroix to head up the team here on a full time basis. Which the team's owners mentioned in the press recently as being a front of mind goal for immediate satisfaction.
Now it is highly unlikely there would be accomodation in the regular Betta/LG/Sunbeam budget to afford a mega-engineer, and the costs that come with that, especially at the reported numbers from AA/MN. Which means that the Ford cash would be the device that enabled 888 to activate this plan
Now whether Ford were specifically aware that 888 were going after Campbell Little, or indeed Eric Pender, Wally Storey, Rob Starr, Oscar Fiorinotto, Greg Wheeler or indeed John Russell, they had to be aware of the dynamics of what I have just described, and being a business partner of 888, known first hand of 888's immediate intentions. If they were unaware, then it shows a level of ignorance bordering on naivete.
Some commercial transactions occurred in late October to suggest that SBR has had knowledge of this change for some time prior. Has this been the distraction that has impacted their championship assault in recent rounds? It is more than possible.
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