I've edited the name of this thread a bit as although a month ago there was a report of a new investor or major sponsor, it seems there isn't one.
Very, very interesting interview with Tony Texeira here:
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEditi...aspx?id=944369
A bit of a misleading headline, he does not make the quote that F1 wants to be like A1GP.
He is clearly in A1GP to make money as the last quip about Bernie buying him out suggests, although it also very much suggests he is in it for the long term.
He answers a few criticisms:
- About the new car, i.e. that he would not have bought it if he had forseen the financial crisis (which nobody did)
- About everyone turning up late (to save accommodation costs - makes perfect sense). If the staff are turning up late it also makes no sense to have the cars there early...
- He is up front about the fact that this is a bad year, but I get the impression he is going to hang in there.
- Makes no apologies about cancelling a race if it is not going to make money.
Questions that brings to mind is therefore:
- Was the Lippo cancellation genuinely down to FIA certification of the track or not being financially viable? I was under the impression that the Indonesian government were paying a sizeable fee, and they obviously had the money after paying Tilke to design the circuit. Also interest in Indonesia seemed to be very high.
- Presume Mexico is not seen as being viable. Crowds there were very reasonable and they seemed to be taking over that market from Indycars. I guess still not enough to cover the costs of having a single race in that region?
- Is the Brazil round due to FIA dates or actually the same issue as Mexico?
While raising as many questions as answering them, I think A1GP would have done itself a big favour by issuing a press release at the end of last year along the lines of "A1GP's response to the financial crisis", to explain a lot of the issues that discussed in here.
I also get the impression that Tony T is resigned to funding it himself and getting a return in the long run (or finding someone to buy him out), in the short term if he kept a stable calender surely it would be a lot easier to find sponsors to partly fund it. Is this his mining industry mentality getting in the way, or is he being realistic about it being unrealistic to find sponsors at the moment anyway?