Going back to your roots....

[Super Tourer]

Those disco divas amongst us may remember a track by Odyssey called 'Going back to my roots', a sentiment that the F1 establishment would do well to remember....

Anyway, the latest mutterings on Max Mosley proposals - the ones that met with such agreement you may recall - have come from Adrian Newey.

Adrian, it seems, is against the idea of customer cars - speaking at Monaco he said "“Personally, I think that allowing teams to sell their designs or even parts to other teams is a very dangerous route because what will happen is that the midfield teams will end up being either forced out of existence or into buying other people's cars or designs. Very quickly you'll get into a position where you've got three or four teams able to design their own cars, with the rest buying.

This is where the remembering your roots comes in, Adrian's former employer, Williams - was only able to enter F1 by running a customer chassis. Back in 1977 having parted from Wolf Racing (who incidentally ran a customer Hesketh chassis), Frank Williams established the Williams team, running an old March chassis for Patrick Neve. In 1978, they built their first ever car designed by Patrick Head - the FW07. Look what Williams have achieved since - BUT the catalyst for this was initially running a customer car.

Sometimes you have to look back to go forward.....

[ralf fan]

Superbly said Super..

the thing is... if they do sell designs to each other it is likely going to be the previous years car and not the newest car... so in a way the sellers ie the front teams will still have the advantage over the buyers ie the midfield... so the midfield teams will have to add their own modifications and a few tinkers with the designs to try and get closer to the front teams... so it wont be only buying previous chassis and racing them... the midfielders will still have to do some development work

look at Sauber... everyone thought that Sauber having almost an f-2003 would be a top contender yet they have shown no signs of being a consistent point scoring team...

[KC]

It would be a step back unless you are running last year's McLaren.

As far as Sauber goes, having the best hammer, doesn't mean you can swing it.

[JohnSSC]

Just goes to show how much the top teams have become addicted to the cash flow manufacturers provide.

During those years you never once saw mobile office parks for the teams nor did anyone bring their own trees to the paddock. They just brought racing cars, drivers and mechanics. What a crazy time! How can you have a proper race meeting without everyone bringing trees?

These guys just don't see it, do they? They are so blinded by the status quo...

[Gt_R]

I initially thught that the plan was to sell customer cars to new teams to aid them in having a decent and competitive cars in their first few years, and that once they reach a certain "age", they have to design and build a car on their own?

I won't mind it if big teams sell cars just to help speed up small teams running operation and learning process..as it frees up some cash for the small teams to do improvements and get more RnD for their own car done etc.

I'm quite amazed how Mclaren and their top brass and top partners Mercedes repeatedly refusing to help smaller teams, for few reasons other than selfish reasons.

[Armco Bender]

Williams - was only able to enter F1 by running a customer chassis. Back in 1977 having parted from Wolf Racing (who incidentally ran a customer Hesketh chassis), Frank Williams established the Williams team,

Frank Williams came into F1 in 1969 with a Brabham,then the ill fated De Tomaso '70,March '71,followed by his own Williams cars around '73-75.Lafitte steered one to 2nd place in the German GP of around '75 if my aged failing memory still serves me correctly.

[DavidStHubbins]

F1 has changed somewhat since them there "old days"

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by Super Tourer
In 1978, they built their first ever car designed by Patrick Head - the FW07. Look what Williams have achieved since - BUT the catalyst for this was initially running a customer car.

Sometimes you have to look back to go forward.....

FW06

Originally posted by DavidStHubbins
F1 has changed somewhat since them there "old days"

Maybe but it does no harm to benchmark and the late ‘70s/early ‘80s was possibly the best era. There were loads of customer cars around and the likes of Niki Lauda, Gilles Vileneuve, Nelson Piquet, to name a few, got their breaks in them. Now all we’ve got is Minardi and Jordan who can’t do anything unless they get a pay driver.