Minardi Strapt for Cash???

[Dan Fielden]

If Minardi are struggling to raise funds why are they the only team ( Other than Arrows ) who have a fleet of 2 seater Minardi's. Why did they buy them and not invest in a wind tunnekl or somthing???

[alesi95]

cracking promotional item. Brings in lots of cash.

Also ive noticed a serious lack of news in the F1 forum. "Minardi Strapt for Cash??" only proves my point.

[Kicking-back]

It brings in more money than it costs to run them.

And they didn't so much buy them, as Paul Stoddart had them anyway.

[Dan Fielden]

Did he not have to frolic about getting them designed and built etc surley a wind tunnel or spending the money on research and development or something

[swatty]

I seem to recall there is a two seater Maclaren too.

The reason teams spend the money on these cars is that they get a quicker Return on investment from a two seater car than they do from, say, a windtunnel. A car takes a few months to build and they can then charge corporate sponsors to use them, they can aslo be used for increaing the teams profile by use on TV and as prizes.

A wind tunnel, on the other hand, requires a building to house it and a lot of up front investment before it recoups any money, or improves the teams performance.

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by Dan Fielden
Did he not have to frolic about getting them designed and built etc surley a wind tunnel or spending the money on research and development or something

No.

They were built from old Tyrrell parts.

[avsfan733]

I strongly doubt they had a lot of windtunnel time on the 2 seaters

[Wrex]

Agreed with all above.

One more point, any idea what a wind tunnel costs!

[JohnSSC]

Actually they have eight of them (built from old Tyrells? Minardi + Arrows + Tyrells = Minarells!!) and they are being used in a charity fundraiser in South africa at Kyalami.

As far as building a windtunnel it takes a great whomping lump of $$$$$ to build one. You could probably build 108 Minarells for what the basic structure would cost, let alone the instrumentation and the pre-requisite wind producing machinery that goes inside.

But I agree that they probably generate a lot of cash and emptied bladders...

[mountainstar]

I just read a news snippet that the power steering systems failed on both cars in monaco and that zsolt and bruni will have to do without power steering for the rest of the season. Also the tubs and other pieces of the car are 2001-02 vintage, and not in design, but actual age. So i'd imagine the cars are getting pretty flaky by now.

You figure the best thing for minardi to do is go to the shops and buy a 1/18 Mattel Ferrari. Put it in one of those 3-d analysis thingies and get all the measurements. Blow it up to full scale and build the body molds to those measurements. Maybe make a few small changes here and there so it doesn't look exactly the same and voila forget about the wind tunnel.

Those 2 seaters are cobbled together from various bits and the engines are those old 1998 cosworth engines stoddart has the rights too. I don't think they cost much to run and they are popular as fund raisers and prize givaways.

[climb]

The cost of a WT? It depends on the technological level you choose for.

A traditional one can be made with just a few millions €, while one like the Sauber's might raise to 40 millions.

[Korr]

Here's the windtunnel that poor Minardi can afford:

[Redlake27]

Dan.........it depends whether you think Stoddart is in it to win or in it to make money.

Every F1 team owner is a businessman and has the primary job of getting more revenue in than they spend.

If Stoddart increased his investment in the cars by four times, they may be as quick as a Jordan, but would that attract more backing than running two seaters?

The likes of Arden are not sniffing around F1 because they have ambitions of beating Ferrari. They know that if they can run last seasons car on a budget of $20M, then there is a good chance of getting $30M back from sponsors or paydrivers.

[Adam43]

Originally posted by alesi95
Also ive noticed a serious lack of news in the F1 forum. "Minardi Strapt for Cash??" only proves my point.

I'm not sure this is news, more a discussion point.

I agree with what has been said here. The 2 seater operation is a separate operation that overall doesn't detract resources from the F1 operation. Or it shouldn't! I guess it aids funding for Minardi, both directly and indirectly. Directly, they probably get paid for some of the rides and make revenue. Having a promotional 2-seater day it probably very attractive to sponsors, especially if only a Minardi day. These sponsirs can bring people along and their cars are the centre of attention (for once).

[Dan Fielden]

Originally posted by Redlake27
The likes of Arden are sniffing around F1 .

Who is?? Is this definate

[Super Tourer]

Originally posted by Dan Fielden
Who is?? Is this definate

OT - Arden and Carlin have both expressed an interest in F1, IF customer cars become a reality and the cost cutting moves come to anything.

BCN, the F3000 team run by ex F1 designer Enrique Scalabroni are also believed to be evaluating F1.

[N I Tram]

Very good point about Arden et al's basis behind entering F1 - I believe they can do it profitably, and get reasonable results. Int he late 80s and early 90s a lot of small teams entered F1 despite having little hope of even regular points - they just wanted to be part of the show.

The 2-seater cars should be attached to Paul Stoddard rather than Minardi per se. He owned them before buying Minardi, and runs races with them as a promotional thing for Minardi - it's quite altruistic in its own way, and defiantely not to the detriment of the F1 team.

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by Wrex
Agreed with all above.

One more point, any idea what a wind tunnel costs!

Minardi have access to the Fondmetal Technologies windtunnel... thanks to Mr G.Rumi (RIP )

But.. this is the same wind tunnel that developed the Mercedes LeMans cars that Mr Webber and Mr Dumbreck attempted to launch into outer spaceat significant speed....

At least the Minardis arent UFOs...

[Tweed]

not since Barcelona 2002 anyway!

[JohnSSC]

Slight correction: Windtunnels don't actually develop cars, it would be the engineers who interpret the data who do that, or not, as the case may be.

[DriverT]

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by JohnSSC
Slight correction: Windtunnels don't actually develop cars, it would be the engineers who interpret the data who do that, or not, as the case may be.

Minardi has a number of the right staff... except when presented a much better option in the Arrows technology, chose that very moment to have other things to do, and did not embrace the learnings at all....

It is said a test day was scheduled to back to back the A23 vs the PS01/2/3/4 hybrids... and the Italian part of the engineering equation was mysteriously unavailable....

There is a lot more to Minardi than Mr Stoddart may share.

[Svend]

Originally posted by mountainstar
I just read a news snippet that the power steering systems failed on both cars in monaco and that zsolt and bruni will have to do without power steering for the rest of the season. Also the tubs and other pieces of the car are 2001-02 vintage, and not in design, but actual age. So i'd imagine the cars are getting pretty flaky by now.

Do you have a source for this?

Reminds me of Andrea Moda.

[Kicking-back]

The Minardis pass scrutineering at each race and passed the crash test before the season, so they can't be that bad.

[Stephen Green]

I wouldn't have thought 2001/2002 tubs would have passed todays more stringent crash tests. But not being an expert..........