The wacky financial deals surrounding F1

After Álvaro Parente lost his test seat with Virgin due to a government branch refusing to pay a previously agreed 2 million euros (some sources claim 3 million), now the rumour around is that Vitaly Petrov’s place in Renault isn’t as solid as it seemed. Will Buxton tells in his blog a fairly surreal story about Vitaly and his finances. It is widely known that he got that place thanks to an agreed fee of 15 million euros (yes, that’s an abysmally huge amount of money), and Will claims now in his story that the fee will be paid in two instalments – 7.5M€ in March, and the other 7.5M€ in June. Now, that would be alright if it wasn’t for the source of the money. Vitaly’s father told the russian media that he could not get sponsorship from any major russian company, and had to resort to a last minute extreme bank loan of 7.5M€ to cover the first instalment – a fee that is agreed but that Vitaly’s father hasn’t yet received, which could result in nasty consequences for Vitaly’s place in F1 if it doesn’t come in time.

Vitaly Petrov in Renault colors

This comes off as utterly irresponsible – take a 7.5M€ debt to get your son into racing, without any guarantees you’d make any money from it? It could also be a “pity me” bullshit story to attract more sympathy for Vitaly among potential new sponsors, but it still comes off as weird and desperate, even under that logic. With Formula 1 going back into the paydrivers world, expect more similar stories in the coming months. Drivers will lose seats on the basis of missing payments, guaranteed.

Meanwhile, there are still no decent news about Campos Racing, which has been linked to a partial or full buyout by Tony Teixeira for a long time now – without any official denials. That would be the same man who left A1GP in a state of insolvency, and who still owes money to Ferrari. Desperate much?

I have another point to make. After a decade in which Bernie Ecclestone successfully conned several governments to get them to pay extreme fees to hold races, supposedly for the promotion of tourism and international recognition of the said countries, it appears the new teams like the scheme and want to cash in on it as well. Parente was supposed to have Portuguese tourism money (not a first unfortunately, ask Tiago Monteiro); Petrov has “the sympathy of Putin” – whatever that means; the very dodgy USF1 squad somehow got the Argentinian president to pose along with Windsor and JM Lopéz for pictures, and help fund Lopéz’ seat; Lotus appears to be owned and/or sponsored by a project of the malaysian government; and Ecclestone has recently said that the weird Stefan GP team is solid because it has got serbian government funding – confirmed to him directly by the serbian prime minister. All of this for what exactly? I am sure that in a time of economical crisis there are better ways to spend government money than by funding backmarker teams and drivers of unknown merit? Or am I missing something? Is the exposure gained really worth that much?

Massa remains on top in Valencia F1 testing

There was little to report from Formula 1 in Valencia today as testing is boring. Felipe Massa was quickest again for Ferrari (who certainly seem to have a strong car), and that was it. The most interesting bit of analysis comes again from James Allen, who said the best laps from each driver were done in short stints – except for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who did it at the beginning of a 20 laps stint. Therefore, when looking at today’s list of times think of Hamilton’s as with a bit of a handicap that makes his pace look slower. In fact, there are some reports around that most laps of that stint were all done in the 1:12 mark, which so far seems an impressive pace. No wonder Lewis seems very happy with his new car!

Times from Autosport:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:11.722 124
2. Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari (B) 1:12.056 96
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:12.256 108
4. Kubica Renault (B) 1:12.426 119
5. Rosberg Mercedes GP (B) 1:12.899 119
6. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth (B) 1:13.377 102
7. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:13.823 107

Mercedes seems to have a weird problem with the driver’s seat sinking during the time out on track, which ruins the already limited visibility the drivers have on a F1 car. Renault doesn’t appear to be super strong at the moment, their lap was done in a very short 3-lap stint right at the end of the session, which ended with Kubica parking the car – apparently due to engine failure. Even if they have a dog of a car, I forgive them because that thing looks fantastic in the circuit. Disregard my first comments about it being ugly, the photos that keep coming from Valencia prove otherwise:

Apart from testing, two short news appeared today:

• From Allen again: a deal has been agreed that allows the new teams to skip 3 races of the season. Very helpful for teams like USF1 and Campos who seem to be having trouble in meeting the deadlines, but could mean we’ll see a smaller grid for Bahrain.

• Stefan GP keeps going against common sense and have announced they have shipped a 40 foot container to Bahrain, regardless of what happens. They also will test here in Portugal in the Portimão circuit next month. All of this despite not having an entry to race! Madness.

This week’s testing session at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo finishes tomorrow, and will feature for the first time Jenson Button in a McLaren and Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari.