Forza Rossa new F1 team in 2015?

[Daliracing]

I just read an article about forza rossa joining the 2015 Grid. is this true or not? Colin Kolles seems to be the guy behind the project

[GitanesBlondes]

One thing is guaranteed, Colin Kolles will probably be getting paid well for another backmarker.

[Daliracing]

I also have a link to it
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3115 ... y-reports/

[bill shoe]

Marussia was admitted in June 2009 for start of F1 competition at beginning of 2010, and scored first points (recently) at Monaco in May 2014.

By same timeline, Forza Rossa can look forward to first championship points at the 2019 Grand Prix of Monaco. As can Haas Racing.

Will Bernie be out of prison then? Will Ross Brawn still be retired? Will Ron Denis have finally found and sacked all the lazy McLaren employees that were preventing them from winning? Will Caterham have scored their first point?

[adrianjordan]

Marussia was admitted in June 2009 for start of F1 competition at beginning of 2010, and scored first points (recently) at Monaco in May 2014.

By same timeline, Forza Rossa can look forward to first championship points at the 2019 Grand Prix of Monaco. As can Haas Racing.

By that logic though, so will Caterham and HRT...and we know how that worked out..!!

[alexx_88]

The guy supposedly backing the project (Ion Bazac) is quite a wealthy businessman here. Not the richest, but has very strong ties to the government in a way that could allow him to legally get government money for the F1 team. This has been done before, where an F2 driver, Mihai Marinescu, was sponsored by the ministry of tourism and had some "Romania" logos on the car.

[Kiril Varbanov]

It's good we have topic for that. The project background looks strong, as Ion is a respected person, ex-health minister of Romania. He's a chairman of the local importer of Ferrari, Forza Rossa, which are top-notch guys, having the chance to deal with them few years ago for a grand auto show. They have been generous enough to give us 612 Scaglietti and F430 for a test drive and exhibitions, as well as other nice stuff.

On the financial side the project is privately funded, but there are still money evidence to be presented to FIA.

P.S. I have a bit of warm sentiment towards that project, as Romania is one hour away from my home Good luck, neighbors.

[stefan_]

The money that Mihai (who is a great guy by the way) got in F2 were through a European funds programme for promoting the Romanian tourism, or Romania as a thouristic destination. The end result was that the project was deemed uneligible for funding by the EU and Romania had to return the money it got in the first place from the EU as co-funding. So the sponsorship was pretty much 100% from the state and it I don't know how much Bazac was involved.

Nevertheless, Bazac is a pretty important businessman and has some really strong business ties here and abroad, so I think he can attract money. Forza Rossa is a strong brand in Romania, the Ferraris they import are flying off the "shelves" every time a model is brought in the country.

I am Romanian and I was deaf to all these rumours just so I wouldn't be disappointed, but the recent stuff I am hearing gives me some hope that this thing is for real. I just hope that we are not going to be backmarkers . I also think that it is not a healthy thing if this project will be based on money from the Romanian state because our politicians are a bunch of complete morons and the funding can be stopped in a blink of an eye.

[PlatinumZealot]

I think Forza Rossa will stand a chance. This might be the perfect team for Ferrari to sell a chassis and engine to.
Think about a Contract built Chassis from the Ferrari "B" team of young and upcoming designers, made to meet the regs, built to Ferrari standards, with just a smaller budget and less development time. You can have a decent mid-field car born out of such and arrangement.

[ChrisF1]

I think Forza Rossa will stand a chance. This might be the perfect team for Ferrari to sell a chassis and engine to.
Think about a Contract built Chassis from the Ferrari "B" team of young and upcoming designers, made to meet the regs, built to Ferrari standards, with just a smaller budget and less development time. You can have a decent mid-field car born out of such and arrangement.

How so, the current Ferrari designers with years of experience are only just building a midfield car at the moment.

[PlatinumZealot]

LOL Good one! Chris! lol

[Cam]

Been doing some thinking about this new team and there’s some things that don’t really add up. Here’s some background.

Forza Rossa Racing, commonly known as Forza Rossa (from Italian Forza Rossa meaning "Red Force") and sometimes abbreviated to FRR, is a Romanian-owned Formula One team.

Romanian Population
Some 20M peoples and declining. The average wage is €395 a month - that’s below Kazakhstan for reference and 7th from the bottom of all European Countries. Despite recent growth Romania still has the lowest net average monthly wage in the European Union.

Romania Automotive Indsutry
During the Communist period, Romania was one of the largest automobile producers in Central and Eastern Europe, however the industry declined after the 1989 revolution. Previously, other domestic manufacturers such as Tractorul Braşov, ARO and Oltcit existed, however they eventually went bankrupt due to botched privatization in the 1990s. Since 1990, several foreign companies, including Mercedes, Audi, Hyundai, Volvo, Toyota and Peugeot, expressed interest in opening branch plants in Romania, but corruption, uncooperative governments and the mineriads prevented them from doing so. As a result, the Romanian car manufacturing industry currently lags behind neighboring countries such as Hungary or Ukraine.

Google Translate:
"It's a project that we want to become a symbol internationally in Romania knows how to generate value and performance," said company representative Forza Rossa.

Forza Rossa is owned by Camelia and Ion Bazac wife (former Minister of Health) by Forza Rossa Holding.

Forza Rossa, Ferrari sole importer for Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova

So, here’s a Romanian company, that imports Italian Ferrari's, who are promoting F1 to Romanians, who's majority population can’t afford F1 and as a result of the team being located in Germany, seems the Romanians won’t be employed there either, nor local community flow on from local investment. There's no car industry to speak of really and no news about any future moves in that direction. So Italy, Germany and Ferrari are the beneficiaries?

What actual benefit to Romania is there?

[Dragonfly]

Just to add a note about Romanian automotive industry. During the communist era there were strong ties with Renault and several older models were produced in Romania under the brand name "Dacia". I can't provide concrete figures but judging from what I see in my country (neighboring Romania) the brand survived and is successfully (if not aggressively) expanding.

[alexx_88]

The Dacia brand is actually owned by Renault now and has record sales on the low-cost car market.

[Cam]

That would tie in with the rumours of a possible Cateram purchase and/or Renault PU. If it was branded 'Dacia' well that would make some sense I suppose. Certainly a Renault PU with another car brand as title sponsor is not uncommon.

Whatever they do, I just hope this isn't a cash grab by a few at the expense of the Romanian public purse. The last thing the sport needs is further examples of public funds being funneled through F1 for personal gain.