sorry for changing the title but I guess it is more appropriate now.
JUNE 10, 2008
Toro Rosso - the Ultimate solution?
There are reports that the British Formula 3 team Ultimate Motorsport is negotiating to buy a shareholding in Scuderia Toro Rosso, with funding for the project coming from the Angolan oil company Sonangol. Ultimate was formed in 2006 by Barry Walsh, a former racer. He had raced with Bertrand Decoster, the boss of Mygale, back in Formula Ford days and the two agreed that the new team would run with Mygale F3 cars in 2007. The team has just scored its first British F3 victory, thanks to the efforts of Michael Devaney at Snetterton last weekend. The team also runs Ricardo Teixeira, who is funded by Sonangol.
There is no doubt that Sonangol can afford an F1 programme. It is the company that manages all of Angola's oil and gas production. The former Portuguese colony is the largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria, but for years the profits from oil were used to pay for a disastrous civil war. This ended in 2002 and since then the country has been rebuilding but still replies heavily on oil with around 85% of all government revenue coming from oil. Much of the money in recent years has been spent on repairing the country's infrastructure but there are plans for new industries, notably the tourist trade.
With the price of oil now booming the Angolans have more money than ever to invest in new schemes. It is often thought that there is a connection between Ricardo Teixeira and A1GP boss Tony, who has been active in Angola over the years, but it is a very common Portuguese name and in reality there is no link. Tony Teixeira was a potential buyer of Scuderia Toro Rosso last year but that idea seems to have failed because the team needed to become a constructor by 2010.
This is not going to be easy, but one can see that a deal between Ultimate and Toro Rosso might be attractive because of the link with Mygale.
The French company is ambitious and having built more than 500 racing cars, notably for Formula Ford, Formula Renault and Formula BMW, has now moved on to Formula 3. With the right investment and recruitment, Mygale might be a fast way for Scuderia Toro to build its cars. The company is based in Magny-Cours and uses the RUAG windtunnel at Emmen, in Switzerland, which was regularly used by Sauber before it built its own facility at Hinwil. Mygale is currently extending its factory, doubling its surface area. The firm has also used the Aero Concepts Engineering (ACE) wind tunnel at Magny Cours (the former Prost facility). A deal involving Mygale would fulfil the ambitions of all concerned and if the money is available, it should be considered a serious possibility. It would almost certainly have to be for 2010 as it is too late to try to build an F1 car from scratch for 2009, but Red Bull has said that its goal was to sell the team by the end of 2009.
so the newest suitor for STR is Ultimate using Angolan oil money.
that sounds a little better than the Lancia rumor but still I would ask a few questions.
why would Ultimate be any better than Minardi/Toro Rosso?
what would Ultimate as an owner do better than as a contractor? Gerhard could hire all their facilities instead of letting them buy the company.
why would Sonangol want to deal with Ultimate and not with STR directly?
how would Ultimate stop STR to get Sonangol sponsor STR and get equity in return?
Ultimate in talks to buy into Toro Rosso F1 team
Tue Jun 10, 2008 6:28pm BST Email | Print | Share| Single Page| Recommend (0) [-] Text [+] LONDON (Reuters) - British Formula Three competitors Ultimate Motorsport said on Tuesday they were in talks to buy a stake in the Toro Rosso Formula One team.
"We are in negotiations so I can't reveal too much about it until everything is final," Ultimate team principal Barry Walsh, whose team are backed by Angolan state oil company Sonangol, told the autosport.com Web site (
http://www.autosport.com).
"We always set out with Formula One as the target," he said. "I would only have got involved in the project in the first place if I was confident we could take it all the way to F1, that is the aim."
"If our plans go the right way, I'd like to think we could be on the grid for 2009."
Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso, formerly Minardi, are co-owned by Red Bull energy drink billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz and fellow-Austrian former grand prix driver Gerhard Berger.
There was no immediate comment from Red Bull.
Mateschitz said in March that Red Bull would sell their stake before 2010 because of an expected change in the Formula One regulations requiring all teams to design and build their own cars.
The current Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing cars are both designed by Red Bull technology under the guidance of former McLaren technical director Adrian Newey.
Ultimate have Angolan Ricardo Teixeira as one of their F3 drivers alongside Ireland's Michael Devaney, a double winner at Snetterton last weekend.
The F3 team use a Mercedes-powered car built by the Magny-Cours based French firm Mygale.
Walsh is a former racing driver turned property developer while racing director Jonny Ostrowski was previously a McLaren Formula One race mechanic.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by John Mehaffey)
so this is in reality Mercs B-team.
last time they tried with ProDrive Williams shot them down and highjacked their sponsors. Bagur is now the main sponsor at Williams. watch out what will happen in this case.
