StefanGP Better than HRT?

[mkw0101]

So by reading all the replies, StefanGP were bunch fools, liers, and losers?

Thanks for the replies.

[zgred]

More or less... You can find thread about this strange idea here: Stefan GP. Be careful - it is hilarious

[marcush.]

some people maintained it was a crap idea to buy a ready works car with no real in depth knowledge about the why and how.
I´m pretty sure those people are completely wrong any decent race engineer with f1 background and a little development programme should be able to sort out a car in those months ..and even if it were down on performance it surely would be in the same league with the sauber and williams cars .
HRT should have dropped Dallara as soon as they found out about the reality of this car and they would stand a very good chance to even get near points finishes.
but Hurley did fail as well to go and buy this machine and kick out the toaster gang
also Gascoyne was in the best position to actually know what the home bread lotus would be capable of and what could be bought in cologne....does not really add up to me (apart from the little detail that his own company had much business doing it in a rush and filling his pockets not Toyotas..)
for sure STefan GP was a fluke as were the Toasters..two minus not necessarily make a plus...

so in effect all those guys have a very reduced view

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, with all due respect, I think that putting together an F1 team is something remarkable.

Some of us race only in small categories in remote corners of the world. You have to understand many people around find commendable, or remarkable to manage a team in a "big" racing category (and, for many of us, when we think "big", we are not talking about "international" series).

That's specially true for many young race engineers that come to the forum and find themselves in the humbling position of newbie in a very complicated and hard racing world. Some people here works in national series. It's not easy, lemme tell you.

So, imagine how true that is for people around that might think that you have to have a particular character to be in the position of even trying to get a slot in F1. Just this one attempt means you have some history behind you.

Sure, you can fail trying to get one, or you can give the world another failed car, as many people has done in the past. Then, perhaps, given enough resources you can try again. It has happened.

For example, I was curious, after writing the previous paragraph. So, I found that even Bruce McLaren had a bad first season. Bruce McLaren Motors Racing got 3 points, in times of yore (1966), when the "entrance barrier" to F1 wasn't as high as today.

People like respected Sauber (formerly BMW Sauber) got 12 in 1994, something I think speaks volumes about Mr. Sauber.

Renault went as high as zero points in 1977, and Mr. Williams got the same in the same year, that is, nothing, blank, zero points, zilch, nada.

Some people thinks engineering is about being smart. Sometimes it is about having tenacity and a strong wish for learning.

Of course, I can understand the position of some people that could demand a more stringent point of view, telling me: "c'mon, Ciro, this is F1, stop drooling: those people are fakes". That, could be true.

In that case, I ask very respectfully for you to provide the juicy details. Calling someone a liar doesn't cut it: I want to read all there is about their perversity...

Now, in case you don't have the time to write or the knowledge of those details, I'd say is better to refrain from general disqualifications and show some mercy in your comments about HRT or Stefan or USGP (or any of the people that tries to be in F1).

Do it for the rest of us, the ones that never went beyond karting: imagine how discouraging it is, mates.

[WhiteBlue]

Stefan GP's finances: the facts
08/03/2010
There has been some talk about the credibility of Stefan GP boss Zoran Stefanovic in recent days following the FIA's announcement that his team will not be on the grid in 2010. Pitpass will not get involved in such mudslinging so instead turns to its business editor Chris Sylt who reveals the truth about the financial situation of Stefanovic's engineering company AMCO (http://www.amco.st).

The internet register shows that the Amco site is registered to Zoran Stefanovic at Solunska 30 in the Serbian city of Belgrade. Unsurprisingly the Serbian companies register confirms that Amco Korporacija (meaning Amco Corporation in English) is registered to this address but it is the financial details which are more eye-opening. They reveal that the company was only set up in March 2008 and during the year had business income of just £280,000 (€310,000) with expenses of £321,000 (€356,000). Net income for the year was a minuscule £3,600 (€4,000) and it had the grand total of just one employee.

In short, these are hardly the kind of foundations which can fund an F1 team so perhaps it is no surprise that the FIA didn't allow the team in.

AMCO is going to have to pull off some impressive deals to ensure that its next set of figures come anywhere near the revenue of the companies held by other F1 team owners such as Tony Fernandes and Vijay Mallya.

It leaves one wondering whether we will ever see Zoran Stefanovic owning a team. It could well be a bit like wondering whether Simon Gillett will ever host a Grand Prix. Some media outlets openly lauded the efforts of both men but not Pitpass.

One statement about the credibility of Stefanovic which Pitpass will make is that it is aware of at least one sub-£1,000 bill which remains unpaid since July 2009. If he can't meet this small payment it raises the question of whether his other bills are being paid. For now at least however, it isn't something F1 has to worry about.

Update: Pitpass seems to have caught the attention of most of Serbia with this story as our inbox has been abuzz with messages remarking that Mr Sylt has been overly kind to Mr Stefanovic.

Due to a translation error on the Serbain companies register the currency of the financial results was not listed on the pages in English. We assumed the financial data to be in Euros since this is the currency listed on other pages about AMCO on the Serbian companies registry. However, our Serbian readers have pointed out that in fact the Serbian-language pages of the site show the currency to be Dinars and this paints an even more shocking picture of AMCO's finances.

It means that in 2008 the company had business income of just £2,800 (310,000 Dinars), expenses of £3,200 (356,000 Dinars) and net income for the year of £40 (4,000 Dinars). We imagine that even USF1's finances look brighter than that.

Undisputed facts, at least by those people who cared to check the public registers. Pretty much all his references in the engineering world were denied by the companies that he claimed to have worked for.

The news that the government will pay for the Formula 1 team came on the same day as a delegation from the International Monetary Fund arrived in Belgrade to review the way in which its loans are being used. This far Serbia has received €1.12billion of the promised $4.3bn. The money will only be paid over to the government if the IMF is happy that the reforms agreed are taking place. This involves massive cutting in government spending, wage freezes in the public sector and job cuts to make the administration more efficient by getting rid of layers and layers of civil servants. This is tough in an economy where unemployment is running at 18% and where the economy contracted four percent last year. One of the IMF conditions is that Serbia constrain the use of stimulus efforts to revive the economy. It is an interesting discussion as to whether the funding of an F1 programme would be seen as that or not.

This is probably the reason the old money whore Ecclestone supported Stefanovic. They had a corrupt scheme to divert money from the IMF into their own coffers. Only that it failed dramatically.

With these credentials Mr. Stefanovic could not even buy an auto scooter business at the Octoberfest.

[xpensive]

It is very sad to conclude that FOM's business idea these days seems to be to rip-off the taxpayers wherever they can, so perhaps MrE knew about Stefan's financial state all the time, but was eyeing the IMF-money leaking thru a hopelessly corrpt gocernment?