Peter Windsor has recently spoken about the team's preparations and he addresses some rumors, particularly regarding the scuttlebut about sponsors. The most damaging rumor was that the team had not received their engines because of money problems. He did not refer to the engines in his comments, but he did say there were cash flow problems due a sponsor not paying up. Here are his comments:
"We're still in exactly the same mode - flat out," he explained. "Bahrain is the goal - and we are not thinking of anything else. It is just amazing to see the hours and time that everyone is putting in. We had a slight bump in the road with a sponsor who was late on payment, but that is typical of what can happen to any new team. We've moved on from that and found a replacement."
"The car is quite late because we put a massive amount of development time into it," he explained. "We are taking our time and as a team we are confident we are on the right track. As soon as we are through the crash tests, we will be doing a shakedown and going to Bahrain. We will be in Bahrain. We may not be pretty, but we will be there. And from there we will grow. This is all about belief, passion and people being committed to a very good cause."
He also denied rumors that US F1 had asked for special dispensation to miss the first three races.
I find it interesting that they aparently lost a sponsor but managed to replace that sponsor with another.
I find the comments about the engines a bit strange.Fairly recently one of the mainline F1 press publications Autosport? possibly had an article about this.That was after Bernies comments that thought USF1 would not make it.
The magazine contacted Cosworth who said that all USF1 payments had been made on time.
Whether additional payments have become due and not paid I don't know.
Posted by: sportsman | February 05, 2010 at 08:55 AM