Comments on: Spyker Pays the Piper

By: Clive

Clive — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:20:03 +0000

Hmmm, I hadn’t thought of the possibility that a larger team is footing the bill for Spyker, Patrick. That would explain a lot.

But I can’t see either SA or TR going back to last year’s cars if they lose at arbitration – far more likely would be that they accept the compromise solution suggested by Bernie and continue to run their “copycars” without possibility of scoring points.

By: Clive

Clive — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:13:29 +0000

Yes, I know the $2,000 fee is to discourage frivolous protests, Qwerty, and that it’s chickenfeed to Formula 1 teams. This time, Spyker got their money back but will they continue to do so if they persist in lodging a protest at each race until arbitration begins? Looks like money spent needlessly to me, no matter how small.

By: patrick

patrick — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 10:12:15 +0000

It becomes worthwhile for Spyker if they can force Super Aguri back to their pre-historic Arrows and Toro Rosso back to, uhm, maybe a 2005 Minardi. Put simply, they feel that they are being beaten by two teams whose cars would be slower than their own if they had stuck to the rules.

And don’t rule out the possibility that Williams (or even BMW or Mclaren or some other team that doesn’t much like the idea of customer teams) is paying the piper for Spyker’s legal battles.

By: Qwerty

Qwerty — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 06:54:14 +0000

If I remember correctly USD2000 is the standard protest fee. It applies to just about any FIA sanctioned event. The whole point is to stop time wasters from simply lodging a protest at every chance. It deters competitors from other forms of racing obviously, for USD 2000 is a lot of money for a small privateer who prepares his car in his backyard but for a Formula 1 team its peanuts.

You’d be surprised at the number of trouble makers even in national level events who simply cannot accept being beaten.