Quote:
Originally Posted by V8 Fireworks
.....IIRC, Jordan Grand Prix was the last team to make the step, which obviously involves getting a factory, buying autoclaves, buying milling machines, hiring skilled fabricators, machinists and composite technicians, hiring design engineers, setting up a wind tunnel (or renting a wind tunnel), etc. It's obviously the step between running a car built by someone else (in the case of F3000/F2, namely Reynard or Dallara etc) and becoming a constructor yourself.....
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I guess it would be Toyota. in the early noughties.
There were the three teams c 2010, but Hispania / HRT were only ever wanting to be nothing different from Haas ie buying a Dallara Chassis etc. Virgin / Marussia arguably with their Simtek/Wirth and Manor partnerships are borderline existing racing businesses making the step up.
Caterham / Lotus other than the Lotus name... well I dont know where or how to position them given they ran as Lotus.
But Toyota were a proper set up from scratch sort of project that included building its own engine IIRC