Confirmed: Midland will build their own 2006 car!

[Inigo Montoya]

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/formul...ng-formula_one

Many had thought that Dallara would build it, but they are going to do it alone. They'll just use the Dallara wind tunnel. Schnaider has heavy pockets, lets hope he can bring this team back to where it should be

[Kicking-back]

A sensible move this - they realised they had the facilities to do it in house.

Although it will be a "Midland" not a "Jordan".

[Inigo Montoya]

It will always be a Jordan to me

Remind me please, KB, was Midland one of the ones that signed on to the "new" Concorde agreement?

[Kicking-back]

Who knows?

They've had talks with "both" sides - but I don't think anything's signed.

[andy_b]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

A sensible move this - they realised they had the facilities to do it in house.

It would be IF so many people hadnt left Jordan over the last six or so months and if Midland hadnt gained a reputation in the midlands for being slow payers.

Whose there Tech Director?

[Inigo Montoya]

I don't think they've announced their tech director for next year yet. But IIRC Gary Anderson's name has been tossed about.

[Sodemo]

Do they have one?

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by andy_b

Who is their Tech Director?

Do they have one?

This isnt a good thing is it surely?

[BootsOntheSide]

Midland will have to assemble a techncial team pretty quickly - only the remnants of the old Jordan staff are still there. The whole team looks pretty shambolic right now, with Minardi beating them, Carlion gone, Kolles and Karthikeyan not on speaking terms, and apparent serious consideration of an 18 year old (Andrew Ranger) as a 2006 driver.

[Louis B.]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

Midland will have to assemble a techncial team pretty quickly - only the remnants of the old Jordan staff are still there. The whole team looks pretty shambolic right now, with Minardi beating them, Carlion gone, Kolles and Karthikeyan not on speaking terms, and apparent serious consideration of an 18 year old (Andrew Ranger) as a 2006 driver.

Andrew Ranger in F1 in 2006! Where did you read that? It would be great.

[Sodemo]

Midland is a walking disaster at the moment, reminds me of the 1990's of Forti, and L1FE...

[GP Racer]

I feel a disaster coming on.

We all know deep pockets is no guarantee of success in F1.

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

Having read the quote I've taken it as a roundabout way of saying they'll take the work Dallara has already done on the aero and add there own gubbins from here on in. At least having had Dallara work on the car since last year they won't be starting from scratch and embarresing themselves with another lashed together car.

Interesting that Shnaider paid off everything on the Jordan books, can't have been cheap. Maybe he's more commited to the team than the media makes out?

[BSchneiderFan]

Originally Posted by Inigo Montoya

It will always be a Jordan to me

How 'bout them Tyrrell-Hondas, then? And the Stewart-Cosworths...

[Dixie Flatline]

Originally Posted by Louis B.

Andrew Ranger in F1 in 2006! Where did you read that? It would be great.

JV was asked about Andrew Ranger in F1 in the near future. JV cautioned Ranger not to jump in too quickly.

[JohnSSC]

Midland to build thier own car!! My heart sings to know that soon the Radical New Minardi will be given serious competition from Midland and their plucky team of Technical Boffins who have not yet been assembled to assemble a car that must hit the track sometime next season!!

Cor, now we are talking some serious interest (finally) on race day! No more of these silly inter-team competitions - you know: JPM vs Kimi (yawn) or Nick vs Mark (ho-hum) or JV vs Massa (honey, could you pass the quaaludes?) or worse, that dreadful Alonso vs Fisi matchup. Better yet, say goodbye to watching Toyota perhaps pounce on a win or good old DC snatching points from Tea,s greater than RBR! I will be riveted to my telly waiting to see the Titanic Struggle that will be going on on the Blunt end of the field: Kartheykan (or however you spell it - I must learn one day!) vs Albers, Freisacher slugging it out with Tiago and Paul Stoddart making Grand Pronouncements at Every Opportunity about how well the Radical New Minardi is doing vs the MidJorLlara.

Bernie Ecclestone must be jumping up and down on his bed of ten pound notes laughing and shouting: "This is just what the show needed! F1 is Saved!"

[Inigo Montoya]

I'm guessing you'd rather see them fold then?

[ActiveMS]

Originally Posted by Inigo Montoya

I'm guessing you'd rather see them fold then?

I dont think many want them to fold as that would be a shame, but it does seem the russian has rubbed alot of people up the wrong way including staff, creditors and many others. I'd like to see him sell Jordan to someone capable of doing a good job. IMHO he subscribes to PPM (P*ss Poor Management) more commonly seen in most donkey corporates

Carlin was wise enough to jump before it sinks and it sounds like many key people left straight after the sale of Jordan to Midland.

Also, even though the russian has wads of cash on paper, I dont reckon he's willing to spend whats needed if indeed he has it.


Simply put, without the right people and a sensible budget things wont get any better.

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by The Monster

Midland is a walking disaster at the moment, reminds me of the 1990's of Forti, and L1FE...

Nothing like it!


Lets judge them on their proper debut, rather than this "get through the year" lash-up of Jordan

[the_royksopp]

Originally Posted by Inigo Montoya

I don't think they've announced their tech director for next year yet. But IIRC Gary Anderson's name has been tossed about.

His name was mentioned, yes, but that was a complete duck - he revealed never having anything to do with Midland.

The whole project is a real disaster. Shnaider was pushed into starting his project a year early, a move which couldn't bring anything but stress and confusion. That lead to Shnaider stomping in with his posse of Carlin, Kolles, Jeltsin Jr, and a couple of other guys, less than three months before the start of the season, with the old Jordan-gang rapidly exiting through the backdoor. EJ himself got a job as something marketing'ish, but i don't think he's ever actually done much in that job. That was more symbolic.

Now, Shnaider has quickly lost interest in his new project, Dallara seems to be pretty much out of the project, and Carlin has left, leaving the team with Colin Kolles, who has quickly shown to be absolutely not capable of running a F1-team, especially one with tight budgets. So, a team that had an overwhelming array of head figures is now all over suddenly misplaced in the hands of Kolles.

Midland now faces the uneasy task of building a car from scratch, without qualified drivers to do the development, without a technical director, atleast from what we know - the website doesn't give any information, as it has been closed down for weeks and weeks, and with a team leader who honestly doesn't know whether to **** or wind his watch. The team will have to build it's brand from scratch too, being completely rebranded and -coloured from next year - the unknown Midland-name, that haven't even featured as a sponsor on this years car, defenitely will be even worse to suck in sponsors than the Jordan-brand. The team has clear budgettary problems, and thus will be forced to take in drivers from primarily single-driver countries who'll have a lot of backing - Narain fits that bill, Andrew Ranger might do that too, but for what it's worth, i think eventually Shnaider will have to oversee his own national interests and go for the money.

Easy task? No. I see disaster coming, and i predict a lot of buyovers and new buyovers, eventually putting the team into a turmoil that will kill it. Or one owner might be lucky to hit the right package at the right year, and the good 'ole team will be all safe. I wouldn't put my money on it though .

[climb]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

A sensible move this - they realised they had the facilities to do it in house.

Although it will be a "Midland" not a "Jordan".

IMHO They realized they couldn't make most Jordan staff redundant as easily as they thought.
The purchase of Jordan had 4 clear motivations:
1) Save the F1 entry fee
2) Enjoy TV rights proceeds since this year, and, above all:
3) Get a ready-to-go race team, once Midland realized it was absolutely impossible to set up a brand-new one
4) Get rid of Jordan design office and work with Dallara

Once point 4 proved politically very tough, the obvious decision was the one
they took; everybody would have done the same, even if now they'll have to face higher running costs

[BootsOntheSide]

Alex Schanier has pretty much gone about things the wrong way right from the start - he's going to certianly have to put a lot into marketing the team as Midland at the start of 2006, so as to distance them as much as possible from this season's fiasco. Kolles surely has to go if the team is to progress, his man-management has pushed the team to disaster already.

[Mackmot]

IT was fairly obvious last week when they were advertising jobs in Autosport to build their new car. I thought it was funny that Autosport didnt pick up on it.

[JohnSSC]

Inigo - geez! I used smilies and everything and you still thought I was wishing an ill fate on the plucky lads from Midland.

What I was trying to do was pull the reins on the unbridled enthusiasm regarding this silly announcement. I don't want them to fail at all - as fans, we need to see what is there and save the excitement for when it is deserved.

Look how much money Toyota have thrown at F1. Now, at last, they are seeing some good results. Just because Schnaider is wealthy does not mean he is going to spend his personal fortune building an F1 car. At this point, he couldn't if he wanted to as there is no one to do it. Aside from that, rich people learn quickly that the fastest way to turn a big fortune into a small one is to own a racing team - especially F1.

The_royskopp hit the nail on the head with his assesssment, and I tend to agree with GP that there is a disaster in the making here.

[GTRMagic]

Every time I read an article about Narain, I wonder just how much better Minardi would be with his US$24m budget from Tata......