Prodrive rule out Formula One entry next year

London: Former BAR and Benetton team boss David Richards has ruled out seeking a return to Formula One with his Prodrive company next year.

“Our current focus is on Prodrive’s return to the World Rally Championship in 2011 and that alone takes significant resource to design and develop a totally new car,” he said in a statement on Thursday. Richards is chairman of British sportscar maker Aston Martin, majority owned by Kuwait’s Investment Dar, as well as engineering company Prodrive who formerly ran Subaru’s world rally team. He said Aston Martin’s activities in all categories of sportscar racing, in the United States and Europe and at Le Mans, would continue to expand. Prodrive, who had been seen as one of the strongest candidates to come into Formula One, also compete in Australia’s V8 Supercar series with Ford. “Taking on the challenge of starting a brand new Formula One team, finding the necessary funding and developing the car from scratch is a massive undertaking and not to be under-estimated,” said Richards. “As expected, we’ve witnessed the financial and technical challenges that the new teams have faced this year in just getting to the grid, let alone being competitive. “Whilst I have enormous admiration for their efforts I don’t believe this is an appropriate strategy for Prodrive or Aston Martin to adopt,” he said. Previous Interest Prodrive had been due to enter Formula One in 2008 but withdrew due to uncertainty over future regulations. A subsequent application to be one of several new teams in 2010 was not accepted. They were also in discussions with Renault last year about taking over that team but lost out to Gerard Lopez’s Luxembourg-based Genii Capital. Formula One currently has one vacant slot after the U.S. F1 team, who had secured an entry for this season, hit financial problems and were unable to complete their car. The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) last month invited would-be new teams to register their interest by April 15. They must then formally apply with a final decision expected to be made in July. “We’ve enjoyed a successful involvement in F1 in the past and respect the value it can create; we will therefore keep a close eye on developments in the championship,” said Richards. “However, I have always made it very clear that the timing for a Prodrive entry would be judged on two criteria: that we could be competitive and that the business case would make it a financially viable proposition. “Today, if we were to adopt the strategy of starting a new team, I don’t believe it is possible to meet these two conditions.” Bureau Report