Lola has long been associated with F1 and it appears that a special assessment group has been formed within it’s offices to determine if 2010 is the right time to come back to the series. Most recently Lola have been developing LMP1 and LMP2 cars for the Le Mans series under the Prodrive-Aston badge and they seem keen to give F1 another shot now that Max Mosley has provided a ground work of a sub $100MM opportunity to compete at the top level. This new budget cap has prompted USF1’s Peter Windsor to suggest that this is a tough economy but it is the right time to get in to F1. The budget cap also has tempted Lola apparently.
“The announcement that teams may opt for a prudent, financially responsible ‘cost-capped’ regime from 2010 has resulted in us deciding to fully evaluate the opportunity to develop a car to compete in the FIA Formula One World Championship,” he said.
“Providing world-class engineering excellence, offering high quality solutions governed by a tightly controlled financial regime has been part of Lola’s DNA over the last decade.
“The current necessity for F1 to adopt a responsible approach in times of economic uncertainty has created the ideal conditions for us to consider developing a car for the world championship.”
This is terrific news for me as I think having more teams with competitive packages is good for the sport. Yes, the “Garagistas” are back! That’s not a bad thing to me although I have serious questions about how this is being handle via the FIA. Max knows how to supply teams and to his credit, he may pull this off. As a former owner of March; he could be instrumental in getting new teams in the sport and competitive through economies of scale. Tyrrell lives again!
I welcome privateers and the return of the Garagistas, as Enzo Ferrari once called them, and I think Max should spend most of his time helping make this happen. What I question is his decisions as they tend to be antithetical to everything he is trying to accomplish. Bring Lola back and perhaps a Cosworth/Lola USF1 team would be a welcome sight around these parts.
