Wallio wrote:Teams that are doing OK:
Force India - Their rep as a poor team seems to have more to do with their owner, who's a crook. The team is still sending out developments, so they seem ok.
Williams - Yes Pasta is bringing loads of money, but the team is pubicily owned now, and with Claire in place, theres a long term plan. They ain't going anywhere. Remember Williams folded once, didn't last too long, did it?
Sauber - Yes they needed Russian money, but money is money and Sauber has always run pay-drivers. Peter simply will not let this team die. He proved it after BMW left.
In the case of Force India, the problem is that the current owners are not exactly in a great position - Kingfisher Airlines is still causing considerable cash flow problems for Mallya, whilst United Spirits, the company which not only proves most of the sponsorship of the team but, I believe, also acts a guarantor of their debts, is slowly slipping out of Mallya's control (he's already had to sell 25% of that company to Diageo, and Diageo have made it clear that, provided the regulators approve it, they want to take a controlling stake in the company). As for Sahara, they are currently involved in extensive legal action in India over allegations of misleading investors and are currently being asked to repay $2.5 billion in damages - which has naturally lead some to wonder what impact that might have on the team.
As for Williams, financially they are not in a good shape - their latest set of accounts showed that the losses of the racing team were increasing compared to 2012, whilst the wider group as a whole (i.e. including non F1 related activity) has also seen its turnover shrink markedly too. Sir Frank may be doggedly determined to hold on and Claire evidently shares that same streak too, but if the wider group is struggling to maintain its workload and the team heavily relies on PDVSA, there is only so far that stubbornness can take you.
As for Sauber, whilst Peter Sauber has stepped in to save the team twice from destruction, there is only so far that he his resources can stretch - he had to personally bail out the team this time around, but has indicated that, having done so twice before, he might not have be able to do so for a third time in relatively rapid succession if things do turn sour once more for the team.
Even now, despite an injection of funding from outside partners, Sauber are by no means secure - Kaltenborn has admitted that Sauber may have to pay Ferrari to give Sirotkin a test because Sauber have neither the budget nor the resources to run any of their old cars to give Sirotkin the mileage he needs for a superlicence.
Ed24 wrote:That's not a bad appraisal, although you never know with Toro Rosso I suppose, it's not that impossible that Dietrich could wake up one day and scale back his F1 involvement.
As for Lotus, they're basically stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they need to spend more to try and get access to more Constructors' money, but the amount required is way too high for them and they've been screwed in the Concorde agreement as mentioned.
Dietrich supposedly did try to sell the team off after customer cars were outlawed, and it does seem to be in something of an odd state of suspended animation these days - it lives, and yet Red Bull seem to have no real interest in expanding Toro Rosso's operations given that their focus in on the main team.
