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Skoda to join grid
Harold Miltner
Sunday March 3, 2002
The Observer
Volkswagen are set to spring the biggest surprise of this still young Formula One season by announcing their appearance on the grid. The German car giants are believed to be behind the controversial purchase of the remnants of the bankrupt Prost team, with backing from Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw and even F1 controller Bernie Ecclestone himself, and VW, under the guise of their racing arm Skoda, could be racing as early as the Malaysian Grand Prix in a fortnight.
The sale of Prost's assets for a knockdown £1.5 million to British businessman Charles Nickelson caused anger among the other F1 teams, especially Minardi chief Paul Stoddart, who had to pay £21.4m for his outfit. Confirmation that VW are the power behind Nickelson's consortium would cause further outrage as it would deliver the German company their long-cherished ambition to join F1, at a bargain-basement price, and also give the new team a whole season of on-the-job testing for a concerted championship effort in 2003.
Ecclestone, a close personal friend of Volkswagen's future motor sport head, Bernd Pischetsrieder, is believed to have acted as the go-between in the deal. He has long been under pressure from the big car companies, who wanted to start their own championship, and VW's arrival in F1 would unite them under his reign.
Reports in Germany ahead of this morning's season-opening Australian Grand Prix said VW planned to put Walkinshaw's old Arrows engines into the 2001 Prost chassis in order to race in Malaysia, or possibly the Brazilian GP on 31 March. Although this bolt-together concern, which will be near Walkinshaw's Arrows base in Leafield, Oxfordshire, would have little chance, the new owner would avoid the £100,000 fine for not taking part in a race despite having a licence, and allow Volkswagen to test in an actual race. They would therefore steal a march on, for example, the new Toyota team, who have ploughed millions into developing their own new chassis and engine.
The new team's drivers are set to be Czech Thomas Enge, who raced for Prost in 2001, and Argentine Gaston Mazzacane, the former Minardi driver.
Pischetsrieder, who was a key figure in BMW's return to F1 before having to quit the Bavarian company over its disastrous purchase of Rover, has always sought a return to top-grade motor sport.
'Everybody knows that I have always been an F1 fan and I would love to own a team there one day,' he said. Pointedly, Volkswagen have also refused to discount the report of their purchase of Prost after denials of their imminent F1 entry in the past.
The prospect of a Skoda-branded car lining up on the F1 grid may raise some eyebrows , but since VW bought the Skoda Automotive Works in the Czech Republic in 1995, it has turned the company, founded in 1905, into a cash cow and a successful motorsport outfit.
The plant has been upgraded with new equipment and financial and organisational discipline have been instilled, and Skoda boast arguably the world's most modern car assembly plant with a staff of 900 engineers. Skoda have already produced rally-winning cars.
Pischetsrieder said recently: 'Even if we decided to do it today, we would lack a team.' For this reason, VW's initial idea was to supply a team with engines first, following the lines of their German rivals Mercedes and BMW, but the purchase of Prost will lead them straight to the grid in their own right.
http://www.observer.co.uk/sport/stor...661186,00.html