Gascoyne: Fernandes had ‘balls to do it’
January 10, 2010 by Negative Camber
Filed under F1B Op-Ed, Negative Camber, Prime & Option, Top Story
At the time, we stated that Lotus hired actual drivers that they would have to pay and not rookies with lots of sponsor dollars. We were encouraged about that and according to Jonathan Noble and Matt Beer at AUTOSPORT, so is Lotus technical boss Mike Gascoyne.
“Where Tony is exceptionally brave is that you have to generate the finance to make the team sustainable and he has not taken the short term route – ‘let’s take a guy who is bringing me in three or five million Euros’ – he has taken the downstream route: ‘let’s bring in a guy who is really going to take the whole team up, who is going to deliver results, and downstream I may be signing sponsors for 10 or 20 million Euros.’
“So he has had the balls to take that route. It really is a clear message of where he wants the team to go.”
We couldn’t agree more in signing of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. Two veterans with a wealth of experience and potential in the right car. As Grace had mentioned in our podcasts, it seems daft to get two rookies for the money when neither are that familiar with an F1 teams needs or the series itself. Having two veterans doubles the mileage in credible testing feedback and gives you the best opportunity to put the car in places it should be or even better during a race.
It’s a good my by my estimation and also says something about the Lotus initiative, they are not seeking paying drivers to keep the team afloat. They have the capital and emotional investment to make this work and we, at F1B, truly hope they do make it work to tremendous success.
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An amazing amount of experience, which probably came at a knock-down price.
At the end of 2009, these two fellas had a lot to give but nowhere to go.
They’re also showing a lot of faith in Lotus but hey, nothing ventured – nothing gained.
I agree about their low price tag – especially if they get to keep their private sponsors’ money.
However, in the case of Trulli it may be a really bad decision. He wrecks and racks up an impressive list of cars sent to the scrap heap each season. Last year he broke, crashed, endangered and otherwise squandered no less than 6 chassies that I counted. That’s about one every two races… expensive. And he never going to be a winner.
the people involved in the Lotus team are the most experienced between the new teams, starting from Gascoigne and the drivers, and Berro etc.. so it’s reasonable, if malaysian money are enough, thinking lotus will be the best new team and not too far from toro rosso and force india.. it seems a good start, now we wait for february…
these guys are hyping themselves and so is everyone else,so to me there will be more pressure on lotus than any of the other new teams,if they do not out perform any of the new teams they will look bad,i do not think they will be the best new team,just the most hyped