Super Aguri takeover falls through

[Steven Roy]

Why pay a stack of money for a team when you can withdraw your offer and instantly slash the value of the team?  Why spend a fortune buying the team now when you can pick up the assets for a fraction of the amount in a couple of weeks?  They just need to make sure they don't have to pay for a new entry.  Or at the very least they don't lose the right to enter.

[Scott]

Not only that, but the new owners would get TV money and all sorts of little extras now they've been on the grid for 2 years.  It's a win-win deal, but shouldn't be a yard sale.

I hear the FIA has $100m or so kicking around the office...maybe they could throw a little SA's way.  And as already mentioned, Masochist Max has some $300 tucked under his mattress that Bernie paid him for the 100 year rights to F1's income.  Maybe he can buy a chunk of the team so he can get into the Paddock Club after June 3rd.

[cosworth151]

A good article at Grandprix.com on the subject: "Why Super Aguri needs to be saved"

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20250.html

[Scott]

it also describes why Aguri shouldn't bother.  For one thing Honda shouldn't be making a profit on the engine supply, and how will a new investor react to the outstanding Honda engine and chassis invoices.  For another, what is the incentive to finish the year if it is obvious that you will owe the FOM a ton of money (or won't receive any next year for travel) travel costs, and have 0 chance at getting any prize/TV money?  Why waste time at races for another dead-end year?  What a stupid rule.

[Scott]

Bernie's getting involved...looks like they might race in Spain, and if things go well, maybe the rest of the season

From F1 Live

Super Aguri's financial crisis remains dire, but two positive signs emerged from the Leafield camp on Saturday.

Firstly, it has emerged that one of the Japanese team's transporters has been dispatched to the Circuit de Catalunya, scene of next Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, despite uncertainty about whether Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson will be able to compete.

The German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, meanwhile, reveals that negotiations to save the team are in full swing, including the involvement since last Wednesday of F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone -- who has contributed personally to the similar rescue of struggling outfits in the past.

For Super Aguri to survive even to the chequered flag at Barcelona, it is reported that the team needs 2 million euros by Monday. 
 
It is also suggested that Ecclestone, 77, is pushing for another buyout group - this time from Germany - to step up.

Part of his task could be to persuade Honda to commit to continue supplying Super Aguri with cars and engines until the end of 2009.

[Scott]

Transporters are on their way...great news.  I didn't realize Mr. Red Bull had foated his half of Torro Rosso already.  Is that what DC bought, or is this the other half?

From F1 Live:

The entire Super Aguri team, including all the transporters and the race cars, has been dispatched to the Barcelona circuit, it has emerged.

Despite continuing uncertainty about the financial survival of the Japanese outfit, including the question of whether the team will even race this weekend, frantic activity is still going on behind the scenes - including the preparation of the team's facilities and pits at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The German magazine Auto Motor und Sport claims that, after the recent withdrawal of the Magma Group's planned Dubai backing, talks with the Leafield operation have been on again.

The outcome is not yet known, but it is clear that Honda - Super Aguri's main hope of staying afloat at least in the coming days - wants written guarantees from an investor before the team is given the green light to even practice in Spain. 
 
The Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell reported that the Super Aguri sale was complicated by the emergence on the market of Dietrich Mateschitz's 50 percent Toro Rosso share.

It also emerges that the team's Managing Director Daniele Audetto is back in the frame at Super Aguri, despite his absence from the races so far this year.

[Steven Roy]

Mateschitz has said he wants to sell his 50% but Berger wants to hold on to his half.  So Mateschitz is open to offers.  He hasn't taken any action beyond saying he wants to sell in the near future.

The difficulty for SA is they are trying to sell 100% of a team that is using Honda parts against 50% of a team with access to Ferrari technology probably with a bit of good will from Red Bull and with an Adrian Newey car as a starting point.  And in Gerhard Berger they have one of the best deal makers in the paddock.  It is tough for SA to compete with that.

[John S]

  Is that what DC bought, or is this the other half?

 The date of that announcement of DC's purchase was a few minutes into the new day of April 1, so I think it's the half that's always been owned by Red Bull, not Old Bull.

[Scott]

You think that it was a joke that DC is buying half of Torro Rosso?  To me it makes sense now that we hear Vettel may be promoted to RBR, obviously meaning that DC would be then driving for his own team.

[Dare]

I'm with John on this,I took it as a
April Fools joke too

[Alianora La Canta]

Me too. It looked too implausible for it to be anything else!

[Scott]

Maybe I'm a sucker, but I thought he might have the bucks since he sold his share of his Monaco hotel a while back...

[Steven Roy]

It was written as a joke.  I can't see DC putting his money in anything as risky as STR.  Especially when you think that he would then have to finance the cost of the team becoming self sufficient.