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If Paul has just sold our soul to Red Bull, I'll better bid farewell to all of you.:(
It's been nice talking to you here and making new friends but that will be the end of it.:(
And I was just short of my 2000th post.
Thanking you RJ as I have been a follower of FM.com from the days of Rivals.
Comments
if the only thing that has changed is the owner.. well just another chapter in minardi history (Briatore, Rumi, Stoddart, Red Bull etc)
Heres to high hopes.
Forza Minardi!
Also Forza Albers an Doornbos for their qualifying efforts today.
Neil, I have always been impressed with your posting. I have read them eagerly in the past. A cahnge in name with the same hardworking crew CAN be good! Now is when it might prove worthwhile to see OUR team rise up through the ranks. Of Course, time will tell when all the specifics come out in the wash... but at this junture we should all just keep our fingers crossed. I would hope we could change your mind. One day you could say that "I was a Minardi fan back when..."
James, and I know you read these, chin up, our metal is proven through adversity. Change can be good. Windows of opportunity are always presented in times like these.
My point: There is no reason to be sad in Brasil when so many have such a postive attitude (and especially the ones willing to show it):P
One key objective met - team stays in Faenza, with existing staff. That immediately rules out the Tyrrell style scenario, which is good. Makes it more of a Benetton to Renault sort of thing.
That leaves two to go - keeping the Minardi name, and keeping GCM involved. You can't be hopeful, Red Bull are not exactly the sort of crew to respect tradition and history. And who wants to be anyone's second string? But we'll see.
And who would be the true fans - those who stay, or those who go?
i am very impressed by all the spirituality in here - we seem like a family - it's too sad if the name MINARDI at least doesn't stay with the team. If it stays, we'll stay, if not, we'll leave. It no use supporting Red Bull but it will be fun supporting Minardi Red Bull! Gian Carlo, please do something!
Minardi have stuggled on for a long time, but I have always hoped that they would develop into a major team and be fighting for the constructors championship.
Im not sure that this will be possible as Red Bull B team
(or will that be the ferrari C team.) :(
Will faenza be allowed to develop anything new without the main team getting first option?
Will GCM still be involved?
Will we even be able to pick our own drivers??
Red Bull can buy a factory and some great staff but they cannot buy my support.
Im not walking away at this stage because I don't know enough about how things will work out.
If Minardi still have a chance to develop independently and have the same spirit then all will be well.
If not maybe someone better will but the team.:P
That's not to say that all is lost. If Faenza stays and the Minardi name soldiers on, I'm willing to welcome the new owner. Give GCM a role of some sorts, a degree of technical and racing freedom - heck, I'll buy their energy drinks.
Just too much confusion to make a call at this point. Some people are already writing the obituary - don't be so hasty. Let's sit tight and see what kind of a team appears to the grid in 2006.
After that...........well, of course we will all try, won't we?
But at the end of the day, I suspect that there will be general disenchantment, mainly due to the absence of a sense of desperation. Whichever way you cut it, the tem will be a false thing. With poilicy determined eslewhere, it won't matter what talent resides within the team, the best will end up in the A team, and the rest will be a nursery. The cars will be at the back, but there won't be any spirit with it.
What it most greiving though, is that this is the direction that F1 is heading. B teams smack of a corporate look to the grid. Four, or five real teams, and their lackeys. Minardi is just the first.
My dear Sawbones is wrong. there will be nothing of Minardi to stay loyal to.
At least Matt will be back.
He's probably right...
We liked our independent abrasive little underdog, now we'll end up with a cheap corporate yes-man.
Stoddart, I hope your crappy carrier was worth it.
Don't worry I'll be hanging around around to see the nature of the catastrophe, and always have a soft spot for the factory at faenza.
so, it would be foolish to change anything as the Minardi TEAM may bring an differnt perspective to the situation that is new and innovative tha tthe current RBR buys have not thought of... a hard lesson learned back in the 80's by a lot of corporate takeovers...Keep the friggne management and at least learn what they know. keep the fan base, assume certain attrition of that, adn grow brand marketshare .....
Minardi, after all, truly stands for F1... it is the spirit of the team . Accountants talk about this as goodwill in the brand. hopefully SOMEONE AT RBR understands this. Maybe it's a good lesson they learned in Western Pennsylvania about local brand loyalty. never fire the pioneers. Consumers buy on personal realtionships from the pioneers. if the RBR guys forget what got Minardi their very loyal fan base and don't use that then they are not worth supporting becasue then it has become a boardroom deciision.... adn ti will all end in 2-5 years.
Let's see how this plays out....
More annoyed that PS sold the team cheaply when it looked to be on the up, but the big movers of the sport were conspiring against him, next year was looking grim, maybe there was just too much stress for something that was meant to be a dream come true.
"The commitments I wanted I've got - that the workforce will remain and the team will remain in Faenza and that to me was incredibly important.
"It makes me happy if Minardi is more successful under Red Bull than it was under me. I leave Minardi in a lot healthier state than when I bought it in 2000."
Stoddart added that he had received 41 approaches for Minardi since he took over the team in 2001.
(source: BBC)
No-one can bail out yet, despite the B team thing. If the technical core remains Faenza, if Minardi is incorporated into the name, it's Minardi. GCM will hopefully have a consultative role.
We have been waiting for a big sponsor for bloody years and they were never coming. The real options were:
- continue to stumble along
- go bust
- be bought out.
I know which I prefer. Keep the faith. Forza Minardi!
It is more than a little irksome that the Californian telephone club keeps going on about inside information, but never actually says anything. They're starting to sound like whinging Poms.
But here it is "I CHALLENGE PAUL STODDART TO EITHER COME ON HERE, OR TO SUBMIT TO A SEARCHING INTERVIEW BY OUR RESIDENT HACK, AND TELL THE BLOODY TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING".
Simon, I am available by phone hookup if you need an interpreter.
In their involvement in motorsport, Red Bull have continually proven themselves illiterate in the areas of F1 we love - technical innovation, real driver talent, underdog spirit, stoic endurance, even Italian style.
Red Bull are really a bit naff, and always will be. Their veins just don't run with motor oil, and they never will.
:(
Better yet, drink rum instead. :D