ESPImperium wrote: ↑28 Jul 2018, 00:24
Done some digging.
Seems Perez, BWT, Mercedes and Stroll Sr have done a job on the team. Mercedes, eager to get a B Team have teamed up with BWT and Perez to wind the team up and wrestle team away from Malya and Sahara for a knocked down sum. Stroll Sr has offered a significant wedge to the court to buy the team out from its owners and buy Lance a decent drive. Liberty are not innocent as well as they have withheld the last two months of payments to Force India to get a sale done as well, this is $7.2m for the last two months.
Do i blame all the interested parties? I do not, Mercedes have seen how good Haas has been for Ferrari and how good Sauber are also becoming. They need a disruptive force in the mid pack to keep Haas and Sauber out of the points, and also a team to develop younger guys. BWT have seen the team go backward this year, so i suspect they want to see their brand in the top ten regularly. Perez is wanting a car that can compete, and he has seen the rise and rise of the stock of Magnussen and Le Clerc this year and is wanting to be up there with both of them. As for Stroll, he is wanting his boy in a top capable 10 car, Williams is not this at the moment. And i secretly think this will also be used for Mercedes to loan out Ocon to Renault for the next two years, a roll Ocon will be happy to take and Renault will also accept and will properly sever the links to Red Bull. And Liberty have been eager to get the Indian pair out of the sport, as they have been bad news and this will also be a means to an end there.
I personally think its good for F1. As long as we don't have a Ericsson situation where a driver is being kept in place in a team when he is seat blocking. Im giving Stroll a few years before this happens, as Markus needs to clear off as he is not that great and giving the seat to a Giovinazzi would be better for the team and F1. Next problem for F1 to solve would be Williams.
This is a mess, but i will say this now, Renault will want a B Team and I suspect there could be another new privateer one too, bringing the grid to 24 in 2021.
The issue with Perez is little different, as the party which sued SFI is the company which sponsors Checo and they once said that they waited for 1 years for their dues which is Salary + other compensation.
As far as BWT is concerned, I never knew that it was on loan. I mean they gave SFI loan to get the whole car pink and lose half of its identity ? BWT is definitely looking to buy into the team and probably thinks they have much better chance of owning it, because before this deal I never knew there is such company.
So all this talks about ganging up against SFI looks true here. I think some people in F1 didn't want to see some outsider/privateer as owner who would play against the will of big three teams and Liberty group, they knew SFI+Sauber are opposing the revenue sharing model and would affect the sport going further.
Next in the line could be Sauber or may be Williams.
One thing is confirmed, Sahara Force India will be sold very soon. And I don't like this idea at all.
Caterham then Marussia and now Force India, Turbo charge era is killing many independent teams.