Q+A Michiel Mol

Michiel Mol is the driving force behind the takeover of MF1 Racing by Spyker Cars, and takes on the new role of Director of F1 Racing. We asked the Dutch entrepreneur for his thoughts on the deal and the future of the team.

"Of course it was fantastic. It really is a dream that has become a reality, and over the past six months we have worked so hard to get this done. By the Saturday night in Monza when we signed it, it was a such a strange feeling. I knew it would take a few days to really grasp and understand what happened!"

"I think Colin started discussions in Bahrain, but the first real discussions were in Malaysia."

"Of course buying an F1 team is quite a complex business, so we had to do due diligence, check all the books, and everything. That tends to take a long time. And meanwhile we had Alex Shnaider, who at first wasn’t sure if he really wanted to sell or not. So it was a strange situation! By the time he really made up his mind and decided, we had a lot of due diligence done. Then we had the contracts, and we had a lot of lawyers involved – one in Moscow, one in London, one in Toronto – and they talked for ages! But every single time Alex and myself discussed stuff directly, it was always in a very good spirit, and in the end that’s what made the deal go through."

"I think Spyker got involved in around June. I knew [Spyker CEO] Victor Muller from other ventures in the past. To me having an F1 team is one thing, but we want to bring it forward. I think for Spyker Cars, which is a high-end luxury car manufacturer, to be linked to F1 you reach hundreds of millions of people. In doing so you become a global brand a lot faster than they otherwise would achieve. We have the best of both worlds."

"Yes, definitely."

"Yes, Spyker is a public company, so that of course made things more complex. There are simply more rules and regulations. It’s a lot harder, but there are advantages too. Now you have shares in a company that is publicly listed, so you can see how it’s doing, and you can buy more shares. There are lots of possibilities."

"Yes, but let’s turn that around. I’ve got a lot of respect for Alex Shnaider for buying the team in the state it was two years ago. Since then Colin predominantly, with Alex as a backer, has made a huge difference. The fundamentals are OK, very good actually, but now we can bring the team even further forward."

"That one thing says more than enough about our ambitions."

"I’ll be in China, definitely. I’ll be attending lots of races. I quit every other thing I’ve been doing, apart from two board member jobs, and I’m doing no operational things, so I can really spend all my time on getting this to the next level."

"Yes, I always do business for the long-term!"