The car looks fantastic - Gascoyne

Spyker chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne was a very happy man when the new F8-VII made its first appearance last week. Mike always enjoys a challenge, and the maiden run of the car was just the first step in his new adventure at Spyker. For him the fun bit will be making the new car go faster, and building the team up for the future.

For the moment however Gascoyne is helping to put the pieces in place to ensure that that future is as bright as the orange colour scheme of the new car. He’s enjoying being back with a smaller, privateer team that has ambitions to take on the big boys.

"It was one of the main reasons for me deciding to come to the team," Mike said at the launch. "I had a few months off and a chance to think about what I wanted to do in the future. Actually it was a very easy decision to make when these guys came round to see me one morning just before the Monza GP, explained their vision and where they wanted to go.

Knowing the team and how it’s set up, and under no illusions about the work that needs to be done and how we need to move forward, it was a very, very simple decision to make. It’s a great challenge for the future, and one that motivated me to get back into F1, and to take the team back to the front, which is hopefully what I’ve done in most teams I’ve joined previously. Now it’s very clear that I’m here to do it again."

Mike commenced work on 1 November, and while he has been with the team for over three months, that start date was nevertheless too late to have a serious influence on the design of the F8-VII. Instead he has been taking a look at the bigger picture and planning future strategy, although he will now get involved in ongoing development of the new car.

"I think when you come to a new team in November the design of the new car is very much underway, and should be pretty much conceptually finished. That was the case, James has done a great job with this car with the resources he’s had, and the whole team has done a great job over the last few years, so really compliments to all of those guys. If you come in and start trying to change too much, there wouldn’t be a car sitting here now, and there wouldn’t be three cars sitting in Melbourne, because we just wouldn’t have the resources to do that.

James in his role as technical director leaves me free to concentrate on the longer-term future of the company from a technical point of view. As an old boss of mine used to say, anyone can make an F1 car, the trick is to design a quick one!

The team has had limited resources, but now with the stable future that we’ve got and the new owners, we can really start to plan to be a more competitive team longer-term. It’s clear from the management that that’s what they’ve targeted us to achieve, so we’re working on that. James has done a great job to get this car out, it looks fantastic, and hopefully later in the year we’ll make it more and more competitive."

That’s not just wishful thinking on Mike’s part, because there are sound reasons to believe that the car will make progress. This year Spyker will have full time access to not one but two 50% scale wind tunnels. If you want to make an F1 car go faster there is no substitute for sheer hard graft on the aerodynamic side.

"In F1 now with the engine homologation regulations, with everyone being on a control tyre, the chassis is going to be the differentiator, and 90% of chassis performance is in aerodynamics and the wind tunnel. If you’re behind, that’s the first thing you’ve got to address, and we’ve been able to sign a deal with a company called Aerolab. We’re updating our own tunnel, which is something James was planning to do before I arrived, and that was exactly the right thing.

So now we will have the full time use of two wind tunnels and an experienced staff of about 90 people, and that really compares very directly with any major team out there. So in terms of the key chassis elements we’re as big as anyone out there, and that’s why you’ll see us become more competitive in the future."