Constructors

MF1 Racing

Alex Shnaider came to F1 at the end of 2004, buying the Jordan team from founder Eddie Jordan. Shnaider was the chairman of a company called Midland, which was involved in the steel business in the Ukraine. Russian-born Canadian Shnaider said he wanted to use F1 to give the company a higher international profile and commissioned chassis from Dallara and an engine supply for 2005 was signed with Toyota. In the course of 2005 it became clear that Shnaider's partners in Midland were less keen on the idea than Shnaider himself but he refused to give up, although the team suffered during 2005 as there was not enough money to improve and key staff were lost. At the end of the year Shnaider renamed the team MF1 Racing and renewed its deal with Toyota for 2006. Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro were retained and the technical team did a decent job despite limited resources. In the end, however, it was clear that Shnaider did not want to spend the kind of money needed in F1 and in the summer of 2006 he sold out to Spyker Cars, and the team was transformed into Spyker F1.