APRIL 28, 2006

Richards hails "wonderful news"

Prodrive boss David Richards says that it is wonderful news that the company has been granted the 12th entry in the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Prodrive boss David Richards says that it is wonderful news that the company has been granted the 12th entry in the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Ê "We have won World Rally Championships, British Touring Car titles and the GT1 class at Le Mans, and have been saying for some time that we would also like to be in Formula 1 with our own Prodrive team.Ê We are now one step closer."

Richards and some of his management team have experience in F1. He ran Benetton in 1998 and then managed the BAR F1 team from 2002 to 2004.

The big problem now is for the team to find the money to get things ready in time.

Ê "We are confident that the new regulations will not only allow Prodrive to be competitive on an affordable budget, but will also make Formula 1 more exciting and, ultimately, even more entertaining for spectators and TV audiences around the world," Richard says.

For the time being the team will run the F1 operation from its base in Banbury but plans to relocate the entire operation to Honiley Aerodrome, near Warwick, once that gets the necessary planning permission. The team is confident that this will happen. Prodrive is hoping that construction could commence by the end of this year but that is optimistic.

"An entry is just the beginning," admits Richards. "We now have less than two years to build a team and put two competitive cars on the starting grid for the first race of the 2008 championship.Ê ÊThe task is enormous and the expertise and experience of the established teams well recognised. However, Prodrive has more than 20 years of motorsport experience and all of us relish a challenge."