Against the spirit of the rules

[PSfan]

Aguri and Honda have let there plans be known, now its Torro Rosso's and Red Bulls turn to tell us how they plan on running virtually the same chassis for the upcoming season:

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http://www.paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=46400

It is looking increasingly likely that Toro Rosso and Red Bull will race effectively the same formula one chassis in 2007.

The move - as is Super Aguri and Honda's similar plan - is highly controversial, as the spirit of the F1 regulations forbids the use of customer cars until a rule change for 2008.

For 2007, their argument is that Red Bull and Toro Rosso's near-identical cars - to be respectively named 'RB3' and 'STR2' - have been designed and built by third party Red Bull Technologies, who employ Adrian Newey.

Toro Rosso team co-owner Gerhard Berger said: "We are confident the FIA will approve our car. Toro Rosso will fully own the intellectual rights."

The Faenza based team will return to the test tracks with STR2 in early February.
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I find it interesting that "spirit of the rules" is creeping into the articles concerning this subject. As the Toro Rosso car last year set a precidence.

[ShiftingGears]

Theres no consideration for the spirit of the rules in F1. It's so competitive with big money involved that if a team finds a loophole in the rules they will milk it for absolutely everything it's worth.

Anyway, this will be interesting. We will see how the different engines in the chassis size up against each other, and how the drivers size up with each other.

[philipbain]

To be honest 2007 is very much a year of transition as far as the rules and administration of the sport are concerned, the issue of teams sharing chassis that is causing this much controversey this season is actively encouraged by the new rules that are being implemented for next season. Other elements of the 2008 rules are being put through early too for reasons of supply or cost savings, such as homologated engines and a single tyre supplier. In retrospect it may have been much more striaght forward to have started F1's new era (well new concorde agreement at least) in 2007 but for contractual reasons bound by the current concorde agreement this isnt possible. As it is I think that both STR and Super Aguri will run the cars that they have planned to run as their plans are very much in step with the FIA's viewpoint on cost saving and creating more equity between the manufacturer backed teams and the independants. Obviously Spyker are going to fight it as they are the team with the most to lose, but maybe Spyker should concentrate on making themselves as competitive as possible rather than getting distracted with political squabbles so they can out-perform the aformentioned teams and not have to worry about where they get thier chassis designs from.

F1 Team in 'Against the Spirit of the Rules' Shock!

Well I never would have thought it.

[Roamy]

these people need to go race and quit stroking around. If they spent as much time racing as they do whining things would be a hell of a lot better.

[Tazio]

I would say it compromises the integrety of the sport!
If there was an ounce of integrity left.

[zoostation]

I would say it compromises the integrety of the sport!
If there was an ounce of integrity left.

sooooo very true, yet kinda sad hehe

[jjanicke]

The "spirit of the rules" has been violated again and again.

Ferrari's tire ovens
Michelin’s growing tire
....

I think it's time to put the spirit behind us and focus on the success and improved competitiveness of F1. If it requires chassis sharing ala Ferrari-Sauber of past, Honda-Aguri or RedBull-STR so be it. F1 is boring enough as is today. Let's get back to racing and make my favorite sport a sport again.

[jso1985]

I hope Spyker kick their "costumer" ass big time!

[agwiii]

Red Bull plans revealed

It seems that Red Bull will be building the same chassis for Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2007. This is being achieved by using a third party company which is not a signatory to the Concorde Agreement. This has been achieved by turning the old holding company, Red Bull Racing Holdings Ltd, into a company called Red Bull Technology Ltd. This was done on December 20 2006, at least according to Companies House in England, where these matters are officially registered. It is listed as being headquartered at Building 1, Bradbourne Drive in Tilbrook, Milton Keynes. Red Bull Racing Ltd, the signatory of the Concorde Agreement, which was formerly known as Stewart Grand Prix and then Jaguar Racing, is headquartered at Building 2 in Bradbourne Drive.

It is an interesting argument about who designed the car because it is clearly not possible for Red Bull Technology Ltd to have done the job since Christmas but that depends on who was employing the various engineers in the course of the last 12 months. If they were employed by Red Bull Racing Ltd it would be a problem but if they were employed by Red Bull Racing Holdings Ltd there would be a decent argument. When the team announced the hiring of Adrian Newey in November 2005 it was as "Chief Technical Officer" of Red Bull Racing. The team website continues to list Newey, Mark Smith, Ben Agathangelou and Andrew Green as being employed there rather than at a third party company. This obviously needs updating as does Scuderia Toro Rosso's entries on the shared website as this is still listing Gabriele Tredozi as STR's technical director.

There are going to be some people who will argue that this is all just window dressing for the two teams sharing chassis and that the paperwork was done too late to make it credible.

Super Aguri F1 seems to have gone to rather more trouble with its attention to detail and its design work for the 2007 car is being done by a consultancy firm run by Paul White.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17918.html