Midland Sold

m3_lover · Post 09 Sep 2006, 10:07

The Midland F1 team has been sold to the Dutch-Arab consortium led by Michiel Mol. The deal was concluded in the early hours of the morning on Saturday and is believed to be worth around $90m, rather less than the rumours that have been circulating for weeks. The team is likely to be called Spyker and will probably use customer Ferrari V8 engines, although the details of the deal are not yet clear. We hear that this may be related to a deal for production car engines for the new Spyker 4x4.

An announcement is expected later this morning.

theSuit · Post 10 Sep 2006, 11:45

What's this habit of keeping the old name?
First BMW Sauber (fair enough, Sauber was a nice guy) but Spyker MF1?
It's not like 'Midland' came from anywhere to start with.
Besides, I was looking forward to "Spyker Squadron", possibly the coolest team name in motorsport.

peterh · Post 10 Sep 2006, 12:17

There is a rule that does not allow a team to chenge it's name anytime they like. So they have to keep the MF1 and just add the Spyker. They can change it after 5 years i think

Bender · Post 10 Sep 2006, 13:02

Correct me if i am wrong, but Spyker is owned by one of the guys who started Endemol Productions, the company that invented Big Brother, Who wants to be a Millionaire, Fear factor and Deal or No Deal.

It might be a bit far-fetched but who else can see them creating a TV show out of the F1 circus? It could be called "The Paddock" or "Bernie's Game"

Can you imagine the sponsorship potential of the Spyker MF1 team if they had a TV show?

theSuit · Post 10 Sep 2006, 14:14

Well, it would have to be a scripted comedy rather than a reality show or game show.

JimmyK · Post 10 Sep 2006, 22:46

Well, in all seriousness, there's already the American show, Race Car Driver, which follows one Champ Car driver around.

Could be possible with F1 I suppose, though they don't have the habit of getting into fist-fights every 5 minutes

theSuit · Post 11 Sep 2006, 00:19

Race Car Driver is actually fairly good.

Velha · Post 16 Sep 2006, 11:58

who do you think will be the drivers? Albers will continue obviously, since the team is dutch. But do you think monteiro will have a chance? I hope so, but he and albers aren't exactly best friends...

zenvision · Post 16 Sep 2006, 12:07

did Midland make profit off the sales? because if I remember correctly it was sold to them for £25m and if they managed to offload it for £45m thats a huge profit that they dont deserve, from the first minute they were always ready to sell!

JimmyK · Post 16 Sep 2006, 16:25

Race Car Driver is actually fairly good.

Yeh, I quite like it.

But do you think monteiro will have a chance? I hope so, but he and albers aren't exactly best friends...

I can't really think of anyone better than Monteiro to do it atm...

from the first minute they were always ready to sell!

well, at least they sold it to someone with a cool name:

'Spyker'

Tom · Post 16 Sep 2006, 21:09

A Le Mans classic I believe.

Also I've heard of spyker somewhere else, I'll get back to you on that.

Tom · Post 16 Sep 2006, 22:27

A dutch company called Spyker developed presumably the first 4WD in 1902, it had a 6 cylinder engine and could drive up a flight of steps. The same company surely.

What has this to do with F1 you ask?

Try this...http://www.suttonimages.com/fotoweb/cos ... iedTimeAsc