1Malaysia F1 Team - Another Minardi In The Pipeline??

We like to throw away money to satisfy our "Malaysia Boleh" ambitions, money that we don't have actually.

Last time it was the astronaut programme and what do we get? Nothing.

And yesterday, the powers that be has announced that we are competing in F1 next season with a full Malaysian team known as 1Malaysia F1 Team.

Okay, okay, before we get too excited, let's do some homework first before you offer your two cents worth at your local mamak joint.

This is actually the former Lotus F1 team, which once upon a time did compete in F1, between 1957 to 1994. By virtue of the British outfit being owned by Proton, our national car manufacturer, it becomes Malaysia's F1 team by default. That is quite normal for us Malaysians - piggybacking is the name of the game.

Anyway, Lotus F1 was a great team. During that era, Lotus cars were driven to no fewer than six drivers’ world titles by drivers like Jim Clark, Emerson Fittipaldi, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, and Mario Andretti. The cars included the type 25, the first monocoque F1 machine; the type 49, which used the engine as a stressed member of the chassis for the first time; and the beautiful, ground effects type 79.

After Andretti’s 1978 title, the team slowly faded away, despite employing the likes of three-time champion Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, although that was before he won his three world titles. Financial problems began to plague the great British car manufacturer and this has hampered anymore hopes of its motorsports division from progressing any further.

Enter the 90s and to everyone's surprise, Malaysia's national car maker Proton decided to make a bold move by bailing out the ailing Lotus. The move was spearheaded by the late Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad, the CEO of Proton then where the national car maker acquired a controlling 63.75% stake in Lotus.

I actually had the privilige of visiting Lotus' facilities in Hethel, Norwich, 300 km north east of London when I was a journalist way back in 2000. It was a trip organised by Proton, in conjunction with the then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's visit there.

Now, back to the present - the 1Malaysia F1 Team.

The new organization is backed by a consortium of Malaysian entrepreneurs and of course the Malaysian government.

The car will use a Cosworth control engine—which will also power the cars of several other new teams, among them the USF1 outfit—and will be headed by Mike Gascoyne, the mercurial engineer who has worked for the likes of Benetton, Toyota, and most recently, Force India. Gascoyne is a star designer, but is notoriously difficult to get along with, so it will be interesting to see how he copes with other Alpha males in the consortium, primarily Tony Fernandes, the head of Air Asia.

Let's get real here. Honestly, we are being too ambitious. The powers that be when making the announcing yesterday said that the team will be based in hot and humid Sepang where the cars will be designed, manufactured and tested there. "Made in Malaysia and by Malaysians". Even the 200-member technical and pit-stop crew will be an all Malaysian outfit managed by Gascoyne. Wow!

I’d be surprised if the new 1Malaysia F1 Team can scale the heights that Colin Chapman’s outfit managed. For one, Chapman was a maverick who pioneered technologies in racing. The new F1 seems to be hell bent on becoming a spec formula, with the emphasis on parity rather than innovation. Second, while Cosworth will no doubt produce a decent engine, the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari will spend inordinate amounts of cash to gain a few horsepower over their opposition. And finally, while Gascoyne is a brilliant talent, he hasn’t exactly stayed in any one place for long enough to suggest that he’s in it for the long run.

Having said that, remember the Australian Paul Stoddart who owned the now defunct Minardi F1 Team? He conned the Malaysian government big time in the early 2000s to back his financially troubled team. As a result of direct endorsement by the powers that be at that time, he managed to rope in several Malaysian companies such as Magnum 4D, PC Suria and Asiatech to come in as sponsors, renaming the team Go-KL Minardi F1 Team featuring Australian driver Mark Webber and our very own Alex Yoong. I don't think I have to mention what happened to the team after that. Didn't even complete one season.

And at the same time, Petronas was faring much better with the Sauber-Petronas F1 team. Now that's the thing with Petronas. The national oil company had a fool-proof plan when it entered the F1 foray in the mid 90s. It was mainly for fast-track branding, transfer of technology and also a platform to test its lubricants. Petronas did the job well and they progressed from Sauber-Petronas to the BMW-Sauber F1 Team as premium partners. Very, very focused and they knew well enough to let the specialists do the job. "We pump in money, you do what you do best." Something like that. It's a pity that BMW is pulling out from F1 next season. But I guess it is a beautiful ending because if I'm not mistaken, Petronas' partnership with BMW-Saubers ends this season. Just nice.

But I foresee the 1Malaysia F1 Team as being a PR stunt by the usual suspects. Perhaps they feel it's their turn now to bask in glory, to enjoy what Petronas has enjoyed for the past 15 years or so.

As a Malaysian, I wish the team all the best. But I have this nagging feeling that a repeat of Minardi is bound to happen.

But still, I am willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt, furthermore Proton was kind enough to give me the opportunity to travel to England to see first hand how Lotus develops and manufacture cars.

If the team fails, I will be among the first to say this : "Told you so....."