Prodrive abandon F1 plans for now

The Banbury-based company had agreed a deal for a supply of customer McLaren-Mercedes for 2008, but had to scrap their entry following a legal challenge from rivals Williams about the eligibility of customer cars.

Although there had been some initial hope of the team resurrecting their ambitions for 2009, Prodrive boss David Richards has now admitted that, with customer cars likely to remain outlawed, there is little hope of his team entering F1.

"The new Concorde Agreement ultimately determines that each team has to be a constructor, and the barriers to entry are horrendous," Richards told autosport.com at the Autosport International Show.

"The barrier to entry and being competitive make it virtually impossible, so I do have to question under those terms whether we will consider doing it.

"I am waiting now. There is nothing I can do to influence it any longer. I have done my best and we will sit and wait, let the dust settle and then see what happens."

With the new Concorde Agreement set to confirm that teams will have to build their own cars to race in F1 - with Super Aguri and Scuderia Toro Rosso allowed a two-year exemption - Richards said there was no way Prodrive would consider racing in F1 with their own car.

"I was very clear from the outset, and I have made no bones about it right from day one, about how we were going to go about it," he said about the customer car route being his only way in to F1. "The only reason we were going to go and do it was because the rules changed.

"Now, if the rules are different again we will have to reassess the situation. I know there is a meeting (between the FIA and teams) going on tomorrow, and there will be further discussions before the start of the season to get this clarified, so let's wait and see what happens."

Richards believes that the resistance by teams to allowing customer cars in Formula One is bad for the sport - and especially bad for its fans.

"I just think it is a folly. It plays into the hands of very large organisations with limitless resources and it doesn't serve the interests of the sport well.

"A disparity as great as we have today from the front of the grid to the back is not healthy, and the fact that a new entry is nigh on impossible also is not healthy.

"I believe firmly that the ideas and concept that the FIA had two years ago, of introducing the idea of a customer based vehicle, was exactly the right way to go.

"It would have given teams like Prodrive a competitive start, we would have introduced younger drivers to the sport, we would have been fresher, there would be a lot more impetus and that is what the public wants. They don't want a status quo year after year after year with the same people at the front of the grid."

Richards said he was not disheartened by his F1 ambitions being put on the back-burner, and said his focus was now on improving the fortunes of his Subaru WRC team and Aston Martin.

"There are a lot of other things out there that we should focus on. It is very easy to be distracted and we have all seen it before. So many people have lost their shirts on Formula One and just got lost in the mists of enthusiasm.

"I will use all my energies on getting the Subaru World Rally Team working properly and focusing on Aston Martin."

When asked if he still saw Prodrive competing in F1 in the longer term, he said: "I believe firmly that Prodrive should be there. There is no question in my mind that we should be there, but we are not going to be there without any consideration for the terms of being there."