Alex Shnaider: welcome to F1

The Russian-born Canadian billionaire had originally intended to set up his own F1 team from scratch, but ultimately decided it made more sense to take over an existing team as a 'going concern', thus enabling him to avoid paying the $48m (£25.5m) deposit bond required by the FIA of any brand-new team whilst also giving him access to Jordan's share of F1 TV revenues.

All the same, Shnaider leaves little doubt that he intends to stamp his own identity and authority on the organisation. He does not expect to work miracles overnight, but exudes a calm confidence that - with the aid of the expected major capital injection - the team will gradually climb up the F1 food chain.

Autosport's Anthony Rowlinson exclusively spoke to Shnaider about the reasons behind his purchase of Jordan and his objectives for his first F1 season.



It's extremely satisfying and exciting that we have concluded that deal. But I know that the job starts now. We have a lot of hard work in front of us.

We own 100 percent of Jordan Grand Prix. Eddie Jordan will remain involved commercially on certain matters. Our plans with Dallara are continuing and we will have our car. The plan is for 2006. We will keep the name Jordan and we are planning to change it to Midland for 2006.



We looked at Jaguar but we decided it was not right for us. There were too many people and they didn't own their own factory. Then the opportunity with Jordan came about. We saw that we had the opportunity to buy an existing team rather than setting up a new one and we were advised that would make a lot of sense.



They are a good fit, that's for certain. We bought Jordan for commercial reasons. It was a good fit. We have bought intellectual property rights, too, as well as the infrastructure and that has given us an extra year head start on the Midland F1 programme. That's an extra year's learning experience that we wouldn't have been able to achieve if we had set up our own team.

We kept the name because we knew that with time so short before the start of the season we could not really change anything to the car or the team, so we decided there was no point in changing the name.



It's hard to say what people will think of us. We will have to prove ourselves - a lot of work has to be done. We will have to evaluate all the strong points that Jordan Grand Prix has and try to fix the weak points. We also need to invest into the team and reorganise things within it. We have to move up the grid and improve the team.



Realistically I don't think we will improve much on what was achieved last year. There has not been much done to the car, as we know. Work has only just begun and there are new engines that are supposed to be delivered. There is a lot to do.

In the first few races we do not expect to achieve much better results than were achieved last year, but as the season progresses some improvements will be able to be made.



I love the sport. I am a huge fan of Formula 1. It is a global sport, which fits well with Midland's interests. It's something I like much more than other sports. Commercially I do not think it's a risky place to be either. Things are improving and there is a new Concorde Agreement being discussed. I am hopeful that the deficit between the biggest and the smaller teams can be reduced.



We do not spend money unwisely. We don't throw money away. We look to outsource to companies that are able to offer a good service and try not to re-invent the wheel ourselves. We want to learn from other people's successes and not repeat their failures. We will spend money and budget wisely. We put in a lot of hard work and a great deal of attention to detail.