Christian Horner Q&A

"The initial announcement from the FIA and the subsequent publicity has provoked a substantial amount of interest, both commercially and, to my surprise, even from some drivers. There is a lot of good will towards the project, and that's extremely encouraging."



"Ultimately, it will be the FIA and Formula One Administration (FOA) that would issue the directive as to when we could start a team, and we'll be taking the lead from them, but, at the same time, I acknowledge the teams' concerns. It is a rocky path that we will have to go down and I can understand their frustrations. However if the impetus is there, I am sure there are compromises that can be accommodated into any agreement."



"It's hard to say. If we received the go-ahead in the next month or so I am confident we could have a team on the grid at the start of next season. Any longer than that and we will be looking towards 2006. Obviously the other teams have a lot to discuss, however change at some point in the future is inevitable and it would be a shame to delay the impetus we have at the moment. If compromise can be reached quickly, there's no reason why the current concerns should delay our plans."



"The crucial difference is that we would be able to buy and run a year-old chassis. If you look at recent teams that have failed, such as Pacific and Forti Corse, it's pretty clear they tripped up because they over-committed finances to the design and build process. Alleviate that need and F1 is a realistic goal. Of course, the amount of money we have to raise compared to F3000 is significant [an estimated £15 million as opposed to a F3000 budget of £1.8 million], but F1 is a global sport with an established record in providing sponsors with a return. Our set-up will mean we can provide sponsors with value for money. We'll be going racing for less - and our rate card will reflect that."



"It's the perfect shop window for us to demonstrate our ability to consistently win, and so far our season has been going according to plan [Vitantonio Liuzzi has won both races]. However our ambitions are to progress. As the situation stands, winning the F3000 championship is like winning the Division One football title and then being told you can't graduate to the Premiership. Hopefully, all that is changing."