Jordan Gone/Going Bankrupt????

[Armco Bender]

F1 live are reporting that Swiss newspapers are saying Jordan is nearly/if not bankrupt thats why no new driver has been announced.?.http://f1.racing-live.com/en/

QUOTE:
"Reports in the Swiss press are claiming that the Jordan Formula One team is at the edge of an abyss and that in reality, financially, it is already dead. The team have yet to name a second driver or a title sponsor, putting fear into the hearts of many fans that Max Mosley's statements last year are about to become a reality.

Mosley warned that we might only see 18 cars on the grid when the Australian Grand Prix gets underway in March, as there were a few other teams on the verge of bankruptcy. Paul Stoddart has vowed that his Minardi outfit will be there and is planning on a hometown launch of the new car, and with Arrows already out of the picture, Jordan is the only other squad in serious financial trouble"

Can some one have a scan of the Swiss papers on the net,I cant read the language to see if its true or not?.

[Wrex]

True they are going broke or true a swiss newspaper printed they are? I could find you a dutch paper that says Verstappen is WDC material but that does'nt make it so.

Jordan quiet clearly has some major problems, and if they had signed Frentzen I'd be confident they would'nt see the season out. Red Bull made similar claims about Sauber when they wanted to buy it out.

Why are they sooooooo keen to get into F1? Why not start a new team or take over from Prost or Arrows?

[Sato san]

I found it strange to read yesterday that Ant Davidson said publicly at Autosport show that Eddie Jordan has got his back to the wall in regards to needing money from thhe 2nd driver.....

But i hope it hasnt got that far yet.....

[Armco Bender]

Arrows was to far gone to be worth buying,and its legal owner didnt want to sell it,but Jordan would make more sense,all set to go just no money,fire sale price,only need to change the name on the sides and your ready to race.F1 live is linked to one of the Swiss papers,so maybe they know something on the inside,like they say where theres smoke theres fire(or another F1 team going down in flames).

[f1manoz]

I read reports that Red Bull are waiting in the wings if Jordan collapse. For Jordan to survive, they either need to sign Irvine to up the sponsorship from B&H, or sign Bernoldi so Red Bull will put much needed funds into the team.

Otherwise, the report stated, Jordan may collapse before the season starts and Red Bull will take over and perhaps create their all-American team.

[DNQ]

I hope this isn't true - Simtek, Arrows, Prost, Pacific, Larrousse, Lola, and now maybe Jordan. Shame it has taken this long to realise there is a problem...

Still on the positive side, at least there would be a buyer for Jordan I imagine, and EJ is a clever man, so let's wait and see what happens.

[Sodemo]

Maybe he could have a garage sale to raise funds, - hey, similar to what Justin has in mind...

[Maxmil]

Originally posted by Wrex
Why are they [Red Bull] sooooooo keen to get into F1? Why not start a new team or take over from Prost or Arrows?

I think Red Bull's strategy is two fold. (A) They want to have their own F1 team, not just be a major sponsor. They may want to have complete control of their F1 marketing effort and not be subject to the whims of a privateer like Prost or Walkinshaw, or perhaps there is some other reason.

(B) Their marketing effort here in the U.S. seems to be going nowhere - you rarely see the drink offered for sale, and there is very little advertising - and I believe they think that an all U.S. team would jump start this as well as increasing the U.S. interest in F1, which of course would also increase the value of their investment.

They may well have been interested in Arrows or Prost, but the individuals concerned do not seem to have been receptive to giving up their total control of the teams. Another reason may be that both teams had run up such staggering debts that it just wasn't economical to attempt to take control. I have not been seeing stories that Eddie Jordon has run up huge debts, just that he is having alot of difficulty putting together finances for the 2003 season.

If they could pay a reasonable price or even a bit more than reasonable to buy out Eddie Jordan now and provide the needed funds for the season, this would probably cost alot less than starting their own team which could not possibly be ready before next (2004) year.

The big question is, will EJ sell?

(Alot of stupid typos to edit this morning.)

[ghinzani]

A sponsor who wanted to take over a team should wait for them to go bankrupt then Eddie will be out of the way - they they buy the team and put in their own management structure. Obviously they would have to have made sure Ford would still be prepared to supply them, but judging by the state Ford are in financially they will take anyones dollars/euros !!

[Maxmil]

Originally posted by ghinzani
A sponsor who wanted to take over a team should wait for them to go bankrupt then Eddie will be out of the way - they they buy the team and put in their own management structure.

The trouble with that strategy is that the privateers who run their own teams seem to run up these horrendous debts before actually going into bankruptcy. As was proved in the Prost case, it seems to be contrary to the rules for a new buyer to acqire the rights to start cars in F1 events, at least without assuming all of the teams's debts as well. All that is being sold in the bankruptcy proceedings are hardware and real estate. To make a viable acquisition of an F1 team, you need to get to the owner before the creditors are in too deep.

[Nicholas]

If Jordan have a car this year, I suppose it'll be called the EJ13? Oooh, unlucky!

[Sato san]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by f1manoz
For Jordan to survive, they either need to sign Irvine to up the sponsorship from B&H, or sign Bernoldi so Red Bull will put much needed funds into the team. /QUOTE]

it doesnt have to be Irvine.......it looks like Davidson is just as much in the running for that seat as Irvine is ...it just needs to be a british driver .

[Ej10]

Red bull are trying to send nasty rumors that jordan are going bankrupt thus putting potential sponsers off sponsering jordan in 2003. Sad but true. I think if red bull do take over a f1 team it will be the start of the end of f1.

[Sato san]

Originally posted by Ej10
it will be the start of the end of f1.

i honestly think that has already started to happen........

[ASCII Man]

Started? We're well underway to the end IMHO...

[ss_collins]

F1 will never quite end but its worth Noting that CART is spreading its wings a bit a looking like a proper racing series which F1 is not.

[NiceGuyEddie]

Isn't CART the racingseries that is in real serious trouble

(I agree that CART in its more -lets say- healthier days presented a better series than modern F1)

[ASCII Man]

Craig Pollock will announce his new team next week to compete in CART next year (2003), so good news for the CART-series.

[Sodemo]

CART had about 18 - 20 cars starting last season, the same as F1.

[Sodemo]

My theory is that the big boys in F1 actually want the field reduced to 16 - 18 cars, so they are forced to run 3 cars, more sponsorship money, more advertising, more exposure for 1-2-3 finishes etc.

[Jay]

I don't get how Red Bull thinks having an American in F1 will help them sell their drink...

In many ways, I think they'd be smarter to sponsor a Nascar team.

[ASCII Man]

Aren't they already mainsponsor of an IRL team?

[DNQ]

Originally posted by The Monster
My theory is that the big boys in F1 actually want the field reduced to 16 - 18 cars, so they are forced to run 3 cars, more sponsorship money, more advertising, more exposure for 1-2-3 finishes etc.

I think you might be right. Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Renault, they don't give a damn what's going on at the back of the grid

It's a shame, despite what those in control think, F1 can not sustain it's success without privateers. When the manufacturers pull out (which they will, look at Le Mans, BTCC, CART etc), who then will fill up the grids. The privateers...of which we currently have hardly any...

[DNQ]

Originally posted by ®îjñtjûh
Aren't they already mainsponsor of an IRL team?

Yep, Eddie Cheever's team I think.

[EERO]

The Swiss story was picked pu by F1Live

http://f1.racing-live.com/en/index.h...12041938.shtml


If its true, its sad. Given that Fisi was just voted Best Driver by the others, this doesn't bode well.