not sure if this has been posted previously but here goes
Not content with having started to turn the BAR juggernaut around in
an effort to make it competitive in Formula One, Prodrive boss David
Richards is also branching out into another area of world motorsports this
season with the addition of an Australian V8 Supercar involvement.
The process of becoming involved with Ford and Glenn Seton Motorsport,
and the direction he hopes the team will take, were among the topics
discussed when he offered to answer questions from the Australian media this
week.
MC:
Thanks very much for joining us on line and good morning to you. David
needs little introduction to any of us. He has a great reputation in
rallying, he is in his second stint now in Formula One and, of course, is
now dabbling in Australian V8 Supercars. Perhaps the word 'dabbling'
understates that entry to Australia's premier domestic motorsport category
and I am sure there will be some interesting questions about that activity.
But without any further delay, let's go to questions now....
Q:
From the other end, with your involvement now in an Australian V8
Supercar team, the Ford Performance Racing, how quickly do you think it will
be before you are winning races with that team?
DR:
I'm always a little cautious about over-promising on these things. I'm
coming out to Melbourne a little bit early to spend some time with the [V8
Supercar] team and to meet the drivers. I think it's all sorted for Tuesday
night [4 March] to meet the drivers and spend some time having a look
around. The process we are going through at the moment [has reached the
stage where] we sent out a couple of engineers to assist and pull it
together. Obviously, running three cars and building up the team to that
level is a challenge in itself in the short-term, so I think we're just
facing up to the short-term logistical problems at the moment. As we move
on, to be quite blunt with you, I'm looking at next year before we will see
the true performance come out in the team - although I would hope we could
influence things by the middle of the season.
Q:
Continuing on the theme of the V8 Supercars, what was the lure and
what was the process to getting Prodrive involved in the operation out here?
DR:
As you all well know, we bought Tickford a couple of years ago. The
objective of buying Tickford for Prodrive was to expand our engineering
reach and work further in the automotive technology side. The joint venture
with Ford Australia has been cited as one of the most successful
arrangements they have, and we saw it as a platform and a way to promote
ourselves in this particular area.
We also fundamentally believe that performance enhancements on the
road cars really need to go hand in glove with a motorsport programme - to
get the full benefit from that, to get everything working together - so,
since those days, there's obviously been a year of sorting the company out
down there. It's been working very, very well and [we have] a great
relationship with Ford, but clearly we needed to look at the Tickford brand.
Hence, it's changed to Ford Performance Vehicles this year, with the launch
of the new cars, etcetera. That's been the focus in the last twelve or 18
months.
Now we start to shift to putting a racing team alongside it, which is
one of our longer term or medium-term ambitions. And it has taken us six
months to pull that together, to be quite honest with you, to try to find
the right basis to build it on - and that's where we are today.
Q:
Still on the V8 Supercars, the two series that you're already involved
in - the World Rally Championship and Formula One - are both global series.
What was the attraction of getting involved in a series that has a much
smaller scope?
DR:
It really is an adjunct to our activities with Ford Performance
Vehicles in Australia, designed to give that whole business credibility and
validity. We felt that having a race programme running alongside it [was the
way to go] - certainly with the success of the V8 series and the dominance
it has in the Australian sporting scene. We couldn't just sit to one side
and let the teams carry on the way they have been, so we felt we had to take
a very proactive approach. Then we had to decide the best way to do that.
After we looked at whether we just put an engineering resource working
alongside Ford to support all the teams or whether the most appropriate
route was to actually have our own team in there, we came to the conclusion
that the latter way was best.
Q:
Do you see the V8 programme as Prodrive versus TWR - which runs the
dominant Holden Racing Team - as it has been in Europe in the past, or is it
something deeper than that?
DR:
No, this is very much an Australian programme. This is Ford
Performance Vehicles versus Holden, and all we are doing is bringing in as
appropriate some people in the short-term. This is going to be built up as
an Australian operation run out, in the short-term, at Glenn [Seton]'s site
but, in the longer term, we will build a proper facility near Campbellfield
[in Melbourne], near our factory there. So the plan is to have it as a true
Australian organisation, albeit with arm's length support when required back
in Europe.
Q:
Just on that very subject of resources, what is the extent of the
immediate involvement from Europe to Prodrive here? I understand you have
already had engines over for evaluation in England?
DR:
Yes, we are doing some simulation work in England. We have had an
engine over to have a look at, to see what we can do on that side, and we
have sent a couple of our key engineers over to Australia. They started
there a few weeks ago. It really is just building up a better picture of
things - like my visit just before the grand prix will be based around
trying to understand what resources are needed, what recruitment programme
we need to have, and how to best go about the task in the fastest time
possible. There is no way I'm just shipping out 20 people and saying that's
the team - we will recruit locally and we will just be a couple of key
people there, and possibly only for the short-term. Only if it's necessary,
will they stay longer.
Q:
No Falcons on seven-post rigs then?
DR:
Well, not in the short-term, but I believe fundamentally you need to
put the resource where the team is based, and you need to resource the thing
properly in that location. We need to build a really great facility down in
Melbourne so they can contest the series properly from there, not be reliant
on too many outside facilities that we might have. It's all great in the
short-term - and certainly we will access those in the short-term, and we
will take full advantage of them - but I don't think that is sustainable in
the long-term.
Q:
With the level of the drivers that you've got in Prodrive or FPR at
the moment, all the major V8 Supercar teams are already searching for
co-drivers for the Bathurst 1000 later in the year. What's your position on
that? You've obviously got Rickard Rydell and Alain Menu, although Rydell is
not linked to Prodrive anymore. Is there any possibility that European
drivers will come out?
DR:
I'm more concerned about the Melbourne race than I am Bathurst at the
end of the year for the time being, but you are quite right - we have got
access to a number of drivers. The one programme that hasn't been mentioned
to date is our Ferrari sportscar program, where we have got a great line-up
of drivers and we will be doing Sebring as well as Le Mans this year.
The rest of the programme has not been finalised yet, as to which
races we are doing, but amongst that group we have got Anthony Davidson
driving for us, we've got Rydell driving, we've got Menu, as you pointed
out. So we have got some great drivers and, some of them not unfamiliar with
'the mountain' [Mt Panorama at Bathurst] either.
Q:
The expectation here in Australia last year was that Prodrive would
buy Ford's 00 Motorsport team, and a lot of people were surprised when the
announcement was made about GSR [Glenn Seton Racing]. Was that Plan B? And
it appeared that it happened very quickly. Was that really your preferred
choice in the end - or the only choice?
DR:
No, I would say that there were various options open to us throughout,
and all of them were pursued in parallel. As it turns out, I think we have
actually ended up with the best solution of them all and, when we look back
in the next year and we have the operation sort of firmly based in a new
facility alongside the factory, I think it will be a very formidable team.
Q:
Why do you say it's the best solution? What were the deciding factors?
DR:
It would be rather long to go through all the pros and cons of each
aspect now, but we do effectively start with a clean sheet of paper under
this scenario and it allows us to build up an organisation - and one very
much in line with our own thinking rather than inheriting something and then
having to sort of change it.
Q:
There was an enormous amount of speed in those last few weeks [in the
acquisition of Glenn Seton Racing] and there was a deadline date for when
entries had to be in and sign-off on franchises. What's your view on the way
that [V8 Supercar organiser] AVESCO has set up with 35 starting spots
maximum? What's your position on that?
DR:
I'm not well enough versed to really comment in any detail on that.
I'm not trying to avoid the question, but I'm not up to speed on that.
Q:
Looking at the bigger picture: Shanghai. Ford Australia has been
fairly negative, in comparison with most people, towards AVESCO signing a
[five-year deal to race in] Shanghai. What's your view as far as FPV racing
in China?
DR:
Clearly, FPV is very much aligned with Ford Motor Company and if [Ford
Australia boss] Geoff Polites' view is that that is not in the best
interests of Ford, then I dare say it's probably not ideally suited to Ford
Performance Vehicles either. But, nonetheless, with that on the cards, we
have got to make it work for us now, so that the task will be to make sure
it adds value to Ford's motor racing activities and Ford's performance
products as well, so we will be looking at that and trying to maximise that.
Q:
One of the interesting things that happened in V8 Supercars was that
you put together the two-car team of Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton - and
then came David Besnard. Was that a primary requirement, to have a three-car
team?
DR:
No, it wasn't. It was based around the overall economics and
sponsorship requirements.
Q:
Are you concerned or wary of the fact that in a two-car category -
with Ford and Holden - you might be seen as Ford's white knight - and are
you ready for the pressure that goes with that?
DR:
I actually relish that because, clearly, we are partners of Ford in
Ford Performance Vehicles. We see it as a very important activity alongside
that and we can't walk away from our responsibilities. I wouldn't put our
name to it if I didn't feel that we were going to do the job competently and
stand up and be counted at the end of the day.
Q:
Last year, you laid down some pretty defined goals for BAR over five
years. What's a success and failure for FPR this year? And looking to the
next five years as well?
DR:
I think, really, this year is one that we will have to just sit back
and see how it develops because, quite frankly, at this stage in the
programme you can't do an awful lot to influence it. It's very akin to what
we did at BAR last year - you sit there, you grit your teeth and you know
that you have inherited what you've inherited, and you can't influence it
during the course of the year. Maybe you can by the latter part of the
year - by Bathurst and things - but you have to really take the long-term
view and make sure that everybody around you shares that vision and accepts
that it's better to build for the long-term than spend all your time
'fire-fighting' in the short-term.
Q:
Is this a championship-or-nothing in 2004?
DR:
I think it's better that we speak again by mid-season and see what
progress we have made, but I would be very disappointed if we weren't really
challenging strongly next year. We have the tools and equipment to do the
job with.
Q:
With the three V8 Supercar drivers, you have got one who is already a
triple champion [Craig Lowndes] and potentially another five-time champion,
you've got David Besnard, who is a rising star, and you've got Glenn Seton,
who is a past champion. What's Glenn's situation? He has obviously been
carrying some business baggage that's affected his success over the last
couple of years. Is this a chance for him to re-emerge as a front runner?
DR:
I think that's a very good observation. When I went over to Oran Park
last year and watched Glenn and the way he was operating, it was very clear
that to be a driver-manager, running the business as well, is an
extraordinarily difficult task. You have got to be quite a unique person to
be able to achieve that, to manage to divorce the different roles and do
that effectively, and I'm quite convinced that that has impacted on his
performance on the track. Hopefully, relieving him of those responsibilities
we will see Glenn come back to his true form.
Q:
In your V8 Supercar team, Craig Lowndes and David Besnard are linked
to the manufacturer itself. Glenn Seton is not, we believe, on a two-year
contract with FPR. So what does he have to prove over the next year to
maintain his position within the team?
DR:
The team will evolve and each person will evolve in their own roles
within the team as things develop and, as I said before, it's early days
yet. I will be sitting down with the drivers when I get down to Melbourne
and I'm sure these things will sort of come to the fore as everyone starts
working together.
MC:
David, thanks very much for joining us. It's been a fabulous session
and we certainly look forward to seeing you here in Melbourne. All the best,
not only in Melbourne but for the year - in all your various pursuits.
Thanks for a very, very enjoyable session and thanks to everyone else for
your participation.