According to Adam Cooper, it appears any existing deal between Stefan GP and Toyota is dead in the water, and would as thus also suggest that the project is dead as well: http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/03/19/stefan-...a-deal-is-dead/



As for Toyota themselves:

The FIA were right to not let them in.

I guess that means no JV in 2010 2011 hopefully

If true, there would be ABSOLUTELY no sense in his acquiring USF1, would there? (Not that, after Bahrain, there would seem to be any valid point in trying to buy their entry ... )
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82250


He's surely not thinking of actually running the Falcon 2, is he? (If so, that would prove beyond all doubt that he was another crazy dreamer!)


Sending containers by sea is, though Cooper seems unaware, pretty cheap (compared to anything else in F1 - which is why F1 uses airfreight!)

That's just a view of an anti-StefanGP journo.

Stefanovic keeps pushing for F1 slot

That article does nothing to refute Cooper's claims. And buying USF1 would be utter madness. They've already forfeited their entry and any buyer would be liable to any legal action from FIA, FOM, Pechito Lopez, Chad Hurley and the unpaid employees in Charlotte.

In the words of John McEnroe "You cannot be serious!"

Has Todt been paying ANY attention to Stefan?


Cooper says


So, according to Todt, the Stefan/Toyota deal was only made within the last month .

Really? Is that what you really think?
OK, I don't expect the Mote to read this forum himself, but hey, Stefan has been trying to tell him that he's raring to race the Toyotas for many many months.
And President Mote thinks that this "involvement with Toyota" is something that has only come up in the last month?

I think that is taking detachment to a whole new level ...

Actually, the Toyota deal was completed on the 29th January.

Yep, that was when it was announced. (How time flies, etc) However Stefan had been continually knocking at the FIA's door since last year.



Incidentally, the Stefan GP website is down. Or rather And nothing more, at all. http://www.stefangp.com/

Has the roof fallen in over there as well?

So it was as I suspected, an option to buy, Stefan didn't actually own anything. Makes sense.
PS The bs is kinda thick, he's just considering buying USF1 now? Where was he 2 months ago ... on holiday?

Well, clearly Stefan GP was never a robust long-term proposition... but to be fair it would have been difficult to buy USF1 as they were pretending to be a serious proposition themselves, in fact they still pretend they are...

It's difficult to find anything rational when discussing these two wannabe teams.

About the topic, IMO there's nothing surprising with the Toyota deal falling through, logically the whole thing depended on Stefanovic somehow getting an entry, and a 2010 one at that.

Well if you want to nitpick Stefan was saying in January that even if he doesn't get a 2010 entry he will spend the year testing his Toyotas (as he's not bound to Concorde) ... hard to do when you don't own the car isn't it?

Pointless to do it without the proper tires as well...

Let's face it, the FIA would rather have none of anything Stefanovic could offer.

2010 isn't over yet.

The Serbian is one of or the most tenacious nation on the planet.

how does Mr.Stefan do that? He has missed the first race, and will miss more.

The FIA does not take them seriously. Nobody should take them seriously.

This is not even news.

Well Mr. Stefan was a fun diversion while it lasted

What a miserable bunch you lot are, who says a team doesn't have the right to enter and try - oh yeah, the same FIA that you bag for everything else when that suits yourselves.

Yeah but the FIA took USF1 seriously so their judgement is questionable at best.

on the basis of what?
- Stefanovich is Serbian
- is an arms dealer
- speaks not so well English
- and has a poor website through which he expressed a bit clumsy his desire to enter F1

that's putting it nicely....

Good. They'd have been an even bigger embarrasment to the sport than Hispania. Let somebody with a least some decent experience in to the sport, for heaven's sake!

He would have gained entry if they had Uniforms

What a whine. From the beginning Stefan were trying to cut a special deal. They wanted to overturn any proper selection process, they wanted by this to be considered ahead of other possibly better qualified and better resourced teams who applied for inclusion last year. They wanted to paint pictures of their situation which were wildly fanciful as it turns out. We are supposed to believe that they would race in Bahrain with last year's Toyotas, presumably with hastily extended chassis to accomodate larger fuel tanks. They would then ask for dispensation from crash tests I guess. If Charlie visited USF! then he certainly would have needed to do the same with Stefan. And so on and so on. Endless pandering by the disorganised and probably as it turns out dishonest dreamers.

We have survived with 10 teams in F1 we now have nine A teams and three B teams so I'm sure that we will make it through the season with decent grids so what's the hurry? At least at the moment the new improved version of the FIA seem to be acting rather than reacting. I for one hope that the 13th team won't be a will they/won't they team like Campos/HRT who didn't make any testing session and weren't even lined up at the end of pitlane when the lights went green for the first official practice. What is F1 coming to if we somehow consider this sort of antics as normal? Another year gives time o select the best team not the most politically suitable or other reason. To have three new teams on the grid is somewhat artificial given the extraordinarily difficult commercial times facing F1.

What's your point? That he'd be better off as a James Bond villain than a Formula 1 team principal?

Being involved with armaments obviouly wasn't a problem to the F1 community many years ago (Exhibit A - the manufacturers of Jackie Stewart's '69 title winning car, no less):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matra

It should have been as simple a deal as renaming the team as has happened with BMW, Campos, Manor, Braun.

If the car was as good as was expected it is a shame not see it on the grid driven by an ex-world champion.

Obviously a teams accounts are not going to be high before an entry is obtained. Either he would not have made it to the grid or it would have been at least as successful as the other new entries.

I hope we still see the cars on the grid this year as otherwiuse it is a real waste of a probably good car.

If Stefan is really as bad a person as is made out at least he will be in good company.

Actually, it wasn't nearly as simple: Toyota gave up their right to a grid place, and the FIA re-acquired it before giving it to Sauber. Toyota never intended to appear on the 2010 grid in any form.


It wasn't expected to be good in the strictest sense, but a good car for a new team to use.


Yes, but tell me which of the startup teams had a parent company with just five hundred Euros and no income.


Actually, the cars will have evolved again for 2011. Running the TF110 in 2011 would be the same as running a 2009 car this season.

No. The final of those three already had entries. BMW lost their entry but regained it in the place of Toyota.

The team Stefan took over had lost their entry to the 13th team (USF1 was still poodling along at this point) but wanted to get once while bypassing the selection process.

Stefan never had an entry, never was going to get an entry, never deserved an entry and hopefully, never will get an entry.

The selection process is now re-opened. However, the Toyota-Stefan relationship is over.

This is an opportunity for Stefan to prove that he is a viable option. I think he'll be crushed.

I'd say he's already screwed. Jean Todt wants to distance both himself and the FIA from Max Mosley. To that end, he'll most likely want to take an established and successful racing team and drop them in instead of a startup operation like USF1 or Stefan. I'd tip Epsilon Euskadi as the favourite beause the team is populated by ex-Formula 1 personnel and they have experience in running open-wheel racing cars. If they submit an entry (and if they ally with Lola as they have done in Le Mans), I'd say Ray Mallock Limited would be second-favourtie because they've run touring and sports cars pretty extensively for decades. And then maybe Prodrive, because while they've had more success in racing, they're best know for rallying and they have their failure to appear in 2008 on their record (Richards failed to take into consideration the fact that other teams could have an issue with his buying the best chassis and engine combination available).

This was always my cause of sceptisim regarding Stefan GP. Ok for year one, run Toyotas cars. Fine. And for year 2...???

Meanwhile, I am intrigued by Stefans lack of noise since being denied entry. I was expecting the two barrel, 'Todt's an oil tanker' press release by now... Keeping quiet to enter in 2011 or preparing for a legal volley I wonder?

but is it all over?



http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/22032010/23/...-deal-ends.html

brand new website, keep faith in 2011 apply

http://www.stefangp.com/index.htm

Looks like they've even got a merchandise shop being set up. Never give up,do they..

Fat chance. The FIA is NOT going to give the place to a team with even less credibility than USF1.

I just saw on that site, apparently one Sebastien Loeb was an option for the team. Sure.

I noticed the site was down a couple of days ago and assumed it meant they were dead in the water but it seems not!

I'll give them this, the new site IS better than the old one - but then, the site I did for my ICT GCSE was better than the old one! I see they are still using charmingly mangled English though.

They're planning to build a circuit now?! You have to admire their tenacity...

The entrants for this year have looked so lackluster that they might actually have a miniscule chance now, if they lose Coughlan. But without the Toyota deal, I suspect they'd be even worse than HRT.

EDIT: Just noticed that Loeb was apparently an 'option' for 2010....

Stephan's new business plan is creating a racetrack in Croatia or around there somewhere.. The details are on Pitpass

Well, perhaps you should read this!

Oh dear, they really are as eccentric as ever. Has anyone read their 'We want SGP' competition bit?! http://www.stefangp.com/wewantsgp.htm.

Yes, because encouraging people to go out and graffiti is really going to persuade the FIA to let them in!

http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/04/23/stefan-...ild-f1-circuit/

I particularly like the 10+ years old picture of JV with the blonde hair

Those Stefan GP guys are crazy. I like the idea, but if I had to bet...


And am I the only one that's very curious about those 2010 Toyotas? It's such a shame for them to have never hit a track. Surely they are better cars than the new teams currently have?

They're selling mugs?

I see potential for irony.

Yes, he was on the telly the other day, being interviewed for the evening news on the Serbian state TV, he said the circuit will be built "according to the highest F1 standards", and that, since he's pals with Bernie, it will "certainly" be used for official F1 testing although he is "unsure" about hosting a race there since it will cost too much. He "only" needs some 20M Euros from the Government and it's a done deal, he can start building.

The slight problem - if we disregard the fact that the dimensions of the proposed circuit would make it kind of small for F1 - it is supposed to be built in the Syrmia region just north of Belgrade, which has a continental climate, meaning that it is covered under 3ft of snow during the F1 testing season. And there's no testing during the rest of the year.

And to think some people thought that these jokers' EU complaint might derail this season

Zzzz...

This nutcase makes Ashley from MyF1Dream seem credible

Stefan seem to have wised up to the fact that he needs to be professional. It might only be a website, but the new design is 1000% better than their own one. So when you make statements like that, you're the one making myf1dream.com look credible.