Richards: F1 needs to switch focus to survive
Richards' Prodrive firm ran the BAR and Honda Racing teams until 2006
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By Alistair Potter. |  |
Sunday, 20, Dec 2009 01:34
By Adam Leveridge.
Prodrive boss David Richards has said formula one needs to stop spending large amounts of expenditure on irrelevant technologies such as aerodynamics in order to survive.
Richards recently put in a bid to purchase a stake of the Renault F1 team, but his offer was declined in favour of one from Genii Capital, which is run by Luxembourg-based businessman Gerard Lopez.
However, despite being interested in buying into the team as recently as last week, Richards now believes F1 requires dramatic change if it wants to survive.
"The last year has made me have a very careful think about our business and there were times during those 12 months that I had to seriously question the role of motorsport," Richards told The People newspaper.
"The last few weeks have brought that into sharp perspective with the withdrawal of BMW and Toyota from F1 and with question marks still remaining over Renault.
"But as I looked at our organisation and at the way we have constructed ourselves, I really came to the conclusion, that not only will motorsport still play a valid role in the future, but it will, by necessity, have to change.
"We are at a point of time when we are starting to look at a complete new environment for motorsport."
Richards believes that F1 teams need to focus their attention on technologies that could be transferred to road-cars, rather than irrelevant ones like aerodynamics.
"I think it's very appropriate that Jean Todt has taken over the reins of F1 just at this turning point, because I don't think we can carry on the way we have in the past with the excesses we have seen in various fields," said Richards.
"Probably one of the best examples is in aerodynamics, where we talk about relevance of motorsport technology and yet, today, I can't think of anything less relevant than aerodynamics to the general automotive industry.
"Sure, it has a minor part to play, but when one compares it to efficiencies in other areas such as the drive toward the electric vehicle and generative braking systems, I think motorsport has to take a very serious look at itself."