The three-door Alfa...
The three-door Alfa hatchback will share its underpinnings with Fiat"s Grande Punto. And engineers are currently testing a prototype fitted with a 197bhp petrol engine and limited-slip differential, which could form the basis of a hot GTA variant. The newcomer, known internally as the Racer, looks set to revive the brand"s Junior tag from the Sixties and Seventies. However, Alfa bosses re÷main undecided on whether to replace the existing numeric naming system across the rest of the line-up.
The die is already cast...
The die is already cast for the first half of next season, and thereò€™s no reason why it should be any different here to last year
On the face of it, life would seem to have come full circle for Mike Gascoyne. In the middle of 2000, he was one of Formula One’s up-and-coming technical chiefs, when he revealed he was leaving Jordan for Renault.
A couple of years later came a multi-million pound move to Toyota, before that relationship broke down.
In September 2006, Gascoyne was unveiled as the new chief technical officer of Spyker MF1, the team that Jordan has become. With Ferrari engines for 2007 and one of the most respected technical brains in the pitlane guiding the design of its cars, Spyker should be on the up next year.
Yet the man known to many in F1 as Gazza doesn’t believe it is that simple. “Things haven’t really moved on since I was last here,” he said. “In many respects, the team has got worse than it was. It had a lot of experienced staff – people such as Sam Michael (now at Williams), Dino Toso (now at Renault) and Mark Smith (now at Red Bull) – but it’s lost them. The rest of F1 has grown up in the meantime. The die is already cast for the first half of next season, and there’s no reason why it should be any different here to last year. By 2008, we want to have moved forwards.”
F1 has changed dramatically since Gascoyne left Jordan. Toyota (his former employer) has joined the field, Honda has returned and BMW now has its own factory team. But Spyker’s new technical chief believes independent teams such as his can still thrive.
He explained: “When I was at Tyrrell in the early Nineties, we’d ask if we had the pace to race for points. The answer was usually no, so we’d have to look at variables such as the weather and possible safety car periods to enable us to steal a point. It will be the same here. We’re targeting 100 per cent reliability, and we have to go into each race thinking we can score points.”
Gascoyne’s relationship with Toyota crumbled after a handful of races this season. He wouldn’t comment on exactly why it went wrong, but did confirm that he wouldn’t miss the bureaucracy. He said: “I think if you look at two teams that underperformed last year, it was the two Japanese squads (Honda and Toyota) – and they are the two with the most corporate involvement. I’m happy to be out of that.”
He added: “At Toyota, my office was right next to the design office. Here, I am based on the other side of the factory to that department, but distance-wise I am still closer. That gives you some idea of the sheer scale of a manufacturer team now.”
In terms of size, Spyker can’t compete with F1’s big boys, but in lead driver Christijan Albers it has someone who can get the most out of his car. Now it’s up to Gascoyne to give him a package worthy of his talents.
“Hopefully, we can improve the wind tunnel and become more competitive. I’m looking for a stronger performance in the second half of 2007,” he said. Funnily enough, that’s exactly what he delivered the last time he joined Jordan.