Is Manor On the Verge of a Takeover?

[Lorenzo Bonder]

Among Formula One's end-of-season rumor frenzy, there is a possible light at the end of the tunnel for Manor Marussia as a U.S. investment group has displayed a keen interest in taking over the operation of the team.

Tavo Hellmund, an American businessman responsible for bringing back both the U.S. and Mexican Grand Prix is believed to be leading an American investment group interested in taking over the reigns of operational control at Manor Marussia.

This rumour comes during one of the many low points in Manor's lifespan, where a considerable share of personnel are believed to be leaving the team, including long time Team Principal and Founder, John Booth, along with CEO and Sporting Director, Graeme Lowdon. The situation could well have been exacerbated had it not been for the intervention of current Team Owner, Stephen Fitzpatrick, when he rescued the outfit during their brief period administration earlier in the year.

Reportedly, Hellmund believes that a deal can still be done with Fitzpatrick, despite openly admitting that the clock is ticking and that if a deal is to be done, then it must be as soon as possible before time runs out for both parties, as he told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper:

"I think if we get to late January or February, it may be too late, and my partners and I would probably lose interest."​

Additionally, Hellmund has laid down conditions under his proposal that the power unit deal for 2016 that Manor currently has with Mercedes would still have the green light and the team's financial position would be solid.

Lastly, and perhaps most absurd of all the 'silly-season' rumours, Hellmund is supposedly drafting plans of placing NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the main race seat for 2016, and keeping current driver Alexander Rossi in the other seat as he "has the resumé".

Do you think this possible takeover could be beneficial to Manor? Do you like the idea of Dale Earnhardt. Jr starting to turn right more than usual by joining the F1 circus? Let us know in the comment section below.

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Go Dale Jr! That would be awesome indeed!
Sounds interesting, lets home its a serious offer and helps bring the team further up the grid in seasons to come.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Lastly, and perhaps most absurd of all the 'silly-season' rumours, Hellmund is supposedly drafting plans of placing NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the main race seat for 2016, and keeping current driver Alexander Rossi in the other seat as he "has the resumé".

Are you kidding me. That would be stupid.
Also, have fun getting him through the SuperLicense thingy.

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

One can dream, right @Jimlaad43?

P.S: Not putting gifs for a long time now.

 

[Jimlaad43]

No, he'd be a detriment to the sport

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

I posted that in a joking way, hombre. Also, that's Tavo's lovely dream, 0 zero chance of happening...but hey, better Dale Jr than Danica Patrick (not playing the man card, I just feel she is not competent enough for NASCAR).

 

[gamer19]

Maybe. I mean... maybe she isn't competent for NASCAR but aren't we talking her about open-wheel series ? Or I lost you somewhere.
And... OK, she's may not be new female Senna but I was VERY VERY surprised looking on wikipedia her results in indycar series. Go look for yourself if you don't believe me.
But if you lazy to do that, here's a quick recap...

2005 - rookie (and the rookie of the year! in front of the ex F1 driver Tomáš Enge and Ryan Briscoe himself!) and 12th in the championship. FOURTH in Indy500 in qualy and FOURTH in the race!?!
Rookie, mind you.
2006 - 9th in the championship.
2007 - 7th in the championship! (one 2nd place and two 3rd)
2008 - 6th in the championship!! (VICTORY in Motegi cirrcuit, Japan)
2009 - 5th in the championship!!! (very constant, fast and in front of such names as Tony Kanaan [ 2004 indycar champion and Indy500 winner!], Graham Rahal [], Marco Andretti [], Justin Wilson [], Dan Wheldon [ 2005 holy macaroni, indycar champion and TWO TIMES Indy500 winner!] and Ryan Hunter-Reay [ indycar champion and Indy500 winner] - all these guys take part in full season, make no mistake!)
So... I just figure....
maybe you'll change your opinion about her. And the female drivers in general perhaps.

So, yes, I would very much like to see her in F1, the fact that she's look hot as Martha Stewart with cookies (joke, in case you're saw "Pixels") is just another

And she's even younger than Button 2 whole years!

 

[Michael Watts]

Dale Jr is happy at Hendrick Motorsports. He has 1 road course win at Watkins Glen, but hates road course racing. He has competed in the the 24 hours at Daytona back in 2001. But just the mention of putting Dale Jr in the car makes this seem like the whole deal is a hoax.

 

[Chris]

Well I suppose Danica has one advantage over her fellow NASCAR drivers: she's far lighter than your average NASCAR driver.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

*snip*

You can look at it in many different ways.

2005: Enge didn't drive all races - Briscoe had no oval experience, and no experience at all in the US.
2006: 9th is good enough, but who did she beat that was any good? Tomas Scheckter, Bryan Herta?
2007: 7th, but yet again, the best drivers she beat was Marco Andrett and Vitor Meira, not two amazing drivers.
2008: Only victory in her career after karting, in the split race. Granted, most of the usual IndyCar-racers did that race. Overall a good season.
2009: Again a good season. Indeed she beats Tony Kanaan, the only time over the 7 seasons she does so. That she beats Graham Rahal isn't strange though, until this season he have not looked like a very good driver, also, Rahal was driving for a Newman/Haas/Lanigan racing that struggled badly with IndyCar. Marco Andretti have never been a top driver either.
Justin Wilson drove for Dayle Coyne Racing. Patrick for Andretti. It's a bit like comparing a Caterham in F1 in 2014 to a team like Ferrari. DCR have been in ChampCar/IndyCar for 31 years, they have 15 podiums, 6 of them by Justin Wilson.
Dan Wheldon was racing for Panther, which had dwindled down to a small team, without much resources back then.
Ryan Hunter Reay was driving for Vision and AJ Foyt, Vision was underfunded, AJ Foyt haven't done anything since 1998 really. The names she beat was big, the team difference, the same.
2010: 10th overall. She got beaten by RHR in the same team (also beaten by all teammates).
2011: 11th overall. She managed to beat Mike Conway, but even EJ Viso have managed to beat Conway over a year.

So no, I don't see any reason why she should go to F1 when there are many other drivers that have shown much more than her.

 

[T2TB]

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[Matt Y]

Are you kidding me. That would be stupid.
Also, have fun getting him through the SuperLicense thingy.

Dale Jr is way to old for an F1 Debut.

 

[Birddogg66]

Good for Tavo Hellmund! The US needs F1 since No one in the France family (Brian or Jim) is involved. We also need to find ways to improve the popularity of Indy Car (my first love of motorsports) as Nascar and United Sportscar has become low quality for one reason or another.

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

Ok, as for reading this Danica Patrick, I brought it up because I kept thinking of Susie Wolff, for unknown reasons.

Also, she is not bad, but in the past five seasons her best standings in a championship is a 10th place, in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (the division access to the Sprint Cup Series). Also consider today the fact she's driving for one of top teams in NASCAR (Stewart-Haas Racing, and soon Gene Haas will have a team in F1 in Haas F1 ) and she can't get nowhere close to good results compared to her teammates, where two are in the "playoffs" The Chase (Kevin Harvick, current NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and Kurt Busch, 2004 Champion and was suspended earlier this year and is still in contention).

Of course that doesn't mean she's all that bad. She managed to score a pole position in the most important race of the NASCAR season: the Daytona 500, in 2013. And she was in third at the final lap of Daytona, but finished eight after some last second moves by no other than Dale Jr and Mark Martin. Still finished an amazing 8th place, being the highest placed woman in the race history and also the only female to lead a lap in the track. But she makes too many mistakes and her crew chief isn't much of a help either.

For me, Junior weaknesses are the age, he's 41, he's not a young gun of course, but at least he's FAR MORE consistent in all tracks than Danica, with an equipment which is very similar. After all, Stewart-Haas get their engines from Hendrick Motorsports (Jr's. team) and also techinical support, so they are very much in par in car and engine wise (see my reasons in parenthesis above). The other weakness is that he's not really good in small ovals (0.5 miles to 1.0 miles, save a few cases like Richmond and Martinsville) compared to the other contenders, but still he's always in better conditions than Danica.

So between Dale Jr. and Danica, I'll take Dale everyday. Does that mean we should count out Danica of F1, hell no. This world is weird place after all.

As for NASCAR being low quality, I think this season has been one of the best I've seen thus far, and last seasons too, but the drivers stupidity post race and recklessness (I'd go and say rednecksness, in a joking fashion ofc). Phoenix race with 7 drivers aiming a spot on the Final Duel in Homestead? This is getting entertaining yo.

 

[Turk]

It would be great to see more Americans involved, it would give the sport a little more security. Plus America had a fine year of stamping out corruption, they came down hard on some corruption that Europeans seemed just fine with. The FIA would want to be careful with how they spend their money in the states, Americans don't tolerate people messing with the almighty dollar.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Conor Daly is a better investment for a longer future than Danica as he is used to this kind of car and more recent open wheel experience than her.
Even IndyCar experience is hard to put together with F1, let alone NASCAR experience, that probably worth (for F1) less than the 2 cents I'm putting here.
If only people could ignore the fact that it's a woman they'd be able to make better analysis.

 

[T2TB]

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