Formula One news

Prodrive taking things slowly

Prodrive founder David Richards has admitted he is taking things slowly in preparation for his team's F1 debut in 2008. Richards said the team's test programme won't commence until the end of 2007.

Speaking to Formula1.com Richards said: "Everybody wants to know the state of our new factory and the number of our staff. But I can tell you that we are taking a very slow process to this. If my strategy works, as I am confident it will, then we will partner one of the leading teams, and our test programme and our whole build-up will not really commence until the end of the 2007 season.

"Certain people have to be in place during the course of the year, but it will be a small build-up. My experience in the past of building organizations has taught me that there is a tendency to rush-off and employ people quickly and build things that you subsequently find unnecessary, and people you don't really need. I'm going be very frugal about that. That is probably unusual for Formula One, but that's going to be my policy because in the first years we will not need a large resource and we can accommodate that within our own facilities.

"We will build a factory, but it will be around our requirements. When engineers run racing teams, they tend to be very vertically integrated. They want every new piece of equipment, but when that piece of equipment is only working 30 days a year they seem to miss the point. I come from a business perspective, I'm running a business, and the business at the end of the day must work. It must be profitable and successful."

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