Guest Author - Christine Blachford

It looked as though Super Aguri had a deal in place that would secure their future in the sport for the foreseeable future. However, last week things took a turn for the worse, and it looks like the deal is now off.

Super Aguri have been in talks with the Magma group, a British company willing to invest in the team and bring from the brink of folding. It emerged that the team weren’t going to be able to take part in the Barcelona test last week, yet another unfortunate side effect of the unfinished deal.

The longer Super Aguri continue to miss tests, the further behind they’re going to get, and the less attractive they’re going to look as a potential investment.
The deal was due to be signed on the 16th April but the investors behind the Magma group began to get cold feet and pulled out at the last minute. It looks like they are in the midst of a complex deal to buy the Liverpool football club, and as that investment rumbles on, it means there are less funds available for purchasing another sports team.

This leaves Super Aguri right back at square one again. Top bods in the team are beginning to get nervous about the short term future, with their appearance at the Spanish Grand Prix looking doubtful. A transporter has been despatched to the Barcelona circuit but this is by no means a guarantee that Super Aguri will be taking part. And beyond this weekend’s race in Spain, things are looking even more grim.

Current backers Honda have made no secret of the fact they have no desire to continue supporting their sister team. Whilst the investment has returned some valuable data, and effectively doubled the amount of testing Honda has been able to achieve over the past couple of years, it’s fair to say that the ‘A’ team have their own worries to contend with.

The results haven’t been forthcoming, for either team, and it’s not a surprise that Super Aguri have found themselves in these dire straits. Whilst it is unfortunate that we may lose them from the grid in the not-too-distant future, they aren’t really adding anything to the sport at the moment, anyway. We do like to see more teams involved, but if they can’t afford to run their cars at anything other than a bare minimum level, it leaves a lot to be desired for everyone involved.

Here’s hoping there is some good fortune on the horizon for F1’s smallest team.