New Formula 1 team promises county jobs (From The Oxford Times)

New Formula 1 team promises county jobs

6:12pm Friday 12th June 2009 in

By Andrew Smith »

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MANAGEMENT and staff at a hi-tech Oxfordshire firm are celebrating after winning a place on the grid for next season’s Formula 1 championship.

Up to 100 jobs will be created by Wirth Research with the Bicester-based firm designing and building the cars for the Manor F1 Team, one of three new outfits to be accepted into the competition.

Wirth Research spokesman Simon Crompton said: “Everyone is absolutely delighted but the decision is testament to the sheer talent that exists in this area.

It’s great news for Bicester and Oxfordshire. We have 50 staff at the moment but by the time we have finished the project, we will have taken on another 100 people, as well as sub-contractors in the county.

'The decision is testament to the sheer talent that exists in this area'

“Formula 1 is a big step. Our main objectives are to compete and produce a respectable performance.”

Wirth Research, in Telford Road, is run by Nick Wirth, technical director of Manor F1.

But it was not such good news for Banbury-based Prodrive and the new Brabham team based at Leafield, which failed in their bid.

Prodrive chief executive David Richards said: "We are naturally disappointed by the FIA's decision, as we believe we have the resources and set-up to be competitive in Formula 1 and would make a positive contribution to the sport.”

There are now three Oxfordshire-based F1 teams — Williams at Grove, Renault at Enstone and Manor F1, which also has a Sheffield site handling team management.

Renault, along with current championship leaders, Brackley-based Brawn GP, McLaren, Toyota, and BMW Sauber have refused to accept a new £40m spending cap imposed by the FIA, the sport’s governing body.

They have joined the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) in protest.

They have been given an extra week's grace to submit their own entries, otherwise the FIA will return to the pool of potential new entrants.

That could mean Prodrive and Brabham’s bids will be successful.

Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Torro Rosso have been given an unconditional entry by the FIA but their participation remains in doubt as they have said they are supporting FOTA.

The other new teams to join the championship will be Spanish-based Campos Grand Prix run by former Formula 1 driver Adrian Campos and Team US F1, based in the United States.

All three debut teams have agreed an engine supply deal with Northampton firm Cosworth.

Comments(6)

Old zimner says...
3:27am Sat 13 Jun 09

How can you say that it is good news that jobs have been created, when it is at the expense of the planet and billions of lives. Those horrible, noisy, new fangled contraptions only do about 1 M.P.G. you know, and give out enough emissions to kill 10,000 people a second, that's without all of the lovely daisies in the fields it will poison. Ban F1 and lets have a nice cycle race instead, we could call it the milk race.