Well, that´s the word in Spain these days, if Campos is able to find money somewhere else surely they´ll prefer to sign Soucek, i find it very normal, first spanish team ever in F1, Adrian Campos also repeated many times he wants a spanish driver, they wanted to sign Pedro badly but he just have no founds at all.

Of course i don´t rule Petrov or Maldonado when money is such an important matter in this decision.

Anyway it looks that Campos is much more focused now on finding extra funds than in securing a 2nd driver.

Repsol HAD a deal. They conclude it last year. Repsol only puts real money in Trial and HRC.

About Pedro Banco Santander said clearly "No money invested in Sauber".

Well the motorsport-total article is actually about Ecclestone, who now told the press which of the new teams he thinks are not going to make it... which are suprise surprise Campos and USF1. But not because of technical problems, it is just about the lack of funding according to Ecclestone. And then the article goes on and says that the situation intensified earlier this week (monday) when Campos lost Dallara as a supplier because of unpaid bills, according to rumors from Italy. It all sounds rather vague so we should wait and see... Something like this should make the rounds rather quickly and so far nobody run this story...

Yeah, exactly. Dallara = existence of Campos. No Dallara = No Campos.

If there was any shred of truth to this then I'd expect to see something tomorrow at the least. I doubt press outlets would wait until monday to show up to work and say something "oh, hey, did ja hear? Campos ceased to exist. So, anyways..."

Campos has more financial worries according to

http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/splitte...s_10012502.html

The attempts to get Mutua Madrilena as sponsor of the Campos team have failed

Just wondering why Campos didnt jump all over Petrov when he was sniffing around?
15 million euros is quite a lot of money for a team that apparently doesnt have any...

What you didn't mention is that this article also mentions that Campos signed 2 engineers from BMW Sauber including the former race engineer of Kubica: Toni Cuquerella.

Petrov no doubt prefers to drive for Renault.

Yes now he's interested in Renault, but originally he was trying hard to get the second Campos seat, but it seems they didnt want to sign him, even with all that money... just wondering why.

That´s obvious. The best avalilable car is Renault. Campos and USF1 have a dark future.

Nothing new. Cuquerella is working on the car for months.

NO. Your missing my point...
Petrov was there, (before Renault) with his bag of cash at Campos door, asking for a drive...
Campos could have signed him. But they didnt. Why?

How do you know that? Prove this.

I believe it was the opposite and that Petrov postponed signing because he prefered a Sauber or Renault seat. Of course I can't prove that either but it seems more logical, especially since he still is in the running for the Renault seat.

good news for Campos to be announced soon

....it seems there is an agreement between Campos and Texeira to be announced soon.....Texeira will buy Carabantes (Carabante is Campos partner) shares and the team will not be named Capos Meta anymore as Meta is Carabantes company......Campos A1? Campos Racing?.... Team will stay in Valencia so is not moving to Murcia.....more news soon

http://www.lasprovincias.es/20100126/depor...r-20100126.html

AS said that also a week ago, so "soon" may have some bizarre meaning in spanish, at least in the spanish press.

I hope they reach an agreement soon

The original article says "between today and tomorrow", so soon will be soon ;)

Soucek seems the new favourite for Adrian, Maldonando the eternal second choice. Personally I'm pleased for Andy, and at least the team get a (native) Spanish speaker. The serial indifference here has been astonishing, as if as happens often, motorsport has been reduced to F1, F1 is reduced to FA, as is Spanish involvement in the sport (ever), the latest to decline have been Mutua Madrilena who used to have a commercial when the cars where on the grid (annoyingly intrusive). Adrian and crew must look on with envy at the support and interest motoGP recieves. Still I guess this was bound to happen to an operation of their size when budget are agreed and then increased considerably.

Campos' website has been taken down and is no longer working.

It still works for me...

The same for me.

http://www.camposmeta.com/

works fine for me

Really? You're our news provider now

Down here too though.

Maybe, once they've got their shareholder, they'll make a proper website.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/2010-...151006818_x.htm

Campos are likely to skip all preseason testing while sponsorship is sorted out.

http://www.camposmeta.com/

Still works here too

There are some major reshuffles and news reported in this article. If correct:

1^st - Teixeira buying Meta Image's share (Cabarantes' share), that changes the organization of the team deeply; New administration, new marketing and publicity departments, new share distribution with A. Campos, et cetera. Teixeira would bring at least € 20 million to Campos Racing.
2^nd - As reported, Múrcia government's sponsorship money would only be released to Campos Racing after the team had signed a title or major sponsor. But the whole Múrcia deal may be scrapped as the link with Spanish province is Cabarantes.
3^rd - Teixera's funding should supplement Meta Image and Múrcia investment. The team would keep its headquarters at Valencia (as today) intead of moving to the Parque Tecnológico de Fuente Álamo (Fuente Álamo, Múrcia).
4^th - It's reported that Campos had already expanded Campos Racing sites in Alzira, Valencia.
5^th - The chassis, supplied by Dallara, is done and it was (or will be) delivered to Alzira HQ. There, the car will be (re)assembled with the Cosworth's engine.
6^th - The reasons behind Ecclestone's rants against Campos was the, at that time, possible involvement of Teixeira.
7^th - An interested second driver needs to offer an amount of money starting between 5 and 10 millions (€).

from @f1scoop

"Dallara: We've given Campos a deadline to catch up on their late stage payments or we won't be delivering a car to them."

I am increasingly pessimistic.

Is that a brand new tweet? From today?

I'm all for bettering yourself. I'm all for taking risks. I'm all for entrepreneurship. But you don't enter a multi-million pound a year sport on what ifs, maybe's and promises. Like I said in a previous post, it was obvious a long time ago, Campos was in financial trouble. Not securing the necessary funding(especially in todays financial climate) was always asking for trouble. The way the real world works, no respectable company is going to invest in Campos, with so much doubt hanging around the viability of the team. This is a classic example of somebody in over their head. Even Stefan GP is testing, what an indictment on the Campos operation.

Well Stefan GP testing and being able to race the car they are using for testing are two different things. If Campos fell out, Stefan would not be ready either. It is my understanding they are using a Toyota chassis with GP2 tires, or something weird to that effect.

yes about 8hours old...

Did it came from that "tonyhackett" account, right?

The way I understand it, StefanGP would use the car ToyotaF1 designed for 2010. So it's actually quite likely to be a competitive car compared to the newcomers. If they would get in the actual F1, they would of course use the proper tyres on it.

I don't know if StefanGP's funding is any better than the alleged state of Campos' finances, though.

I've checked the Brazilian media and they're also reporting it.

From the above mentioned article:






This last bit worries me more. So, looks like it's a all or nothing situation right now.
And I guess that Petrov and Maldonado are out of the game for Campos.

I hope this all works out for Bruno's sake, I would hate for this to fall through!

The rather cryptic comments made by Whitmarsh about possibly scoping up a testing driver (to replace De La Rosa and aid Paffett, who has also DTM commitments) makes me wonder, when combined with the rumours about Campos' finances, if Mclaren is hoping to attract Senna as test driver in case Campos folds. This is what Whitmarsh said, while referring to the unstable conditions of (some) teams:
"I sense that there will be some drivers who think they are gainfully employed at the moment who may be available in the future."

It's looking worse and worse for Campos. I know that article says otherwise, but I find it hard to believe that having the second driver announcement possibly delayed until the eve of the Bahrain race is an example of a team where everything is "going according to plan"...

Well, Petrov can do better at Renault anyway. Maldonado isn't ready IMO, unless USF1 want to secure more money for the future.

Either way, this is looking really bleak. I still wish them the best of luck!

I don't think the situation is that bleak. Campos must be holding out in the hope that he can secure some other source of funding before the start of the season, without resorting to signing Maldonado. If he were desperate, he'd just sign Maldonado and be done with it.

They don't have enough money to test even just 1 car before Bahrain? Or is it the cars won't be ready til Bahrain?

Dallara will not hand over the cars until they receive their money from Campos.

Dallara is an outstanding builder, if they built a Championship winning car is another matter, but they usually build solid well designed cars. Dallara also has plenty of resources for building the cars, and as some posted earlier the cars are built (but then unbuilt) to be shipped to Campos. I am not sure if Campos would have to mount the engines, wire the cars, etc, etc. Or if they just take the varied bits and bolt them together with Dallara already having mounted the looms and steering rack, etc. I am not sure if the Cosworth engines went to Dallara or Campos.

Would it not be ironic if the car ends up looking like the GP2-11 though.

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-...be-1705468.html
Doesn't look really good.

wheel fairings? how old is that pic?

too bad, they looked like a promising team

You know, I think they made a mistake by signing Senna for free. It's got them into this trouble.

If they're in this much trouble, surely they would have withdrawn their entry? I'm not doubting the legitimacy of these reports, but rather the commitment of Campos.

I would have thought that Bernie would be desperate to have Senna on the grid. To the point where he would throw some money Campos's way to help them survive.

Didnt he invest a bit in Minardi when they were in bad finances.