No More Campos At Campos Meta
- Published on Feb 19th, 2010 by Jack LamureDespite not yet turning a wheel on their car there have already been some major changes at the new Campos Meta team. In fact, they probably wont be called Campos for much longer.
With just 3 weeks until the season kicks off team principal Adrian Campos (below left) is gone, having been bought out of his own team by former partner Jose Ramon Carabante. Campos has been replaced by ex-Force India team principal and- we kid you not- qualified dentist, Colin Kolles (below right). They've also added former Williams, BAR and Red Bull man Geoff Willis to the technical team in preparation for 2010.
The changes were expected, following a veritable deluge of rumours that Campos Meta wouldn't make it to Bahrain due to severe financial problems. They'd failed to keep up with payments to Dallara, the company building their cars, and lost their desired (and very well funded) choice of second driver, Vitaly Petrov, to Renault.
The team already has Bruno Senna on its books, but his contract is thought to be with Campos, and so whether he races for the team is down to the new owners. Kolles isn't making any commitments yet, saying the team would 'announce the line-up for 2010 in due time'. Jose Maria Lopez, currently signed to USF1, is thought to already be in talks with the team about a seat. USF1 look unlikely to make it, at least not in time for the first race, and so the Argentine is seeking alternative employment.
Sometimes F1 moves too fast.
Senna's position at the team is now uncertain.
At least F1 fans can now look forward to a minimum of 24 cars on the grid. With USF1's future uncertain the 26 we were promised isn't guaranteed, but Serbian F1 wannabes Stefan GP could still make the grid should the American team fall by the wayside.
There's plenty of uncertainty surrounding Campos at the moment, and Badger will keep you up to date with what's happening at the team as the dust settles. What we do know is that with Campos gone the new ownership may well decide to change the name of the team. Badger couldn't possibly speculate as to what the new moniker will be, though maybe you could. Any ideas?
Comments and Discussion
How about CKF1? (Carabante Kolles F1) Oh hang on that sounds like perfume!!!!!
I believe Driller Kolles actually had to perform some emergency dental work on one of his drivers at one stage during the Jordan/Midland days (might have been Tiago Monteiro). So his former occupation has helped in the past....
Geoff willis... That's not awesome meat chops man is it?
Brilliant! Meatchops GP.
With the work left to Dallara, it's quite possible that they have a car ready for them, it's just waiting to be bought. If this is correct then that's one thing USF1 doesn't have and gives Meta-non-Campos slightly better prospects.
I'm pretty sure Stefan GP have got Kazuki Nakajima ready to jump into the car, we could yet have 26 cars.
Monteiro and Christijan Albers, apparently.
Stefanovic is also pretty confident about getting Villeneuve on board, which would mean 5 world champions on the grid.
Well Jacques' last few seasons in F1 weren't exactly stunning.
He got beaten by Massa and Heidfeld in '05 and '06, Button annihilated him in '03. And he was pretty useless when he drove 3 races for Renault in '04.
However, he was always critical of the grooved tyres, so perhaps this had something to do with his disappearance of ability from '98 onwards.
Not only will his appearance mean there are 5 WDC's on the grid, but also 3 guys in their 40's (from China onwards). I'm trying to think of some older drivers who could also consider comebacks on this basis; Olivier Panis? Johnny Herbert?
Who was the last driver to compete in a race aged 40 or over?
I'm thinking Nigel Mansell in '95, he was 42... and not terribly good with a terrible McLaren. Have there been any since then?
Villeneuve wont be 40 until next year and nor will de la Rosa. I feel like a total geek for knowing this but they were both born in 1971.
You have to remember Dave H, that Nigel won in his last race at Williams in 1994 (after a spell in US CART), just before the 2 disastrous races at McLaren in 1995. Age had nothing to do with it -Nigel had proved he was still quick. It's just that the McLaren car wasn't built for him, so he jacked it in.
The oldest driver to compete in F1 was Louis Chiron, who at 58 years young, took part in his last race at Monaco in 1958. Michael Schumacher may be around for another 18 years yet, to beat that record!
Jacques was obviously not a patch on his old self in his BAR and Sauber days, but I thought he did okay at BMW in 2006 given that the team's new owners had made it abundantly clear that they did not want him there .... then sacked him because he injured himself in his crash at Hockenheim and couldn't make a meeting between GPs. He had previously been given a rough ride by Dave Richards too, and messed around a lot by Craig Pollock. I would like to think he could return and prove a few doubters wrong, but then I don't think Stefan GP will be allowed to compete.
Oops, my bad... that's not the first time i've got this year's year wrong.
Can he really have had 3 bad bosses in succession? Or is it more likely that he glosses over the fact that it was him causing the problems?
I think he was naive to believe all of Pollock's empty promises (BAR is the team that promised it would win its first race, remember, and it ended up that Jacques didn't even finish a GP until about 10 races into the season). But it was evident as soon as Richards arrived at BAR that he wasn't a fan of Villeneuve - or, more probably, not a fan of JV's inflated salary. Villeneuve felt he didn't owe Richards anything and therefore refused to take a pay cut, hence his contract wasn't renewed. So in that case it was failings on both sides that caused the problem.
BMW though, that was a different story. They wanted Kubica in the seat and didn't exactly make a secret of the fact that they had only kept JV on because his Sauber contract had a year to run.
At a risk of opening up a big debate - I personally don't rate JV at all. He won the championship in 97 with very little competition except Schumi trying his best in an under-performing Ferrari and some of his trademark 'moves'
After that, he failed to impress in any other car and was completely destroyed by Jenson Button in the BAR days, much to the canadian's annoyance.
He should stick to making music.
I guess the reason Villeneuve is maybe going to get back in to F1 is that he gives Stefan a former world champion to show to sponsors. You'll get further with investors with a Villeneuve in your car than Christian Klien (not to pick on the guy). That's why they've also been linked with Ralf Schumacher. He's not quick enough any more but his surname gives the team legitimacy.
God no Adam, his music is terrible!