A fool and his money are soon giving press conferences.
Last season was one of the closest in terms of actual times seperating the cars on track. Pole position to the last slot on the grid was usually settled by just over a second. And then for whatever reason the big guns started leaving. Honda, BMW and then Toyota used words like “corporate re-alignment”, “brand re-focus” and “we’re just plain shite” as exit strategies.
I remember F1 as a kid and there was always the jokeshop team -no-hopers sponsored by flaky investment companies with drunk playboys as team leaders- that were routinely lapped 3 or 4 times by the winners if they somehow made the full distance before pre-qualifying was introduced. I’ll rattle off a few. Perennial triers Osella. Onyx, who once famously fitted a differential on the wrong way round and even borrowed parts from the owner’s sports car collection. Leyton House, whose owner was implicated in a massive financial swindle in Japan.
The list of courageous cock-ups in Formula 1 is endless. And now with a bunch of upstarts making their way onto the grid with Cosworth (who haven’t made a decent engine since the 70s) it seems we could have a whole season of underperfoming buffoonery to smirk at. At least most of the teams are putting on a brave face by making the right noises to the press about “gaining experience with experienced drivers” etc.
One however has already surpassed all others in kack-handedness before a wheel has been turned. F1 is renowned for being about the details. Every minute aspect of racing is over-analyzed by a group of pointdexters who can’t dance and collect things like maritime memorabilia. Campos Meta, run by former driver Alex Campos -the man singularly responsible for Spain’s lack of enthusiasm for the sport before Alonso- seems to think the details aren’t that important.
On their underwhelming website under the Employment section they have misspelt the word “Hydraulics” in their search for an “hidraulics engineer” (sic). Good luck with that. Check it out at http://www.camposmeta.com/.
Let the lapping begin, although with the talented Bruno Senna who knows what could happen.
Gavin Williams
Tags: adrian campos, ambitious, backmarker, campos meta, f1, fools, money, senna, underfunded
