Super Aguri is gone but not forgotten and so is Giedo van der Garde (we remember that name) who is now suing Force India in the amount of 2 million dollars of the 3 million his sponsors paid to Spyker to guarantee him 6000km of testing.

Van der Garde was to be the cash grab Super Aguri needed to survive in F1, but bailed, taking his the money with him resulting in the beginning of Super Aguri’s tail spin. Initially he was signed to be a test driver for Super Aguri in late 2006, but left and signed with Spyker who he felt he had a better chance of an F1 drive with. It didn’t end there because his new Spyker contract clashed with his previous agreement he made with Super Aguri who then blocked him from testing with Spyker.

The new issue with Van der Garde concerns his testing and the saga continued after Vijay Mallya bought Spyker and made them into his team Force India. This allowed Van der Garde to test, however he claims he only completed 2000km of the 6000km agreed upon after Tonio Liuzzi was signed and interest in Van der Garde faded.

Van der Garde is currently racing in the Renault World Series and in fact he is leading, but the advice he’s been getting in the last few years is certainly not doing him any favors and not many teams would are going to be interested in someone with that kind of attitude. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer they say.

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David Coulthard is at it again and this time his ill timed and ’stupid’ remarks pushed a very stressed and frustrated Anthony Davidson over the line. Coulthard (another frustrated driver) whose mouth seems to have a life of it’s own these days referred to the 2 Super Aguris as the “stupid Aguris” for being in the way when getting lapped.

In response to this, Davidson had this to say:

“They can shut right up.”

“When you can hardly see what the hell is going on because the car is shaking around so much, and you’re just fully focused on keeping the damn thing on the track, the last thing you can do is be bothered about others trying to lap you.”

“I’d love to swap cars with these drivers. I really believe some of them would struggle, or even crack, if they were in our position.”

Davidson also referred to his car as a “botched job.” Ouch!

Given Anthony Davidson’s position driving a tough car, I have to agree with what he said and probably would have blown up just as he did. I can’t imagine the stress and frustration Sato and Davidson (especially Davidson) go through every day wondering if they will have a job when they get up in the morning.

I have been pulling for Super Aguri all along in their battle to stay alive and still do even though they are almost past the 12th hour now, but in reality should they be out on the track with these unprepared cars? I’ve struggled with this for a while, but in the end, my answer has to be ‘no’ they shouldn’t and should never have been aloud to. An F1 race is only a place for the best prepared and maintained cars otherwise safety on the track is voluntarily compromised.

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The clouds and uncertainty haven’t ever left Super Aguri and their quest to survive keeps on day after day. Will they survive? I don’t know, but I hope so. Among those who want the team to quit the game altogether there are certain players who for their own gain want Super Aguri on the track.

Bring on Honda. Honda are looking a little like the parents who are abandoning their children before they’re old enough and are feeling the heat of these accusations. There may be however, at least a couple of reasons for Honda to want Super Aguri on the grid and they seem pretty reasonable.

One, Honda will have more of a chance of getting some money owed to them back with the team alive rather than in ruins.
Two, Ferrari gains a lot of engine data from the engines they supply to lets say Toro Rosso for example and it really can be a bit of an advantage to be able to do that. What about Honda? Bring in Super Aguri. They run Honda Engines and just as Ferrari, Honda gains potentially valuable data from that source.

Formula 1 itself has at least one reason to want Super Aguri alive and that’s because an 11th team on the grid provides back of the grid competition. Remember that the top 10 teams get travel money and that’s an incentive to get off the back end. No 11th team and no incentive at the back of the grid to keep out of the bottom.
Now, if Super Aguri would go away, F1 may adjust the rules and make it the top 9 teams or something like that, but for now rules are rules and competition for expenses is a big deal.

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Super Aguri announced that they will be jumping into the car launch frenzy and present their 2008 SA08 on February 19. The unveiling will come at Circuit de Catalunya in front of the media, team principal Aguri Suzuki, tech director Mark Preston, and of course the drivers. Drivers who still need to sign contracts, but have been named in the FIA official entry list for 2008..
This is something new for the team as it is a departure from the previous years when Super Aguri flashed their car just before the first race of the season.

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