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  Schumacher and Brawn to own F1 team?

Eddie Jordan thinks that Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn could abandon Ferrari when their contracts expire at the end of this year and either start their own F1 team, or even take over Renault and run it as a privateer operation [longer story here for Autosport.com subscribers]. This comment is made by Jordan in the next issue of F1 Racing magazine.

Not having seen the full article yet, it's not clear what exactly leads Eddie Jordan to think this, whether he's heard anything specific or if he just thinks it would be a good idea. Unlike a lot of the idle speculation about ex-drivers buying into teams (remember the stories about Eddie Irvine wanting to buy Jordan and then Minardi?), this one makes a lot more sense. Firstly, both Schumacher and Brawn (particularly Schumacher) have become very wealthy as a result of their time at Ferrari and could afford a large percentage of the equity of an existing team. And with their reputations they would likely find it pretty easy to attract any additional investment they might need. If they bought Renault they would effectively be moving home back to the Benetton setup they left in 1996. Moreover they would be buying a team that knows how to win not just races but also championships. This makes it a much better proposition than when Alain Prost bought Ligier or if Eddie Irvine had bought Minardi.

Add onto that the Ross Brawn knows exactly what it takes to make a championship winning car. There are questions over whether Schumacher would be interested in being a team principle - performing Jean Todt's job at Ferrari - he's shown little interest in continuing his career in motorsport once his F1 driving days are over. There's no doubt in my mind though that if he was motivated to take on such a challenge, that he would be successful at it. Although Prost was a very successful driver, he didn't have the iron will that Schumacher does. Schumacher knows how to build a team around him even when he's not the owner or principle and no team-mate has ever got the better of him. That wasn't the case with Prost who was psyched out by Senna when they shared the duties at McLaren.

This is all just idle speculation though. Brawn has already said that he wants to retire from Formula 1 and is certainly wealthy enough that he never has to work again. Schumacher even more so can do whatever he wants with his life. If he desires the challenge of running a winning car then maybe he'll look into it but it seems unlikely. Although many team bosses raced cars in some capacity, the ones that stuck with team management the longest and had the most success, had little success as drivers. Conversely the best drivers who went on to run teams had little to only moderate success in Formula 1: Fittipaldi, Prost, Stewart; Jack Brabham won a world championship in his eponymous car, but sold the team to a driver of little note - Bernie Ecclestone - when he retired from driving. Bruce McLaren scored only one F1 championship win in his 37 drives for McLaren. Their success came under the direction of Ron Dennis - never a racing driver.

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two comments:

Its alaod of all bollocks sinse schumacher is retireing from f1 at the end of 2006 season. Oh and another if Schumacher carried on, He probably wouldn’t leave ferarri nor would ross brawn, so i wish media and other people who are trying to make money by making these silly comments would get over them selves as it is pathetic, litterally grow up and get over your selves!
susana - 29 09 06 - 16:23

Hmmm, I can see why some blogs close comments on old postings. I mean, you did see that this post was written in FEBRUARY?!
rich () - 29 09 06 - 16:36

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