Midland F1 Racing

MF1 Racing

File:MF1 Racing Logo.png
Full name	Midland F1 Racing
Base	Silverstone, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Founder(s)	Alex Shnaider
Noted staff	Colin Kolles James Key
Noted drivers	Tiago Monteiro Christijan Albers
Formula One World Championship career
First entry	2006 Bahrain Grand Prix
Races entered	18
Engines	Toyota
Constructors' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Race victories	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
Final entry	2006 Brazilian Grand Prix

MF1 Racing (in full, Midland F1 Racing; also known as Spyker MF1 Racing for the last three races of the 2006 season) was a Formula One constructor. It competed in the 2006 Formula One season with drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro. The team started out with the renaming of Jordan Grand Prix after director Alex Shnaider of the Midland Group's 2005 purchase of the team. The team was registered as the first Russian Formula One team, however, both Canada and Israel have been cited as flag countries, due to Alex Shnaider's Canadian citizenship, and Jewish heritage, and various statements made to the press by Shnaider. Towards the end of the 2006 season, the team was sold to Spyker Cars N.V.. Name changes are not allowed mid-season, but Spyker were legitimately able to name themselves as the team's title sponsor, so the team raced in its last three Grands Prix under the official name "Spyker MF1 Racing". From 2007 onwards, the team competed as Spyker F1.

2005 purchase of Jordan

Main Article:Jordan

Narain Karthikeyan driving for Jordan at the 2005 US GP.

Midland Group's interest in Formula One involvement began in 2004 when they confirmed their plans to have a team to race in place for the 2006 season. Although they were initially linked with creating a new unit or purchasing Jaguar, the group instead signed a deal to buy the Jordan team from Eddie Jordan prior to the 2005 Formula One season, for a sum of $60 million. As a result, the team would be a legal continuation of Jordan and not a new entity subject to Formula One's $48 million entry bond. It also allowed Midland to claim the television revenue generated by Jordan's placing in the constructors' championship (in which Jordan subsequently placed ninth).

The team retained Jordan's name for the 2005 season but struggled at the back of the grid with drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro. The highlights of the season were Monteiro's third-place finish at the US Grand Prix (in which most of the grid refused to race) and his lengthy streak of consecutive finishes underpinning the car's reliability.

Some media reports at this time began to speculate that Midland were unhappy with their purchase and looking to offload Jordan even before the team entered under its own name in 2006. Team principal Trevor Carlin quit the team after seven races, and chief engineer and designer Mark Smith before the end of the season. There were consistent reports that the team was linked with a buy-out by former Formula One driver Eddie Irvine.

2006 season

File:MidlandF1 M16 Tiago Monteiro April 2006.jpg

Tiago Monteiro testing the M16 at Silverstone.

The name of the team was changed to MF1 Racing for the 2006 Formula One season. In the UK a joke has emerged regarding this shortform being written in the same way as economy furniture manufacturer MFI. Over the winter Russian driver Roman Rusinov tested a new car, the Midland M16 with a new livery (red, white and black to reflect Midland Group's corporate colours) and Toyota engines but Jordan used Ford . MotoGP motorcyclist Max Biaggi also had a test in the car at Silverstone in January. Dallara had originally been contracted to develop the M16, however the agreement was discontinued during the design process after a disappointing contribution from the Italian manufacturer. The senior management subsequently placed its faith in the incumbent design team, promoting former head of vehicle science James Key to the role of technical director towards the end of the 2005 season.

Shnaider had been insistent that Midland intended to field Formula One's first Russian driver - although Russian drivers have tested in the past, mainly for the Minardi team, none have ever raced in a Grand Prix - but instead signed Dutchman Christijan Albers from Minardi, and retained Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro. The team had previously failed in a bid to sign Takuma Sato.

During the team's very short time in F1, they used none other than three drivers on the Fridays of Grands Prix:

• Winkelhock at Sakhir, Melbourne, Hockenheim and Hungaroring
• Mondini at Sepang, Imola, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Silverstone, Montreal, Indianapolis, Istanbul and Monza
• Sutil at Nürburgring and Magny-Cours

During the last three races, as Spyker MF1 Racing, the team used the following test drivers:

• Prémat at Shanghai
• Sutil at Suzuka
• Viso at Interlagos

File:Midland Christijan.jpg

Christijan Albers driving a 2006 Midland F1 car.

Midland's two drivers collide on the first lap of the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix.

As the 2006 season went on, the team went from running ahead of Super Aguri but behind everyone else, to consistently sparring with other midfield teams such as Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso although it only ever finished ahead of crippled cars, Super Aguri and the occasional Toro Rosso. Much of that progress was down to tyre development from Bridgestone coupled with significant improvements in aerodynamics and handling (overseen by Simon Phillips and Richard Frith respectively). The improved performance saw the team begin to make it into the 2nd qualifying session on an occasional basis - eight times out of a possible 36 overall - with a best qualifying position of 14th.

Unfortunately this increased mid-season performance did not translate into hardline results as the team were involved in a number of first-lap accidents, notably at Monaco, Indianapolis and Montreal, and the team was disqualified from the German Grand Prix for running a flexible wing in contravention of the sport's technical regulations.

The team went from being around 4 seconds off the pace per lap in 2005 to around 2 seconds per lap at the time of its sale to Spyker cars in September 2006.

Sale of the team

Christijan Albers testing with the Spyker livery, after the sale of the team.

Rumours had been floating about in the paddock throughout the mid-season about the possible sale of the team, less than two years after Shnaider originally bought it from Eddie Jordan. Reports suggested a price tag of $128m, and that Shnaider was seriously considering the possibility of the sale. Formula One teams had become more valuable, due to the fact that no more teams could enter after 2008, with the maximum of 12 places already filled.

On September 9, 2006, it was revealed that the team was sold to Spyker Cars. Spyker paid $106.6 million for the team. On September 10 ITV commentators said that Shnaider was no longer involved in the team since the announcement of the sale. Colin Kolles will remain as team principal. Michiel Mol is to become the new Director of F1 racing and member of the Spyker board and Mike Gascoyne will become the Chief Designer from the end of the current season. As part of the deal, the cars will have a revised livery for the final three races of 2006. The team will also use the Dutch flag from now on (instead of the Russian flag), since Spyker is based in the Netherlands.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Points	WCC
2006	Midland M16	Toyota V8	B		BHR	MAL	AUS	SMR	EUR	ESP	MON	GBR	CAN	USA	FRA	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA	0	10th
				Tiago Monteiro	17	13	Ret	16	12	16	15	16	14	Ret	Ret	DSQ	9	Ret	Ret*	Ret*	16*	15*
				Christijan Albers	Ret	12	11	Ret	13	Ret	12	15	Ret	Ret	15	DSQ	10	Ret	17*	15*	Ret*	14*

* As Spyker MF1 Racing

(The team was disqualified from the German Grand Prix for running a flexible wing in contravention of the sport's technical regulations.)

External links

• Spyker F1 Team official website
• MF1 Racing official website
• Midland F1 Officially Unofficial fan website
• Midlandia Photo of Midlandia megayacht at the Monaco GP