Spyker set for yet another buyout

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The Silverstone-based Spyker team is set for yet another change of ownership as current team director Michel Mol is preparing to buy it from parent company Spyker Cars.

Spyker Cars has run into financial problems and has accepted an ?â?ó?óÔé¼?í?é?¼80m (?âÔÇÜ£54.2m / $109m) offer from Mol and Indian business partner Vijay Mallya. It originally bought the team from Midland Group for $106.6m.

That was the second takeover of the team since 2005 when Eddie Jordan sold it to Midland.

Mol’s offer is currently being inspected and may be confirmed within 30 days.

Meanwhile the team is set to race the B version of its chassis at the Italian Grand Prix. It was not used at the Turkish Grand Prix as it had failed an impact test.

Since then the team has suspended chief designer John McQuilliam. It is not known whether that was linked to the delay to the arrival of the revised car.

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Photo: Peter J Fox / Crash Media Group

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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5 comments on “Spyker set for yet another buyout”

  1. Vijay Mallya is Mr Kingfisher – beer, airlines. Also recently acquired some Scottish whisky brands to his portfolio. He already sponsors Toyota F1. He has money to spend and spends…just check who organized the hottest yacht party in Monaco this year. This may be good news for Spyker as a team, but the SPyker name will probably disapear from the grid. Kingfisher F1 would be fun though.

  2. well looks as if karthikeyen has somewhere to go if he doesn’t get the williams drive next year.

  3. BTW, do you guys get Kingfisher beer in UK and Europe too ?

  4. All things considered, pretty good for the team. Vijay Mallya operates a very successful airline, and his beer brand is the hottest selling in India and he has fingers in too many pies. He just started a Tv channel in collaboration with one of the top media houses in India.

    With him, finances would not be a problem for the team anymore. He can also pull in several top Indian industrialists who can easily sponsor the team.

    And it is good news for Narain Karthikeyan. What I have heard from people who were around to watch him with Jordan is that he is an aggressive driver, not afraid to take risks. Obviously that is the wrong thing to do when you are with Jordan, and that resulted in his bad showing there.

    Mallya is one of the few who can bring F1 to India. He can bring the politicians and bureaucracy around, and with Karun Chandok or Narain as an Indian driver in the team, will have a good thing going. You just have to look at the popularity and money cricket brings in India to see the financial potential. (Whether F1 in India is great for F1 or not, thats a separate discussion altogether!!)

  5. Considering Bernie has wanted F1 in India for years, could he have played a part in this deal?

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