Autoblog

Following the news that Ferrari was in discussions with A1GP, the international racing series has announced that the two racing outfits have signed a six-year contract with Maranello. The terms of the agreement have Ferrari supplying the V8 engines for all the national teams competing in the series starting the season after next, when the current deal with Lola and Zytek expires. In addition to powering the new cars, Ferrari will also consult on the design of the chassis, which will be built by an as-yet undisclosed third party.

The deal gives Ferrari a de facto feeder series of its own, not unlike Formula BMW and the GP2 series owned by Renault principal Flavio Briatore. A1GP chairman Tony Teixeira also announced the formation of a second, lower-rung regional series to be called A2GP – taking a possible similar relationship as the Atlantic series to Champ Cars – with which Ferrari will also collaborate, supplying detuned versions of the engine. The deal should give Ferrari a place to field up-and-coming younger drivers and bring in extra revenue, while lending the open-wheel series added prestige on the world motorsports stage.

Teixeira also confirmed earlier speculation that, after bowing out of the Spyker purchase, he is considering buying into Scuderia Toro Rosso. The Italian F1 team, currently owned by Red Bull and former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger, scored impressive fourth and sixth places in last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

[Source: Autosport and A1GP]

Ferrari is apparently running out of F1 teams to supply with engines, so it's looking to other racing series altogether for new customers. For the current season, the Maranello-based team had to have the rules bent so that they could supply their engines to not one but two additional teams on the grid (Spyker and Toro Rosso). No wonder then that half of the cars that finished in the points at this past weekend's penultimate Chinese Grand Prix were powered by Ferrari.

Like other single-seater racing series, A1GP, the self-described "world cup of motorsport", uses the same chassis and engines for all the teams. Lola and Zytek have been supplying the cars and power respectively, but with contracts up for renewal, rumors started to fly when Ferrari's sporting director Stefano Domenicali was seen at Silverstone during an A1GP test session. Ferrari has now confirmed that they're in negotiations with the series' organizers.

Rumor has it that the engine deal isn't the only thing A1GP chief Tony Teixeira is discussing with Ferrari, as insiders tip the South African businessman as a potential partner in Scuderia Toro Rosso, which would effectively become Ferrari's B-squad in the developing "super team" saga.

[Sources: F1i.com and autosport]

Ford's Broadmeadows facility has run out of at least one key component for V8 engines, and will have to shut down until its supplier resolves labor issues. The supplier, Coghlan and Russell Engineering, owes employees a boatload of money - in the order of 1.5 million-plus Austrailian dollars. Because of the outstanding payments, workers are holding out until they get the funds they're due, including pension and unemployment stipends. Ford and Delphi had offered to float Coghlan and Russell for a couple of months, but the workers rejected that proposal because the two companies would not cover pensions and unemployment obligations, citing the precedent it would set. The two-month loan would have given C&R time to examine a plan for getting out of trouble, as well as giving the automakers time to explore alternate suppliers.

Since an agreement could not be achieved, Ford and possibly GM production will be impacted. Both Holden and Ford have not been having an easy time of it in Australia lately. As hot as we are for their cars -- the boot-stomping Falcon and hotly anticipated Zeta platform -- both Holden and Ford have had to lay off workers. Coghlan and Russell is not the only supplier in dire straits, either. A fastener supplier threatened to shut Holden and Ford production down back in August by going bankrupt. Brake supplier PBR stepped in at the last minute and has been propping up that company, keeping production lines moving. If there's not enough parts now, we can only imagine the clamor that would ensue should supply fail just as US sales of the Oz-developed platforms gets underway.

Thanks for the tip, Simon

[Source: GoAuto]