Ed Straw

So, yeah, they'd done a good job.

And actually, that team had come together relatively late.

I remember visiting their factory in Norfolk.

Not that long before they started competing, it was basically empty and wandering around it with Mike Gascoigne to do an autosport feature.

And they had a lot of work to do because I won't repeat all of the things that went on in terms of getting the entry, but it wasn't straightforward.

So, yeah, they'd...

come in, they'd been credible, and they were the team that people were saying, yeah, they looked the part, obviously a long way off, but I think anybody who understands the complexities of starting a Grand Prix team would know that.

Obviously, the downside is then when you get the owner saying, well, it needs to be simplified, made easier, cost cut, et cetera, et cetera.

That shows that there was already the recognition that it was going to be very, very difficult to turn that team into...

one of the bigger teams.

But at that point, the trajectory was very positive.

And you'd say, yeah, they've done a decent job and they are the best of the new teams.

I think they were the only two outcomes.

The one thing we should add on that is that

There were some fair criticisms of Dallara who weren't at F1 standard because F1 standards even then were ludicrously high.

They were still a good company, though, and they had done development work.

But obviously, there were concerns about the quality of the work.

So there was quite a big upgrade package, but I don't think it was ever paid for.

yeah and now it may come down to the fact that the team thought well we don't we're not convinced this will deliver or whatever but there was quite a substantial amount of performance that was never bolted onto the car so they weren't just sitting on their hands doing nothing so very slightly disingenuous to say there'd been no development work but i think john's fundamentally right that where where those two entities were at that point probably it was better they went their separate ways

It would have been fun because they were a proper junior single-seater powerhouse over a very, very long period of time.