From what I've been told and heard Renault started out wanting to do a Honda, leave a few quid in the bank, sell up for a nominal sum and walk away, then they started to put certain clauses in place (exact details unknown) which meant that any potential buyer would still be working under the shadow of the Renault name, although it's fair to remember that Honda shipped out wholesale, even taking their signage leaving Ross and Nick to pull favours to get engines and gearboxes... Renault however are still looking to supply engines and therefore still wanted Renault branding and this was some of the reason that the Richards/Prodrive (Aston Martin) bid floundered, certain terms couldn't be met... The Swiss bid was to all intents going to just carry on (as Brawn proved it is possible to do so successfully last year) however the lack of experience from the bidders caused a bit of concern in France, ok they would leave the team structure in place, but as we saw with Midland and Spyker, and then conversley with Brawn, money ain't no replacement for proper experience where F1 is concerned, such is the politics and intricate dealings and double dealings in F1 that it takes a very switched on an knowledgable individual to be able to navigate the in's and out's of it all..
Richards has that, he also has the backers, however he does have certain enemies in the pit lane (think back to his bid to run year old Mclarens, and stir in Mclarens recent difficulties with the FIA).. And then think about how Ross Brawn managed to secure Mercedes engines for his 'new' team, and quiet a lot of help from Ron Mclaren (sarcasm) This coming a few years after the stepney/coghlan 'info sharing' scandal, which was effectivly Ferrari vs Mclaren, with a bit of pushing by the FIA. When looking at the sport as a whole, although the championships are year on year, you need to view the manouverings of it all over the last 20 or 30 years (the Max and Bernie era) to see the real picture.. Not just the day to day stuff.. Remember, Max is a failed politician, his family history hindered his ambitions, so being the individual he is, he took his ambitions and applied them to his enthusiasm for motorsport. Out of all of this has grown up a spiders web, or perhaps more of a rats nest, of intricate dealings, double dealings, bitching, backbiting, witchhunting, backstabbing, secretive yet public goings on that will take years to unravel. And such are the consequences for all involved if it all became public... Well , do you honestly think that the 'Max the Nazi Whore slave' revelatons were the product of a newspaper investigation without a tipoff from somewhere in Surrey bourne out of $100 million worth of retribution?
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