John Howett:
Yeah, personally I can. I think if you look at tracks, basically I guess demand for grands prix is higher than supply. We're seeing a lot of countries, if you like, bidding for it and although economic hardship prevails for Western Europe, we still have to say that India is a booming market, China is a booming market, Russia is growing also, for us it's the biggest market now in Europe. I foresee that from these countries, where there is very strong economic strength, there is the potential for teams to enter
Formula One. It is technically challenging and it probably also depends on what those backers or potential entries perceive as Formula One and the benefit it can offer. So it probably also has some relevance as to the future positioning of Formula One as a sport.
Q:
So you think there are manufacturers out there willing to invest as much as Toyota?
JH:
I believe there could be companies, very significantly resourced companies, interested to join and potentially other new developing manufacturers.
RB:
I pretty much go along with what John said. I think it's extremely difficult to see a privateer coming in because of the investment and the facilities needed, but it's viable for a lot of manufacturers at the moment, there's no reason why it shouldn't be viable for other manufacturers in the future, particularly the expanding market for Formula One. Different countries are now starting to establish our sport, I think there are a lot of opportunities from that direction in the future.
FW:
As a privateer, if a privateer was trying to enter, financially you would find it very difficult right now assuming you read the Wall Street Journal and the FT (Financial Times) etc. to raise money, to raise capital and I would imagine that's what Aguri's problem was. He just couldn't find the money. We have a Japanese driver, never yet found a penny of sponsorship for him in Japan, and that's much cheaper than actually creating a team.
Q: (Dominic Fugere
Le Journal de Montreal)
I would like to have your take on the significance of Danica Patrick's first win in Japan, and what it will take to have a woman back in Formula One as a driver?
JH:
Why not? I think it would probably be very good. We just need to see a driver with the capability that could deliver performance because we are basically all focused on winning and track performance. I don't think there's any discrimination in terms of anything within our organisation or team, so if we could find a suitable driver, we would be delighted. We have young driver programmes. Unfortunately most of the guys coming into karting at the moment and who are delivering performance are male, but I think it would probably be good but you would need someone who could be competitive.
Q: (Dominic Fugere
Le Journal de Montreal)
Does the fact that Danica Patrick has now won change anything?
LH:
I think it shows that it's possible for an extremely talented lady to be competitive, if you like, in what is historically seen as a male environment, so it probably opens people's eyes to the possibility of that happening, yes.
RB:
We can all see the commercial attraction, how exciting it would be to have a female driver in Formula One. I think the key thing is that they can be competitive, because it would be a shame if, purely because they were a female driver, they got put in the car and couldn't compete properly, but if they can compete properly, absolutely, it would be great.
NH:
We ran Sarah Fisher at Indianapolis once. I fully agree with what Ross has said. I think the key is to be competitive and if that is the case, I think motor sport is
it's certainly not possible in soccer to compete against these fellows. In various sports it's not possible but it should be basically possible in motor sports as the Indy Racing League has proven; or as, for example, DTM shows but the key is to be competitive. We had a winner in touring cars years ago many years ago, 16 years ago, I think with Ellen Lohr beating her team-mate Keke Rosberg at that stage, which was not very pleasing for my friend Keke, but anyway, it is possible and hopefully Formula One will experience that in the future.
