Leading figures from Spyker have waded into the customer car row engulfing the sport as the championship races towards Melbourne in just under four weeks' time, branding it “inherently wrong for Formula One”.
The debate flared up over the expectation that Toro Rosso is to run a re-liveried version of sister outfit
Red Bull Racing's 2007-spec RB3 this year, while it is believed fellow back-of-the-grid squad
Super Aguri will unveil a reworked
Honda RA106 – the car that won last season's Hungarian Grand Prix in the hands of
Jenson Button – at its Tokyo launch on March 12.
Both Spyker and
Williams have threatened legal action over what they deem to be unconstitutional behaviour, claiming the failure to build an all-new car breaches the existing Concorde Agreement – in place until the end of 2007 – that governs the sport's rules.
“I think it's inherently wrong for
Formula One,” Spyker Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne told
Crash.net. “Formula One is the premier motor racing series in the world, and the only one that says everyone has to be a constructor. I think some people ought to ask themselves is that a coincidence or not?”
The Dutch concern's managing director and team principal Colin Kolles was equally unequivocal in his take on the topic, insisting if Toro Rosso and Super Aguri are indeed breaking the rules, they should not be eligible to score points.
“My view is very clear,” he stressed. “It's not a constructor's car, it's a customer car and if you are not a constructor then you're not entitled to join the constructors' championship. Very simple.”
