Along with Toro Rosso, formula one rival Super Aguri might also be facing a legal threat should it follow-through with its speculated plans for 2007.
After the Aguri Suzuki-owned squad ran a development version of Honda’s works 2006 chassis in pre-Christmas testing, the magazine AutoWeek reports fellow teams’ belief that Super Aguri will be breaking the rules if it races the car.
Super Aguri and F1’s twelfth team Prodrive will almost certainly run ‘customer cars’ in 2008, when the more liberal Concorde agreement is in force, but other F1 teams are threatening arbitration if the current rules are breached this season.
Leafield based Super Aguri’s apparent loophole is that the Honda RA106 has been handed over to PJUU, an independent engineering and design consultancy in Granborough, England, run by former Jordan designer Paul White.
Presumably, by re-“designing” the car, the intellectual property of the developed chassis can then be transferred from Honda to Super Aguri.
“The FIA has yet to approve (the design),” AutoWeek said.
Suzuki, meanwhile, told F1’s official website that a date has “not yet” been set for the launch of the 2007 racer.
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
