The Prodrive/McLaren customer car deal appears to have falled through, sources within McLaren are informing the autom otive presses.
For he 2008 season, new team Prodrive based in Brackley, were going to use a “Customer” car of McLaren, so as the development costs of an F1 car would not be too much for the privateer team.
This “customer car” would have been illegal this season, but the concorde agreement of 2008 would have made them legal. However, negotiations over that agreement fell through, and there is fear the customer cars may be illegal.
Talks between David Richards and Martin Whitmarsh have falled through, and staff sources tell us Whitmarsh informed the McLaren staff the deal would not be going ahead.
Neither team would comment, except upon the state of the rules.
“We have not entered into any contract with any team at this moment of time,” Ron Dennis said. “If a team wishes to enter the 2008 World Championship and that team does not have complete clarity as to whether it is or is not permitted to enter then it is a matter for that team and certainly not for McLaren.”
As recently as the Belgian Grand Prix, Richards revealed that a deal for car and engines had been agreed – although he never named McLaren specifically.
“We are there, but there are lots of issues surrounding the validity of the Concorde Agreement,” Richards told autosport.com about the progress with his team.
“It is those sorts of things that leave question marks at the moment, and they need to be resolved. Every other aspect of it is cleared up.”
