F1 links: Questions over Donnelly and Manor

Posted on

| Written by

While Max Mosley is fuming about FOTA’s response to Wednesday’s deal, the teams are now asking questions about whether his right=hand man Alan Donnelly has acted improperly in promoting new F1 team Manor:

Formula One teams to complain about chief steward’s involvement with Manor

"Jane Nottage, an associate director of Donnelly's Sovereign Strategy, is understood to be running the public-relations strategy for Manor, albeit on a pro-bono basis. Donnelly also personally escorted a senior Manor executive around the paddock at a European grand prix, introducing him to team representatives ahead of Manor's inclusion next season."

Montezemolo calls for calm in fresh F1 row

"The idea of a third car was mooted in Bologna on Wednesday and the name of Valentino Rossi was mentioned. Rossi said yesterday that he was interested in the proposal, when his contract with Yamaha is up at the [end] of 2010."

Teams shrug off Max Mosley’s comeback threat

"Within the senior ranks of Fota his antics were being viewed as either irrelevant or self-defeating. The teams believe their agreement with him was sealed in front of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council and they do not believe it will be necessary for them to resuscitate their breakaway series at this juncture to force Mosley out."

These are links I’ve bookmarked using Delicious. You can see my Delicious profile here.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

9 comments on “F1 links: Questions over Donnelly and Manor”

  1. Yay! Hope they get rid of Manor! Fingers crossed

  2. Mussolini's pet cat
    27th June 2009, 17:24

    so, are these new teams still going to join F1 in ’10 with the budget cap scrapped??

    1. Good question.

      USF1 have been intending to enter F1 for years now & said that was their aim even before the cap was thought of. So I would think they`d go ahead. The others, who knows?

  3. Mussolini I would imagine that USF1 and Campos will still have the funds to compete without the budget cap.

    As for Manor, why the **** where they picked. There were entries with former experience (prodrive), a complete car facility with the possibility of converting a car to ’10 regulations (the people who bought Super Aguri), Historic team names although not original, and teams like Lola who have been in F1 in the past and are in many types of racing.

    What has Manor had with F1? So their owner was involved with Simtek. SIMTEK WAS PITIFUL AND FAILED MISERABLY. Simtek was so bad I didn’t like Mosley from the start because he came from that team. Was Mosley doing this guy a favor letting him in?

    1. I completely agree. No one wants F1 full of GP2/F3 like teams. They should have scrapped the budget cut and chosen the teams that don’t need one USF1, Lola, Prodrive.

  4. Donnelly – Now there`s an interesting man. Ex-leader of Labour in the European Parliament; consultant to the FIA & now Chief Steward.
    His details on his company`s site make interesting reading but not as interesting as if you Google “Former Labour chief + F1”

  5. Robert Stanton
    28th June 2009, 7:18

    Even tall trees blow over in a storm, goodbye Max and thankyou!!

  6. I’ve read on other site that Sir Richard Branson is taking over Manor and re-naming it to a Virgin brand. Anyone for a “Virgin” team? The reason Branson is giving for not sponsoring Brawn anymore is because Brawn have become too expensive. I didn’t think he was that tight with his money. It will be good to see another red car on the track, if they choose that colour.

    On another note Youtube co-founder American Chad Hurley is the main sponsor of USF1. Apparently he was at Silverstone to sort out the deal. Does this mean they will allow F1 clips on Youtube now? Also didn’t know the guy that does the post race interviews was co-founder of USf1 Peter Windsor. Well that gives James Allen a job on tv then. :-)

  7. I knew Branson announced he’d not be with Brawn for next season, but hadn’t heard he was going to sponsor Manor.

    Branson didn’t kick in all that much to Brawn anyway, that’s why the Virgin logo wasn’t bigger on the cars.

    Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson both have a lot of experience in F1, so I’m watching with real interest what their team will do in 2010.

    But I doubt if F1 vids will be allowed on YouTube. Unless Hurley had a lucrative sit-down with Bernie—lucrative for Bernie, that is. FOM (which Bernie owns) controls Formula 1 media, and if Bernie can’t make a buck, you can’t see it.

Comments are closed.