HWA to enter F1 with Mercedes, Spengler
The German news magazine Focus last week claimed that the company, which since 2000 has built Mercedes-Benz's cars for the DTM series, could become involved in the current McLaren collaboration, or set up a Mercedes-Benz 'B' team.
The British weekly Autocar added that the bid could be backed by mostly Dubai based businesses, some of which had intended to enter F1 with Prodrive in 2008.
It was also suggested that the HWA rumor linked up with speculation that Mercedes could be looking to end its involvement with Ron Dennis' Woking based team.
But HWA CEO Hans-Jurgen Mattheis scotched the reports.
"There's nothing to it," he told sport1.de. "This is all pure speculation."
Mattheis added that HWA has "currently no ambitions in that direction".
11/25/07 (GMM) German racing car company HWA is reportedly likely to enter formula one in 2009.
The news magazine Focus reports that the outfit, which since 2000 has built Mercedes-Benz's cars for the DTM series, could become involved in the current McLaren-Mercedes collaboration.
It was reported in June that, despite McLaren and Mercedes' collaboration on the $600,000 SLR supercar, Mercedes would pair with HWA alone for the SLR's successor.
Interestingly, HWA is run by the former CEO of Mercedes-Benz, Jurgen Hubbert; a fact that could spark new speculation that the largest shareholder of Ron Dennis' outfit could be looking to bring an end to the remaining British elements of the F1 team.
11/09/07 Canadian driver Bruno Spengler, has concluded the 2007 DTM championship season as runner up to Mattias Ekstrom, his second successive year in second place after missing out on the crown in 2006 to DTM legend, Bernd Schneider.
The target for the DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes driver is to make it the best out of three in 2008 and finally take the DTM crown, despite speculation that he may be in the running for Fernando Alonso’s vacant seat at McLaren.
Speaking to automoto 365.com, Bruno explained how flattered he is with the speculation doing the rounds by his fellow Canadians, however the fact of the matter is that the first step has not even be taken….
“It pleases me that the Canadians think this highly of me, but it is necessary to wait to see what will happen in the next few months," he told us. “However, I have not had any discussions on this subject with McLaren and Mercedes."
Bruno has never raced in the pinnacle of Motorsports, but he has definitely proved himself in the lower formula such as the F3Euroseries and Formula Renault, so would it be realistic for him to race alongside Lewis Hamilton next season?
“Not, not really, but nothing is 100% sure," he said. “Let’s say that there is an 80% chance that I will race in DTM in 2008. The objective will be the title in 2008, just like this year. I would say that to have a career as long and successful as Bernd (Schneider) would be fantastic, but, I don’t hide the fact that my dream is to race in Formula 1! We will see how things develop in the future… "
 |
|
Bruno Spengler |
11/06/07 Bruno Spengler is one name that has been quietly mentioned as a possible F1 driver for some months now and he could be one of the outsiders in the running for the McLaren drive, although it is highly unlikely that the team would sign up the Canadian youngster before seeing him test.
The 24-year-old was born in Strasbourg, on the Franco-German border, but his family moved to Canada when he was three. He was schooled in Canada but continued to spend time in France and started karting at Biesheim, near Strasbourg, in 1995. He raced in both France and Canada in the years that followed and then in 2001 started racing in French Formula Renault. The following year he finished second to Christian Klien in the German Formula Renault Championship. This led to him being signed by Mercedes-Benz and in 2003 he was given a drive with the ASM team in the Formula 3 Euroseries. Unfortunately his career then took a bad knock when he crashed heavily in testing at Dijon and suffered a broken vertebrae which meant that he missed several races. Despite this he scored several podiums and was 10th in the championship. A switch to Mucke Motorsport in 2004 was not a success and in 2005 he joined Team Persson in DTM, driving a 2004 Mercedes C Class.
He did well enough to be promoted to the HWA team in 2006 and finished runner-up in the series. He repeated the same feat this year. His name was first mentioned in connection with F1 in the summer when there was talk that he would be one of the drivers of the planned Prodrive F1 team. We hear that he spent some time this summer in the McLaren F1 simulator in Woking and did very well. If Prodrive had happened it is likely that he would have been one of the drivers, in part because there may have been a Canadian sponsor in the background and in part because of Mercedes-Benz support.
Spengler is managed by Didier Coton (the man who oversaw the careers of Mika Hakkinen and Olivier Panis) and lives near Strasbourg. A big star with the fans in Germany, he speaks English, French and German fluently. GrandPrix.com