BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The Super Aguri team is scrambling to find new investors/owners after the takeover by Magma Group fell through.
“Super Aguri F-1 team confirms that it has been informed by Magma Group, the potential purchasers of the team, that its investors no longer wish to fund the intended acquisition,” a team statement said.
“It is with deep regret that Aguri Suzuki is now forced to consider the future of the team. However, negotiations with other parties continue.”
It was speculated that the team would not race in the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix. But while Super Aguri didn’t make it to the Barcelona test last week, its transporters were sent to the track for the race.
Honda, which already partially supports the team, may come to the rescue at least temporarily.
“Even if we have the money to go to Spain we might not be able to carry on after that,” team co-owner Fumio Akita told Reuters. “It’s impossible to predict what will happen but it could now depend on Honda.”
Bernie Ecclestone has bailed out teams in the past and may do so again to keep 22 cars on the grid.

• Fernando Alonso won’t be getting out of his Renault contract early to join Ferrari in 2009, according to Flavio Briatore who told the Swiss newspaper Blick: “Even if we don’t return to being a winning team, Fernando will leave no earlier than 2010.”

• Max Mosley’s lawyers have filed a motion in French courts to ban Internet access to the Mosley sex video in that country.

• Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost says it’s highly likely that Sebastian Vettel will switch to the Red Bull team in 2009.

• Having built up and stored up a number of aerodynamic, chassis and suspension updates for their cars during the first three “flyaway” races of the season, the teams finally got a chance to test them at Barcelona last week. All of the teams except Super Aguri tested, and all had major upgraded packages.
As always, with the teams at different points in their programs, it was difficult to get a read on who had made the best improvements.
Furthermore, Bridgestone brought along some slick tires, which will replace the grooved tires in 2009, and the drivers on slicks were comfortably faster than those on grooves.
Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Rubens Barrichello (Honda), Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Mark Webber (Red Bull) were respectively quickest during the four days of testing.

• Sebastien Bourdais set back Toro Rosso’s new car program when he heavily damaged the new STR3 after crashing it during his first day of testing. The STR3 was to race in the Turkish Grand Prix, but that debut may now be delayed.

• Bridgestone gave each of the teams nine sets of its latest development slick tires to try out during the Barcelona test. That grip was good enough for the cars on slicks to lap more than a second faster than those on grooved dry-weather tires.
The 2009 rules that permit slicks also ban tire blanket warmers, and many of the drivers have raised concerns about safety as cars coming out of the pits on cold tires will be considerably slower than those lapping on hot tires.
Bridgestone believes it can solve the problem by using variable compounds that will allow the tires to quickly get up to the correct operating temperature on the track.

• Gerhard Berger visited with high ranking business people in Kuwait to explore possibilities of the country creating a Kuwaiti F-1 team in the long run and Kuwaiti F-1 sponsors in the near future.

• Kimi Raikkonen says that the McLaren drivers were struggling a bit because they do not have a vastly superior car.
“If you don’t have as good a package as you had last year, then it is harder not to make a mistake,” he said.

• Lewis Hamilton admits he was too reckless after getting mired in the pack in Bahrain and this led to his collision with Fernando Alonso. It’s a mistake he says he won’t make again.
“You learn something at every race even if you win,” Hamilton said. “I think we have come a long way, and looking to the next race I feel very, very confident we can do a better job.”