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The difficulties which the newest Formula One challengers Super Aguri F1 Team faced in the 100 days it took to go from concept to the starting line in Barcelona were huge.
They included legal difficulties with the entry; obtaining permission from all 10 other teams so they could compete; problems with the $48 million deposit that weren’t resolved until the eleventh hour; plus migrating design drawings in their entirety from one software version to another. And all this in a brutally short time frame.
CenitDesktop, CAD software and support supplier, was instrumental to the design migration of the drawings for the original racecar chassis, which was the basis of the car that the SAF1 Team would first be entering with.
Wayne Humphreys, chief financial officer and company secretary for SAF1 Team, explained the importance of working with CenitDesktop on the chassis of the racecars, taken from a previous Formula One team: “The original designs were bought on 4 November 2005, just four days into the programme and were all in Catia V4. V5 is the latest version and the designers we had were conversant in V5.”
A further other consideration was that Honda was also providing a lot of support for the company, and many of its R&D drawings came only on Catia V5.
Humphreys said: “We needed flexibility in a CAD solution, so we sat down and worked out what we needed. In the interim, Cenit lent us some boxes and licences to get us started with one V4 and seven V5s giving us the ability to convert.”
SAF1 Team had decided to work with CenitDesktop right from the start. Almost the entire team came from other F1 teams and many had worked together before, and with Cenit, forming favourable impressions.
Humphreys said: “We had so much to do that we tended to pick the best partners from the very beginning. We had no time to mess around. While this was going on we were designing and developing the car, recruiting, setting up a factory, buying all the equipment…it was a pretty tall order. On top of that we encountered difficulties submitting our 2006 F1 season entry.”
The difficulty was the $48 million needed to enter Formula One. The company had arranged it, but missed the deadline by just two days. The FIA governing body confirmed that a team that enters Formula One and misses the first race would lose the entire starting deposit.
“Can you think of anyone sensible lending you $48 million for a project that everyone said wasn’t possible?” said Humphreys, “Aguri (Suzuki, the team principal) had some very good contacts and was able to solve that, but it was a very significant risk.” Since then, Super Aguri has gone on to compete in seven F1 races, with consistent if modest results.
There is still more work to be done between Cenit and SAF1 Team, as Humphreys said: “It’s an ongoing relationship with Cenit. At the moment we have got 20 designers and only eight permanent licences, so we are renting temporary licences to get the new car out. Their involvement is ongoing.”
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