FEBRUARY 16, 2004

A very odd F1 press release

Jordan Grand Prix issued a very strange press release on Monday, clearly designed to stave off criticism from Holland that a deal was not done with Jos Verstappen. The press release blamed Verstappen's manager Huub Rothengatter for demanding "an exorbitant commission on sponsorship introduced to the team or an outrageous wage". The team praised Verstappen's sponsors Michel Perridon of Trust and Harrie Muermans of the Muermans Group.

"It was a very sad conclusion," said Eddie Jordan. "We had a good faith agreement with the sponsors who acted positively at all times and it is not good for the sport for such valuable people to be treated this way by an agent."

The attack on Rothengatter is interesting in that Huub had been largely pushed aside in the negotiations by Perridon in recent months despite the fact that he has a longterm management contract with Verstappen. Perridon felt that as he was supplying most of the money he should do the talking. Obviously Rothengatter's attitude towards Jordan was based, in part, on this situation.

One cannot help but wonder, however, whether by siding with Perridon and Muermans Jordan might be trying to land Verstappen's sponsorship - without having to sign Verstappen.

Whatever the case, the attack on Rothengatter is unusual in F1 where demanding (and getting) outrageous sums of money is something which is usually saluted...