I wonder how this F1 comes into Najib's 1 Malaysia plan??Or did he think just because that there is the No.1 there so he must get Malaysia and force all the top companies to join in his new pet project as well?!?
In a time when big companies like BMW have pulled out of F1 due financial constrain, is Malaysia having that much money that it can afford to throw more money away??
1st we got the PKFZ scandal which cost tax-payers hundreds of millions!
Then recently we threw away over BILLIONS of Ringgit on 2 submarine and some helicopters!
(from the stupid 24hour take over)
Now Najib wants to be the first country to own an F1 Team!
The USA, being the richest nation never had one. China is richer than Malaysia and don't have one. Australia is richer than Malaysia and don't have a team. Norway is richer than Malaysia and don't have one. Germany produces many good F1 drivers and don't have a German team now that BMW had withdrawn.
Malaysia can't even afford to maintain a decent LRT service yet the govt are willing to throw millions into an F1 Team!
(I scan through the internet and put together some comments together that is worth reading on this issue!)
Cost of an F1 Team!
In March, 2007 F1 Racing published its annual estimates of spending by Formula One teams.
Toyota $418.5 million, Ferrari $406.5 m, McLaren $402 m, Honda $380.5 m, BMW Sauber $355 m, Renault $324 m, Red Bull $252 m, Williams $195.5 m, Midland F1/Spyker-MF1 $120 m, Toro Rosso $75 m, and Super Aguri $57 million.
Engines alone can cost a whopping USD15mill/season.
R&D and Start Up cost is not included!!!
Team 1Malaysia F1 is supposedly sponsored by the big companies and TDC.
In Malaysia, big companies are either GLCs or linked to them. The TDC is government-run. So how can we say for sure that tax payer money don't get channelled to these. Surely companies like Air Asia and Naza won't dare to venture into such a risky venture without some financial backing. They would not dare risk their shareholders stake and working capital. So who will eventually bare the cost when/if the team make massive losses?!
What about the effect of forcing companies like Air Asia and Naza to sponsor this project?
Every sen spent goes somewhere - a basic principle of accounting. Advertising cost normally goes into the cost of sales i.e. the price that you sell to the customer. So if the ad cost go up, the cost of sales go up. So if Naza and Air Asia needs to maintain their profit margin, their cost of sales will go up. Meaning, the spare parts, the car service, new car price all will go up. For Air Asia, their ticket cost will go up. Or if they want to maintain the same cost of sales, then the cost of goods sold or sales/admin cost go down. So cheaper spare parts (lower quality), poorer service levels and cars with less options or lower quality finishing. For Air Asia, maybe Tune Hotels no longer have communal toilets inside. The guests have to go to public toilets or do it in the drains outside. Maybe, to board an AirAsia plane, you checkin at the fence along the tarmac and walk across the tarmac to the plane. Save the LCCT terminal charges.
Malaysian Maintenance and Management?
According to theStar 1 Malaysia F1 team will be manage by former Renault technical director Mike Gascoyne. While I respect the man I wonder will he get inteference from all the YB and VIP ini Malaysia!
Only time will tell or is he going to end up the same way as foreigners brought in to our badminton, hockey and other sports teams
Then will the lack-of-maintenance syndrome which Malaysia is so famous for be a plague to this team? Lets hope the car does not fall apart during the race! Can you imagine a front wing dropping off by itself?
Putting Malaysia on the Map!??
Our PM said that...
“This is a meaningful development and I hope that it will further raise our country’s profile on the world stage.”
Oh! I am sure this will raise our country's profile.... but will it raise our profile for the better or worst?
If we keep losing and the M'sian F1 team is not there to just make up the numbers, won't we become and embarrassment to the world?
Have we forgotten the embarrassment we felt when Malaysia hosted its first F1 race in 1999 at the Sepang F1 Circuit and Alex Yoong was the first Malaysian to race in the championships in 2001 and 2002 for Minardi. It was a total flop!!
What will happen then to the wind tunnel and all the billions of equipment and logistics which had been invested in Sepang?
Don't we remember PKFZ the "white elephant"?
Am I being negetive!?
I know ppl will shoot me that I am too negative!
But with so many false starts in the past and failling to follow through all too often, can you blame me for being so negative?? I am not saying that having a Malaysian F1 team is a bad thing, just that whether it is justifiable for us to have one??
I think the biggest question is still...
What is the relationship between 1Malaysia and the M'sian F1 team?
Is this the aspiration of the Malaysian rakyat??
Does the rakyat as 1 benefit from this project?
Don't we need the money to overcome the global crisis and make those fundamental changes. Eg. health, security, future development of our human resources, social programs. Can we guarantee (& be transparent) that such a venture will not degrade some of these programs that are sorely needed by the citizenry?
F1 can be enjoyed by those who can afford it but affordable healthcare, good security, future of our children etc, these should be something every rakyat be given!
I think the biggest joke is when Najib said that..
“This is where the cars will be designed, manufactured and tested. It will be ‘Made-in-Malaysia, by Malaysians’ and of course, the pit-stops will be run by Malay-sians,”
I died laughing! when I read this in the Star!
Our Proton cars are still made in Japan and we want to make Made-in-Malaysia F1 Cars!!
4 comments:
Before you shoot away, please do check what submarines we bought, how much and why. We bought two Scorpene Class submarines from France and each of it costs approximately 438 million euros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorp%C3%A8ne_class_submarine
Malaysia closed the deal at 1.035 billion Euros for the two. The cost is higher than the estimated 876 billion Euros due to the package deal which we signed with payments to be maid over a few years.
(one dollar today is not worth 1 dollar tomorrow concept).
Read more on the package here http://www.singapore-window.org/sw02/020605a2.htm
Mind you, India was quoted to have spent 3 billion USD on 6 Scorpenes which was around 3.2 Billion Euros for 6.
In other words, India also spent 1.067 Billion Euros on two submarines.
As for the Maybank and BII takeover case, financiers and accountants in Maybank are not stupid and they don't make the project valuation in 24 hours.
No decision making and project valuation that sums to billions can be made in such a short time span.
The acquisition was made pre Financial Crisis. Moreover, many commercial banks crashed globally - notably Citibank. BoA and many more. One of the large player that suffered huge losses was Temasek Holdings of Singapore too.
Basically whoever bought banking stocks, they suffered and burnt.
As for the Proton in F1, mind you that the investment decision is not entirely Proton's. Proton together with Universiti Teknologi Petronas and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia are working hand in hand to support Air Asia, Naza and Lotus.
As for the returns of the investment, I personally think that it is better than advertisements by our Government overseas and far more effective. Dr M has the latest opinion on this
http://bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=441184
As for your last statement where you said "I died laughing! when I read this in the Star!
Our Proton cars are still made in Japan and we want to make Made-in-Malaysia F1 Cars!!", I have to correct your misperception.
Proton cars have never been made in Japan. It was through the first model Proton Saga that Malaysia incurred high royalty cost for paying Mitsubishi when they shared their technology and design of their Lancer with us.
I think Proton Wira was also under Mitsubishi and Proton had a capped growth due to the excessive royalty payments.
Malaysia continued to pay except till the "A New Saga is Born" where it was totally made in Malaysia.
The concept of Malaysian made cars began to rise in the models of Waja, Persona and the new Saga. Not sure about the Proton Perdana though.
Most models if not all are already Made in Malaysia with the car parts share supplied by domestic and international suppliers.
Check your facts before you shoot.
GWL
You better read my post properly b4 you shoot yourself!!
1 I never mention an exact amount for the subs! I only mention a waste of money by the billions! That is correct! Nah my source!
http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2007/05/03/rm5348-million-commission-for-scorpene-submarines-why-perimekar/
I do question the need for 2 subs.
2. I notice you were quiet on the helicopter issue.
3. Maybank was warn against the takeover and they still went through with it! Idiots!
4. I meant the last part as a joke! This means not to be taken seriously! Of course I know that proton cars are not made in Japan!
The quality is too lousy to be made in Japan!
Proton would not be able to afford cars made in Japan! Duh!
Yes it is a waste of money to have submarines to patrol the Straits of Malacca. Yes Singapore can continue buying Apaches and other high tech weaponry. Yes other countries can stack up their arsenal and get ships, destroyers and submarines.
Malaysia should not bother getting these. In fact, Malaysian Armed Forces should not even bother buying bullets or trucks.
There are strategic reasons for the military to buy the 2 subs. Malaysian military is not a puppet or good for nothing organization.
In fact, I know clearly well that Malaysia have ties with the Australian Armed Forces on many frontiers. I also have met a Malaysian man who was sponsored by the Australian Armed Forces to learn about strategic moves from a military point of view.
Let them do their job and we do ours.
If indeed your last part was meant as a joke, I doubt any laughed because people know Proton cars are not made in Japan. Jokes are not meant to input misleading facts.
Yes of course Maybank was warned. So was Temasek Holdings who were questioned on their purchase and then sale of commercial banks in America (if I am not mistaken it was BoA).
So everyone is an idiot including Citibank financiers who once saw their company valuation fell lower than even our very own CIMB Bank some point this year.
The global financial crisis caused most project valuations to go down the drain ranging from institutions in Japan to the United States and especially Britain.
External factors like this were not taken into account. If such unforeseen circumstances did not occur and instead we see the acquisition of BII adding value to Maybank, Malaysians will not praise the financiers who made the decision but instead continue to look for the next issue to exploit and slam the Barisan Nasional Government like a merry making event.
No Government is perfect, no system in place is ideal and no utopian society exists. Just like how the once we thought to be very perfect DAP who even made mistakes like the mismanagement of Alam Flora contracts in Shah Alam, the mismanagement of a particular King of Tennis project in Penang and many more.
Nevertheless, we are all Malaysians and to me all Malaysians are my brothers and sisters if not dear friends. We must agree to disagree MJ. Cheers to you.
I agreed with you that no govt is perfect!
BN and UMNO is definitely far from it!
That is why I am stressing that at a time when the govt has more pressing internal matters to solve, they go splashing and wasting precious tax-payers money on non-essential things like an F1 team!
You are still enjoying the nice parks and public transport in Auss!
Come back to KL and see the need for the govt to splash the money on training its own people and upgrade its facilities, transport and etc.
The F1 team is not necessarily a bad idea. But I question its timing, its implementation, its durability and weather or not its advantages out weight its cost!
This is just my opinion!
You are welcome to disagree with it!
As for the other readers, pls give them the respect that they can make up their own minds themselves without needing you to prompt them!
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