High hopes at Simtek before the start of the 1995 season. With a decent driver line-up and their new challenger S951, the team was ready to push forward. The first signs were indeed positive. Jos and Domenico showed the potential of their car. However, the team was struggling financially therefore unable to update their car. When the team arrived in Monaco, it was clear that it was game over. Simtek only managed to arrive in Monaco by selling some of their S941 cars to be used as show-models. Having a sponsor pulling out and Barbara Behlau paying the lunch for all employees it was a terrible situation. Still there was a chance for Simtek to appear in Magny-Cours with the help of yet another Dutch lead consortium.
It is somewhat surrealistic to realise that there were plenty of attempts to keep Simtek afloat. Is it because of their horrific season in 1994, or is it because their cars were in base perfectly designed. I can’t answer that question. What I do release is that with Jos Verstappen as one of their drivers there were also strange rumours.
One of these rumours appeared in late May, It feels similar to those rumours in 1993 with March F1. Also involving a Dutch Formula One driver. I will tell you why this is. It seems that the same people are involved. This includes Henny Vollenberg who kept March F1 afloat, while having his own Vortex team in the Formula 3000 in 1995 and Jan Lammers. Lammers who returned in the Formula One with March after a decade! I earlier uncovered that Barbara Behlau was working on the background as well to find sponsors and investors. She did this to keep the legacy of Roland Ratzenberger alive. It is well known that it went also further; she paid the lunches for all team members in Monaco.
I’m pretty sure there were talks between the two, I have no information about this though. The Dutch consortium led by Henny and Jan spoke with Simtek Grand Prix administrators Touche Ross. Their first talks were in early June, when Nick Wirth already had announced that the team would not travel to Canada. At this point Simtek Grand Prix had a debt of 5 million pound while Simtek Research had a 1 million pound debt. Both Cosworth and Xtrac were waiting for payments at this point as well.
The discussion went about the future of the team when the debts were paid. Eventually the 5 million debt should be paid, and then the team with the agreement of the FOM could return as soon as in Magny-Cours. While hope was raising for Simtek to return to the grid the opposite would happen.
For unknown reasons, the consortium took a step back the 23nd of June 1995; this was a week prior the French Grand Prix. There seemed to be an unknown Dutch agent for the British Marcos Sportscar Marque that was considering to either get involved or buy Simtek.
For the Dutch consortium led by Henny Vollenberg, i could not find out whom he represented or where the money should come from. After Monaco, there were plenty of talks between Simtek and Dutch companies. Nick Wirth believed that Dutch companies would invest due to Jos Verstappen. I do have a wild theory that Philips was part of it trying to bring their brainchild ASML on the market via the Formula One. That same year, Philips brought the company to the stock exchange.
However, Simtek would not return to the grid, while Anno 2025 anyone would have purchased the team. In July, the auction got organised to sell the Simtek assets. Only 250.000 pounds would be made.
