Jaguar out of F1!

[wayno]

Today Ford announced it is completely pulling out of F1 at the end of this season, despite the rumours of pulling the plug on the WRC program to concentrate totally on a commited Ford branded F1 effort.
This has sent shockwaves through F1, but could also have a profound effect on Minardi and Jordan as it means they wont get subsidised engines now for next year.
All expected the team to be re-branded as a Ford operation and after David Pitchforths' comments that he expected the team to continue to recieve funding for next year at the start of this week, the announcement has caught many by surprise.
Fords' Vice President Richard Parry-Jones summed it up by saying "There was no compelling business case to continue the operation. We have to be able to win and we just can't justify the spending."
The whole operation is now up for sale.

[singer]

Possibly some one will buy the franchise who will put something into FI instead of take, take, take. This will ineveitably free up some very worthy engineers which, if taken up by the other teams, should make for some interesting changes to the already quick field.

[ferrari fan]

This could well be the death of the Concorde agreement and will skake up the whole operation
With up to 3 teams now uncertain it is all up in the air.

[wayno]

F1 has copped a real hammering this week with the quite pointed comments made by Luca Di Montezemelo from Ferrari about how F1 revenue is distributed. He also stated that Ferrari are again interested in the Grand Prix World Championship idea. I wonder if the GPWC did actually become a viable option if we would see Ford involved again at this level of the sport?

[brchi17]

Well it's a good thing MW signed with Williams last month, I wonder if he was privvy to this ???

I wonder if Ford will have a serious good at the WRC, as it seems that they enter all these different categories, but only have a 1/2 go at it.

Imagine how'd they gone if they actually took it seriously enough to fund it properly - could have give Ferrari a run for their money ???

cheers.

[toad]

An interesting possible outcomefor the Ford/Cosworth sale...

The Cosworth Racing company has important contracts in the United States of America, supplying all the engines for the Champ Car World Series and providing engines for the Chevrolet operations in the Indy Racing League. The sale of Cosworth could therefore have a huge impact on the American racing scene and it may be that the Ford Motor Company knows that in order to keep those operations going, the companies involved may agree to take over the engine business. What is interesting is the possibility that General Motor might buy Cosworth to save its IRL engine programme and could then enter Formula 1 as an engine supplier. Whether or not the management of GM would be interested in such a programme remains to be seen but with GM moving into the European market with Chevrolet replacing Daewoo, there is a good case for such a move, particularly as Ford is not going to be asking a lot of money for the business. As an aside this might result in a Red Bull takeover of Jaguar Racing because the Austrian drinks firm has been waiting for the opportunity to go into business with an American car company in F1. This however is largely speculation.

There might also be a side benefit for GM buying Cosworth as Chevrolet is a supporter of IRL and buying Cosworth would go a long way to wiping out Champ Cars, although engines could be found elsewhere. Ford is one of the big supporters of Champ Cars at the moment

[singer]

Originally posted by toad
An interesting possible outcomefor the Ford/Cosworth sale...

The Cosworth Racing company has important contracts in the United States of America, supplying all the engines for the Champ Car World Series and providing engines for the Chevrolet operations in the Indy Racing League. The sale of Cosworth could therefore have a huge impact on the American racing scene and it may be that the Ford Motor Company knows that in order to keep those operations going, the companies involved may agree to take over the engine business. What is interesting is the possibility that General Motor might buy Cosworth to save its IRL engine programme and could then enter Formula 1 as an engine supplier. Whether or not the management of GM would be interested in such a programme remains to be seen but with GM moving into the European market with Chevrolet replacing Daewoo, there is a good case for such a move, particularly as Ford is not going to be asking a lot of money for the business. As an aside this might result in a Red Bull takeover of Jaguar Racing because the Austrian drinks firm has been waiting for the opportunity to go into business with an American car company in F1. This however is largely speculation.

There might also be a side benefit for GM buying Cosworth as Chevrolet is a supporter of IRL and buying Cosworth would go a long way to wiping out Champ Cars, although engines could be found elsewhere. Ford is one of the big supporters of Champ Cars at the moment You're assuming that Cosworth is for sale

[toad]

Originally posted by singer
You're assuming that Cosworth is for sale

Ford announced that both Jag F1 and Cosworth are for sale which is why Minari and Jordon could be in the lurch for engines next yr

[Esses]

I can see the point of concentrating on WRC instead of F1, as at least there is a visual connection to Road Cars, Fords business after all. I think that they had to take a decision as to whether to go the whole hog in F1 (millions & millions & millions of $) or go more Road Car biased. F1 is just ludicriously expensive.

[toad]

agreed and I think Ford is in pretty deep financial mire

[singer]

Originally posted by Steve
I can see the point of concentrating on WRC instead of F1, as at least there is a visual connection to Road Cars, Fords business after all. I think that they had to take a decision as to whether to go the whole hog in F1 (millions & millions & millions of $) or go more Road Car biased. F1 is just ludicriously expensive.

I believe there is a lot of the Cosworth Engineering in the Focus thats why I don't think they'll sell it. It's far to valuable an asset to them

[singer]

Originally posted by toad
agreed and I think Ford is in pretty deep financial mire

Ford has been there before

[toad]

The Ford Motor Company has announced that Jaguar Racing and Cosworth are up for sale and will leave Formula 1 at the end of the year unless buyers can be found for the two entities, which will be run as going concerns until the end of the year. Ford's F1 supremo Richard Parry-Jones announced the news on Friday morning, shortly after informing the staff of the decisions made in Detroit.

[usl]

Its a very sad day for the sport and has now seemingly thrown it into uncertainty. Unless Jaguar and Cosworth get bought (buy who?) next year is going to look very bare.
Mind you there could be many positives to come out of this. The scrapping of the 2 engine per weekend plan and 2.4ltr V8 (which would cost millions in R&D ). A possible testing ban and an equal share of TV money.
This also gives credit to Minardi and shows they're strength that they are still around even though manufacturers are pulling out.
Either way it could be the kick in the arse F1 needs.

[toad]

not to mention that Jordan may do an engine deal with Toyota that will mean Ryan Briscoe gets a drive in a Jordan.

Another Aussie in F1 would be brilliant

[brchi17]

Originally posted by singer
I believe there is a lot of the Cosworth Engineering in the Focus thats why I don't think they'll sell it. It's far to valuable an asset to them

Contra to this, it was reported on the 10 news tonight, saying that both the Jaguar F1 team & Cosworth were up for sale, just like Toad said earlier.

I wonder if Ford Credit (3rd largest bank in the world) are sick of financing the FoMoCo & have told them it's time to make a profit in the tough American market, which at present is not as healthy as it could be.

I must admit, it does sound a bit like a fire sale.

cheers. :)

[toad]

Yes Ford is a very profitable bank attached to a very unprofitable car making enterprise.

[usl]

I read HSBC had something to do with Ford banking. I heard it was why Mclaren were having trouble poaching them as a possible post cigarette sponsor.

[toad]

Yes I think you will find many of the car manufacturers and sponsors are very linked in their business activities and alot the sponsorship comes from that.

One I know if is Panasonic/Toyota where all the stereo's in Toyota road cars are made by Panasonic. Stands to reason they would be strongly encouraged to become a major sponsor.

[singer]

Ford are also closing the Jaguar plant, throwing hundreds of people out of work:(

[usl]

Yeah, it sounds like someone un accounting forgot to carry over a few zero's. It's a real shame but it was inevitable.
As far as F1 goes Ferrari Fan was right in saying its really going to shake up the Concorde Agreement. Some teams (Ferrari, possibly Renault or B.A.R.) are going to have to run a 3rd car that can't score points if Jag dont line up next year.

[toad]

I believe a lot of the Jag F1 funding came from Lincoln/Mercury budget in US and there was a lot of animosity within Ford about that.

[wayno]

Seems Bernie is now trying to convince everyone that he wasn't surprised by Fords' decision at all and he believes they should have pulled out some time ago! This seems like crazy talk to me. Why the hell would he come out and say something like this? I just can't see how pissing off one of the major car manufacturers in the world can benefit him.
Anyway, back to the Jag sale. It seems the latest rumour is that Arden International may be interested in purchasing the assets of the team. They won F3000 with Tonio Liuzzi this year and have been linked with F1 ambitions in the past.
If Jag is not sold as a going concern then we will be in the situation of less than 20 cars on the grid. This is against the terms of the Concorde Agreement and some teams would be forced to run a third car to ensure the fields numbers.
On engine supplies, Minardi feels it has a firm contract in place with Cosworth for next year and Eddie says Jordan are "looking at their options" for next year. Could this be the push needed to get the rumoured Jordan/Toyota partnership off the ground?

[ferrari fan]

This announcement has had the effect of a handgranade in a Boardroom, it is a major hurdle and will have Huge effects for this class of Motorracing.
Hopefully some good will come from this , but a bit of pain will be felt by a few, Berny will be OK:rolleyes: as he has his pockets full and can afford to buy some headacke pills:mad:

[wayno]

Latest to come out on this situation is that Ford had a chance to sell the Jaguar team earlier in the year but turned the offer down.

[Dingo]

Bernie has long sinced ceased caring about F1 as a sport and only sees it in terms of its marketing ability, i.e. its ability to get him more cash. His guidance in getting Schumacher into Benetton is testimony to that. The best thing Ford can do is to tell Bernie that they don't want to play in his ballpark anymore. Maybe a few other teams should tell Bernie to go take a flying leap as well...

[teambrock50]

Isnt there a agreement in plave that there has to be 20 cars on the grid next year. Thats what i read somewhere and if worst comes to worst some teams will have to run three cars next year.

[toad]

if three teams go to the wall (Jag, Minardi, Jordon) that means that the top 6 teams would each have to field 3 cars.

In my opinion that would create much better racing than today. There would be at least 18 competitive cars then Toyota a looming danger in future yrs.

[wayno]

Has anyone else heard the rumour about Dietrich Mateschitz (boss of Red Bull) being interested in buying the Jag team? According to reports he is very interested as long as he can get a competitive engine for next year. Red Bull seem to love being involved in motorsport and I think Dietrich would invest quite heavily to make the team reasonably competitive.
Lot of money to spend to keep Klein in F1 though!

[singer]

Originally posted by wayno
Has anyone else heard the rumour about Dietrich Mateschitz (boss of Red Bull) being interested in buying the Jag team? According to reports he is very interested as long as he can get a competitive engine for next year. Red Bull seem to love being involved in motorsport and I think Dietrich would invest quite heavily to make the team reasonably competitive.
Lot of money to spend to keep Klein in F1 though!

If he does buy it, it will be at a Fire sale price. Dietrich is an astute business man & if he has to invest heavily to make the team competitive, he'll make sure he doesn't pay top dollar