Spyker-MF1's decision to sign a customer Ferrari engine contract for 2007 means that Cosworth is certain to exit F1 at the end of the year. "It is the end of Cosworth in Formula One for 2007," a visibly disappointed Cosworth Director Bernard Ferguson admitted in Shanghai, "but it is not the end of Cosworth." He told reporters that, after losing current partner Williams to a semi-works Toyota supply, Cosworth then could not meet Dutch car maker's Spyker desire - ultimately fulfilled by Ferrari - for a broad engine deal that extended to road cars. Ferguson was quoted in the New York Times on Sunday as complaining that the question of engines has been playing 'far too important a role' in the sport. Northampton-based Cosworth is the last independent engine maker on the grid. He said of his comments: "Formula one engine manufacturers are spending anything between the small amount that we spend and $250m a year developing engines, and over that period perhaps they improve by two or three percent." "When everybody has spent it and everybody has improved two or three percent, they're all pretty much back where they started from." Source GMM CAPSIS International ****** Just as I predicted! Cosworth is crap and could not cut it in F1 anymore!
You are crossing that line again. Cosworth has a long history of winning in F1, it is a sad day that they will not be present in the future. This is not a Ferrari only racing series, otherwise it would be boring to watch.
It would be sad to see Cosworth go but honestly they would never be able to keep up with the manufacturers without Ford like money bankrolling them. This year started out pretty well for Cossie - the lump was strong out of the box but as can be plainly seen the engine got left behind by virtually the entire grid and has been weak performing and unreliable with lots of failures. Cosworth is owned by Champcar luminiaries Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven. I am sure those guys would have Cosworth focus on Champ car now
I am convinced that Imperial really doesnt exist. It just a program in a Super Computer somewhere that rejects anything F1 related thats not Ferrari.
Comparing Imperial to a Supercomputer is like comparing a 6 month old to Albert Einstein. There's no way he's a Supercomputer unless the circuit board fried itself.
On a Ferrari-forum where we have a moderator who calls Massa useless and doesn't like the outcome of the Chinese GP, guys like Imperial are needed just for balance.
What an asinine comment. I guess Lotus, Brabham, Tyrrell, Arrows, Toleman, ATS et al simply couldn't 'cut it' and decided to leave.... Money could not have anything to do with it, nooooooooooooo....... (sic)
You talkin' to me? Just because we're on FChat doesn't mean that everybody has to wear pink glasses. If you feel so passionate about FChat, how about joining with a subscription? And btw just for the record: I have at times even defended Impy against other mods and against several users on here who felt offended by his constant messaging. I actually agree with you that he is a good balance to guys like me and others. And the reason (another) mod banned him currently has nothing to do with his views. Ferrarichat allows all kinds of opinions. You don't have to be a S/F cheerleader to be on here. Would be rather boring if we all had the same opinion, not?
The only problem with that quote is that there have been times when it could have been applied to every entity on the grid. Including Ferrari. F1 will again see a time where companies like Cosworth become a necessity for the exact reasons that were cited. With costs continuing to escalate and returns becoming smaller and smaller, the sport will at some point be forced to rein in its expenses. And seriously, too. None of these ridiculous ideas of Max's.
There was a time when ALL the cars on the grid where powered by Cosworth, bar the 2 Ferrari. In fact, most of F1 teams today debuted with Cosworth: McLaren, Williams, Spyker (ex-Midland, ex-Jordan), Honda (ex-BAR, ex-Tyrell), Red Bull (ex-Jaguar, ex-Stewart), Toro Rosso (ex-Minardi), Renault (ex-Benetton) and let's no forget: Lotus, Brabham, Lola, Pacific, Simtek, Eurobrun, Beatrice, ATS, Fittipaldi, Hesketh, Wolf, Hill, Shadow, March, Larousse, AGS, Martini, Arrows, Osella, etc... that used to run Cosworth at some point. Plus, of course, the Indy/CART/Champcar involvement, and several victories in endurance too (2 Le Mans). So, it's a major loss to F1 for next year. Cosworth had a policy to supply private teams, and if one day some manufacturers decide to leave F1, nobody will be able to fill the void.
How long did this Turd get banned for this time? Hopefully forever, as idiotic comments degrade Ferrari and Formula One with his pathetic comments like this Post on Cosworth. I bet the Tool is about 15 years old and runs things on Google to post on here.
I've extended another Moderator's 2-day ban of impish83 to 32 days. Reason posted to Imp: Extending ban so we don't have to put up with you for rest of season.
Come on now ! This isnt needed. If ever I steer from the one belief, Impy's there to set me true. REINSTATE ! As a side note, I remember when any rich playboy with a couple of mil could order a March chassis, throw in a Cossie and off to the races. James Hunt in the Hesketh was'nt supposed to do well. They just did'nt know any better.
I am sad to see Cossworth go, but it's probably a better for the sport now. Now manufactures got Bernie's balls in hand, only way to enter F1 now is to be nice to Ferrari, Reno, Mercedes, BMW, Honda or Toyota. I wounder if engine freeze will be affected since "support Bernie's backup engine" plan went south. Which engine if going to ProDrive ?
That's a very interesting question. Ferrari supplying 3 teams (Ferrari, Toro Rosso, and Spyker) Renault 2 (Renault & TRT) Honda 2 (Honda & Super (?) Aguri) Toyota 2 for Toyota and Williams That leaves Mercedes and BMW, and none of them has indicated willingness to supply other teams. Cosworth could still be possible in 2008, in spite of non-participation in 2007, but they would have lost 1 year of development. Also, they have already laid-off some staff. I think that Dave Richards, the boss of Prodrive, is questionning the FIA about the possibility of using McLaren 'client' chassis (they would have to change the rules), and run as a Junior McLaren team, probably with the Merc engine.
William, this season's McLaren Chassis doesn't seem to be so great, don't you think they are better off designing their own chassis? As far as the Engine, too bad Audi didn't have their name on the motor when they originally bought Cosworth from FORD and later sold to Kalkoven.
Isn't the Mercedes engine a knock-off of the old Illmor (Chevy) Indy motor ? And what would stop ProDrive from just running McLaren cars #3 and #4, and calling them McLaren-ProDrives ? I mean in the same vein as the Bennetton was really a Toleman ? But if F1 is even remotely serious about lowering costs, they should change the rules a bit to allow 'some' customer cars, problem is, all the companies that had 'customer cars' in the past have gone belly-up. Maybe limit it to 12 customer chassis a year ?
Anyone care to tabulate the number of Grand Prixs won or World Championships earned by drivers with Cosworth engines over the years? IIRC, Cosworth has over 150 wins in F1 to its credit. It is a sad day for F1 to see the name Cosworth leave as it was when Lotus folded up. Whisky, I believe the Mercedes engine is a badged Ilmor engine. In fact, unless I am mistkaken, Mercedes bought out Ilmor a few years ago.
FYI, Cosworth engines have had 12 F1 Driver's WC, 10 F1 Constructor's WC, 2 24 hours of LeMans wins, 10 Indy 500 wins,9 CART Champions and more. The most wins from a private engine supplier in the history of racing...so crap is hardly the word to describe Cosworth..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosworth_DFV
How about that Chinese GP? A little more than 2 days to silence the critics again! Ferrari 1 - 2 at Suzuka! Ferrari 1 - 2! That should be the only belief for any true Ferrari fan!
