Hyundai/Kia in F1 -- would that bother you?

I saw some speculation on a F1 site about Hyundai/Kia joining F1 as a manufacturer in a few years.

Given that so much of Ferrari's heritage and mystique is based on it's participation in F1, how would you react if it were a Kia-powered car at the front of the grid? What if they won the championship? Would it affect your opinion of the "pinnacle of motorsports" if the title was owned by an economy car brand?

On a related note, how was Honda's entry in the 60s viewed?

Just curious

 

Well as far as I know Renault, Toyota, Honda are economy car brands.

 

Good for them. Anyone can start and run a race team. All you need is money, expertise, drivers, and facilities. Being successful is another thing.

 

Fully agree. the more teams, the better. but, money doesn't gurantee everything. look at Toyota

 

I hope they do. Hyundia has a TON of money although the auto brand may be completely separated from the parent and only share name. Not sure about Kia. I don't think they could afford it. Anything is better than Super Best Friends.

 

Kia is part of Hyundai Motor Group for a while now, I'm pretty sure.

(for the record, a Kia and Ferrari share space in my garage)


I'm glad you mentioned the SA team. Some Fcar guys rag on the Lambo guys because they never went racing, but then you have the SA/Midland/RedBull guys circulating around the back of the pack. Is there any value to slapping a manufacturer's name on a car and running 15th all season long? Would it make a difference in fan's perceptions if that manufacturer was Lamborghini, Audi, or Chevy vs Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo or Zhongxing? What has Spyker picked up by buying Midland?

 

Well, they have picked up the Ferrari engine for next season to start with!
This ex-Jordan, ex-Midland team is now carrying the name of a new supercar brand, and seems to attract investors money.

Too early yet to know if the Spyker GT will be a success (I read on a thread about 300 orders), or if the F1 team will come out of the doldrums, but it seems life a good effort.

Better see that than another Japanese/Korean/Chinese F1 team.

 

Hyundai is one of the biggest manufacturers in the world - of course it would be good if they were in F1.

 

Correct.

 

well, in the early 90s there were isuzu and yamaha powered cars.

 

Why not, Hyundai is in WRC already.

 

I think it would be fine to have Hyundai in F1 as well. The more the merrier.

 

I would love to see it. The more manufacturers involved in the sport, the better.

 

I think there would be. I hear the F1 announcers rag on the back markers all the time, but I'd love to see one of them jump in their F1 car and post the same lap times. Sure they may be a couple of seconds/lap down on the leaders, but they are still flying!

 

With a lot of curiosity!!
At the time, Honda was hardly a car manufacturer. It had started to produce a 600 Mini type of car and a 800 convertible (MG Midget type),both difficult to market. Both with motorcycle-derived engines and not very good dynamics.

The V12 Honda was a bit strange. Designed by bike engineers, it had a transversal engine (with large frontal area, WHY?), screamed like hell and was a handfull to drive. In their quest for power, Honda a built an engine with top end, but no torque, and the driver had to rev the nuts of it, just to leave the grid!
The chassis was way behind European Lotus, Cooper and so on.

Honda chose an unknown driver to steer it (Ronnie Bucknum), and the F1 was really an attraction at the back of the field. Things got serious the next year when then recruited Richie Ginther, a talented test driver, who sorted most of the gremlins and improved the car, to the extend that he won the last F1 1500cc race at Mexico - the only win in his career.

With the 3000cc F1 starting, Honda came back with a longitudinal V12, in an hopelessly heavy chassis. When Surtess left Ferrari, he joined Honda and once again, his testing talents showed up. Surtess insisted in ditching the Honda chassis for a Lola, and the car was nicknamed Hondola or Londa!
Surtess won at Monza but left soon after.
At the same time, another team at Honda had developed a V8 air-cooled magnesium-built F1, which Surtess was against: he refused to test it. This car was entered in the French GP and trusted to French driver Jo Schlesser, who crashed it on the second lap and burnt to death. With full tank and a magnesium chassis, the car went off like a box of matches - nothing was left.

This accident brought down Honda's withdrawal soon after.

 

I say they should go for it. Daewoo can enter and I would enjoy the extra competition and would love to see how they build as a team and perform.

 

I mention it's better than SA because Hyundai has a ton of money to spend. Sort of like Toyota money. So we could be dealing with top 10 finishes with Hyundai instead of DNFs and "top" 17-22 finishes.

 

Someone didnt watch the race yesterday....

 

No, I did. With a bunch of Fchatters at a car show. 10th place. That's what happens when cars wreck, others collide, but become repaired, and the Toyotas retire. Who knows why STR and Red Bull suck so bad.

 

I hope that whoever joins the sport applies the technology acquired on the track to the cars they put on the road. That is one of my biggest problems with Toyota. They spend billions on trying to produce a better F1 car to win races, but they apply nothing to their road cars. BMW, Mercedes, Honda and of course, Ferrari, all make great sports cars that actually showcase some of the technology from their racing ventures.

Hyundai and Kia in F1 are fine with me, so long as they allow their knowledge to advance their road cars.

- Chris

 

I don't like Hyundai or Kia one bit, but to see them in F1 wouldn't bother me, but to see them win in F1 would. It is similar to Toyota, you wonder why they are in F1 to begin with, there lacks passion in the Race to Road relationship within Toyota. Though if Hyundai were to team up with a team like Williams, then it would be cool, but a pure Hyundai team doesn't sound very passionate or exciting to me.

I loved the idea of Spyker comming into F1 and taking over for Midland. Stagnate teams like Midland and Minardi should not be allowed in F1, hopefully in the next few seasons Spyker bring the funds to at least contend for points once in a while. Even Super Best Friends showed a breath of potential last sunday.

Having said all this, I would like to see an Audi entry one day.

 

A Ford shares space in my garage with a Porsche...but it is a Ford GT

 

I will vouch for him, he watched the race all the way through.

I think it would be great if Kia, whomever, joined F1. Although, I would love to see the Lotus name come back.

 

The more teams with a car company backing them will only make F1 more exciting/competitive, instead of 2 teams winning all but 1 race. The name Kia or Hyundai is kinda plain though.

 

I think its cool. Only if Michael Schumacher comes back and manages to win the season in one of the cars though.....