Honda 's F1 pull out, Should Ferrari do the same?

FYI, Mazda is the most road raced brand in the world. And, with the Mazda Mazdaspeed line, RX7/8, Miati; Nissan Z car, Skyline, GTR, Infiniti line; Subaru WRX, STi, Mitsubishi EVO; Toyota MR2, Supra, Lexus line... it seems to me that Honda is the LEASE sporty Japanese make...

 

Thank you.

 

+1

Feff

 

agree

 

No. It would hurt business. I say that the only reason they are in F1 is because it brands them so well. Sure, they adopt technology, but lets face it, road cars are no where near F1 cars and they could very easily develop quality cars without it.

However, F1 is their brand and their image. Pulling out would be devastating IMO.

 

Spot on.

Ferrari is one of the few car makers who doesn't advertize. Their ads are the podium places on a GP weekend.

Also Ferrari never ceases to stress how much technology has trickled down from F1 to its road cars. And if you look at all the hitech wizardry in the F430 and 599, that is not really an exaggeration.

Finally Ferrari's F1 finances are very different from Honda's: Because of its poor F1 results, Honda got little TV money back. Unlike Ferrari of course, which was rewarded many, many millions. Also Honda run the team with zero sponsors for years, that's half a billion USD gone every year. Ferrari recouperated a lot of its costs from sponsor money. Also Ferrari makes about 60 million just in franchise money for the rights to use its logo on toys and perfums etc. A lot of those toys and souvenirs are directly F1 related.

 

Yep, I associate my car with F1.

 

So do I. That's in essence what it boils down to.

If Ferrari would pull out of F1, I would be left in a serious quandry over whether to keep my Ferrari or not. As much as I love it, I only want to support a manufacturer who has the gutts to be in F1 (my other car is a Toyota).

 

Oh you've made me feel bad about my Honda now!!..

 

I hope they get out of F1 in 2010, get into LM and destroy some Audi's.

 

Ferrari makes a lot of money on merchandising. F1 is one of the most popular sports on earth with a huge fan base, the merchandise sales off of the Ferrari F1 fan is enormous. Follow the money

 

Indeed. F1 is the most watched sport on Earth. Period.

It is only 2nd to World Cup Soccer and the Olympics, but they are only on every 4 years on TV.

 

Many of those spectators live in third world hellholes and couldn't purchase a Lada, much less a Honda or Ferrari. Ferrari can at least sell hats, but where's the draw for the other manufacturers?

 

I can add to this that Ferrari actually MAKES money from F.1, directly as well as indirectly. Most of the teams $400 million budget is covered by sponsors, and the rest is easily earned back with TV rights, photographic rights, merchandising and so on.

I recall that in the old days there were professional teams such as Tyrrell, Brabham and Williams which were run as profit-making companies, and raced for profit. The distortion of motorsport into a money-burning folly as it is now is the result of too many major manufacturers throwing billions at it and inflating costs out of reach for anyone trying to make any sensible business.

It all began with Renault in the '70s, and when TAG-Porsche, Honda, Renault again (with the V10), Peugeot, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota and all the rest of the auto industry came into F.1 like a ton of bricks they completely destroyed the sport and turned it into a race to technological oblivion with no regard for costs.

Unfortunately the same thing happened even earlier with the Endurance prototype championship - remember the epic days of Alfa 33s, Porsche 917s and Ferrari P4s? Then Ford came in with the GT40 and an unlimited budget, fast forward to the early '80s and Porsche followed up with the 956/962, then Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, BMW all had a go at it with spiraling budgets, until we come to the last decade, in which Audi threw so much money at the sport that they completely killed it. In the last 5-6 years Le Mans has been a pathetic Audi monopoly (with the fake Audi-Bentley victory thrown in one year to please the peasants). At every Le Mans race I was cheering every time an Audi R8 crashed or broke down, the only hope of seeing a real race would have been if these hateful R8s got out of the way and left the real competition - the private GT1 and GT2 cars - fight for absolute victory...

If you look at today's F.1 you can see it's going the same way as endurance racing. In 5 years' time there will be two or three "billion dollar" teams left and they will fill up the field with Formula Renault or Formula BMW cars, again just to please the peasants.

In this scenario I would rather see Ferrari out than in. And besides, Lamborghini also does not advertise but its cars sell very well anyway...

 

Actually the statistics about F1 being the #1 sport on TV is based on industrialized countries where people can afford to buy a Toyota or a Renault.

 

Good luck with that. It's an entirely different ball game. It's like saying that Audi should come into F1 to destroy Ferrari. Ferrari develops technology associated with the rules of F1. Audi does so based around the rules of LM. I'd be willing to bet that either of them would do poorly in the other's territory and would take a while before either of them made significant progress.

 

They may adapt a lot of technology, but it certainly isn't necessary, and I still say it's debatable how comparable it is to race technology. The LP560 is at least on par with the Scuderia, and Lamborghini doesn't do any racing. The ZR1 is an incredible car, but Corvette isn't involved in F1. That high-tech wizardry can also be seen in the GT-R to the extreme.

I'd say it's more of a marketing ploy than anything else.

 

One that work's IMO.

 

Ferrari is and has always been primarily an engine manufacturer. If FIA goes ahead with their sole engine supplier proposal, there is no reason for Ferrari to stay in F1.
Ferrari should never allow itself to become just another "assembler" like McLaren or Williams.
If FIA (Bernie and Mosley) really want to control costs in F1 (and not just to appear to be trying to control costs), they should do just that, control the money (ie. Maybe something along the lines of Major League Baseball's salary cap). Instead, FIA keeps changing the rules which in turns have the opposite effect (increases cost).
Ferrari should seriously consider getting back to sports car (prototype) racing or even Indy Car racing.
Although I would prefer Ferrari to remain in F1. They should stay in F1 only was what they are, constructors.
The bottom line is, IMHO, F1 needs Ferrari more than Ferrari needs F1.

 

Huh? The GT40 predated the Alfas, 917s and P4s...

 

I'm told that the most watched sport is MotoGP, not F1. However, MotoGP is headed in the same direction, too much money for the competition, and the fields keep getting smaller and smaller.

Art

 

If Ferarri leaves F1, who would watch it?

Not me, for sure.

With the world recession, going to be tough for many manufacturers financially.

 

Fixed it for you

 

"Germans?"

"Forget it he's rolling"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI

 

LOL

True.
Which is what Ferrari told Mad Max in no uncertain terms after which he crawled back stating the announcement of the spec engine for everybody was just a misunderstanding, a communications error. Whatever, he got the message and won't do it. End of story.

I'd say it is a symbiotic relationship. They both need each other equally.