Would you buy a Ferrari if...?

IMO I don't look at Risi as Ferrari being involved with endurance racing since it's not a factory team. I'd pay much more attention to LMS/ALMS if Ferrari as a factory team were involved in the P1 classification and fighting with Audi and Peugeot for overall wins.

 

Well, they won it last year. How much better could an official Ferrari entry do?

In order to win Le Mans overall in the P1 class, they would need a Diesel. How can you resolve that with the Ferrari image? I can't. I might as well cheer for MAN Diesel or Iveco.

 

Referencing Andreas' earlier post - "But nobody gives a hoot." - WELL . . . .I most certainly give a hoot!! (but you knew that anyway Andreas!)

I'm afraid but I must disagree with your statement about Risi not being involved with endurance racing since they aren't a factory team - THEY WON THE GT2 CLASS AT THE LE MANS 24 HOUR LAST YEAR! Their drivers are FERRARI FACTORY DRIVERS. . . I'd say they are the CLOSEST thing to a full factory effort. Often times in LMS and in ALMS the best racing is in the GT2 class. Look at what our FChat friend did last weekend at Spa with his Ferrari team . . . started in the pits and won the race - one of his drivers (Antonio Garcia) who has been with his team for several years won the Daytona 24 hour in January in a DP, Sebring this year in GT1, won GT1 in an Aston Martin at Le Mans last year - pretty impressive. ALMS this year is a given - witness today in Utah, Acura 1-2-3. By saying endurance racing is not such because a team is not a factory team is not true - look at Oreca (Burno Senna, Stephane Ortelli, Oliver Panis, etc.), Pescarolo, Speedy Racing (LMP1 & LMP2 - Nicholas Prost, Marcel Fassler, etc.), Oreca Matmut Porsche, Team Essex, Strakka (Danny Watts) - to name a few. A grid of 51 cars is mighty impressive.

The Ferrari GT cars are making up for the deficit of Ferrari in F1. Ferraris are being driven in GT1, GT2 and GT3 (a team in Argentina ran a 550 last year for a few races) but they are consistent WINNERS in FIA-GT, ALMS and doing well in GT3 (a Kessel 430 was on the podium last night in Adria).

Andreas, the Ferrari tractors could enter the European truck race series against Man and Iveco - perhaps a Ferrari win??

Carol

 

I actually voted that I would buy one from thier racing days. I am a race on Sunday buy on Monday guy admittedly. I have even pondered buying an Audi because they have been slaughtering people in sportscar racing, but I want to give them a few years to let the heritage trickle down to thier road cars.

That is one of the reasons I love BMW. Love the racing heritage and how they bring some of the stuff to thier M line. Doesn't really have to be F1 though, but at least be involved in NASCAR (KIDDING - CAUGHT A FEW OF YOU LOL! ) sportscar racing!

MG

 

I knew several pretty hard-core Corvette and Trans-Am people who moved away from GM during the racing ban of the late 1960s/early 1970s era. And IIRC, the cars themselves got pretty sorry after the racing era ended...did not really come back to life until the C4 Vette and Corvette Challenge got going.

 

I want them to start going for overall wins. Start chasing after Audi and Peugeot.

 

Porsche has a rich racing heritage, just not so much from F1 but from other series and I'd buy a porsche in a second. Yes I'd still buy a Ferrari, despite them not racing in F1. F1 nowadays isn't what it used to be. It's very anti-technology, and all they do is try to slow the cars down, which is idiotic IMO and defeats the purpose of making the fastest cars around a track. How I long for the v10 days with the bridgestone/michelin tire wars. Even then there was too much BS to try and slow the cars, but today things are so much worse.

 

Of course I knew that. But you're extreme (I mean that as a compliment). Neither you nor I represent the average fan or even the average "person on the street". Those people don't watch Le Mans on TV. In fact you can see by some of the posts on here how few people actually knew that Ferrari did indeed win Le Mans last year.

So if Ferrari leaves F1, their racing heritage will sink into obscurity. At least as far as the general public is concerned. And that will have a knock on effect on the adoration, charisma and myth of Ferrari. And when it is not so cool anymore to have a Ferrari, movie stars like Nicolas Cage won't be using them anymore as first choice and eventually the nouveau rich Joe Blow will buy a Lambo instead.

You realize that the superfast shifts in the 430 Scuderia or 599 are directly derived from your "anti-technology F1"? Just to name one of the recent trickle down effects (Manettino anybody?). Let alone that some of the current production Ferraris have been tested and developed by Ferrari's F1 drivers.

And did you hear that Ferrari is planning on incorporating KERS in its new road cars? That again a courtesy of what you call "anti-technology" F1. I'm no tree hugger, but KERS makes a lot of sense to me in production cars.

 

Interesting that you think that. Why would someone decide not to buy a Ferrari because they are no longer in F1 but buy a Lambo, who also are not in F1? Unless, of course, the Lambo is actually a better car!

 

Andreas - thanks! It's a true shame that your are correct with your comment referencing the postings about how few people realize the other racing world of Ferrari and how well they are doing outside F1 and doing it without all the continual BS.

That's okay if "Joe" buys a Lambo, Joe will be then be connected to the winning dominance of Audi.

Carol

 

Well personally I find Lambos more attractive for their exotic looks, the all wheel drive in the winter, the robust Audi engine and the scissor doors. But: I want the F1 connection and the racing heritage. That's what I get with Ferrari and that's why I'd be heart broken if they would simply toss that away.

When you're buying an exotic car, you're not really buying something with the rational half of your brain (assuming you have one), but with the emotional one. Otherwise you'd buy a Toyota Camry or a Honda Civic. So it all comes down to image/myth/prestige/pazzazz (sp?). Aston Martin gets it from the Bond movies (partially anyway), Ferrari through racing, Lambo through extravaganza and McLaren through its F1 past. All these images have been carefully crafted and taking away their basis (whether that connection is real or not is irrelevant to a point) creates a disconnect in the image and eventually will slow down sales or send the customer to the competition.

Of course people now all say they will continue supporting Ferrari blablabla. That's now, that we have still a connection and the memory is still fresh of the dominant Schumacher years. Let some years go by without F1 glory and check back then. The result will be some Schicki Mickeys driving their Californias because their girlfriends told them to buy one fitting to their latest dress. But you won't see the die-hard boy toy racers anymore who try to emulate MS with their Scuderias.

 

There will be a replacement series of single seaters, it just wont be called F1, but it will try to be what F1 once was, and will leave the old F1 with their 3 crappy little cheap teams and become the new top tier of motorsport.

I would hope they revert to pre-2004 rules and designs, as those cars were the fastest and most developed cars, and most of the road-car technology that is transferable comes from there.

I bought and will continue to buy Ferrari's because they have something about them, you feel different driving them, and if I drive any other supercars nowadays, I always yearn to get back in my Ferraris. They wont lose their heritage.

Forza Ferrari

 

That's assuming the manufacturers find agreement. Would be the first time ever. Last time they tried this, the GPMA languished for years with eventually a total collapse.