Does Motorsport need more manufacturers to come back?

flazio

Just looking at the Formula One and World Rally Championships this year,
in Formula One, 11 teams share 4 engine manufacturers, Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Cosworth. Compare that to ten years ago when, as well as these four you had BMW, Ford, Toyota and Honda in the mix, the major teams had new works while the back grids had customer engines.

And then in WRC we have 4 manufacturers involved: Citroen, Mini, Ford and VW, long gone are the days when Mitsubishi tussled with Subaru for supremacy (and subsequent car sales).

In your opinions should the FIA and or Bernie and whoever his rally counterpart is, be doing more to entice big car brands back into motorsport??

Jordan 199

It looks like there will only be three engine suppliers in F1 next year and they are Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari.

I think the only way to get manufactures back into F1 is by relaxing the engine regulations, which are tight-arsed at the moment and there is no freedom to do anything. For example, all engines must have a 90 degree vee. Back in the early 2000's Renault had engines with a 111 degree for a lower centre of gravity. Some had 72 degree vee's.

The rules for the 1.6 litre V6 turbo engines for next year will be tight too, with no freedom to do anything either.

Relax the rules and the manufacturers will come back IMO.

Top Dog

WRC is improving - but needs more. Sure only a couple of years ago the only manufacturers were Ford & Citroen - made for extremely boring viewing.

It'd be fantastic to see more manufacturers coming back, but so long as the broadcasting (and as a result the exposure for advertising) is so poor, its not really worth their while investing that amount of money for such little exposure.

Motorsport in general seems to get very poor coverage.

iDave

Would like to see Audis Le Mans dominance get challenged by a few more manufacturers.

frostie500

iDave wrote: »

Would like to see Audis Le Mans dominance get challenged by a few more manufacturers.

Toyota have a cracking car and Porsche are coming back in 2014 so the signs are promising for sportscars. We just need to get Ferrari to built an LMP1 car...

Talk is that we'll see a lot of manufacturers come back from 2015 onwards

iDave

frostie500 wrote: »

We just need to get Ferrari to built an LMP1 car...

Good luck trying to convince Luca of that!
I remember when i first started getting into motorsport in the late 90s Le Mans was a [EMAIL="w@nkfest"]w@nkfest[/EMAIL] of manufacturers. A combination of F1 ambitions, DTM and somersaulting Mercs left Audi all on their own.

The F1 grid is definately a poorer place since we lost the BMW, Honda and Toyota brands to be replaced by HRTs and Marrussias.

Jordan 199

iDave wrote: »

Good luck trying to convince Luca of that!
I remember when i first started getting into motorsport in the late 90s Le Mans was a w@nkfest of manufacturers. A combination of F1 ambitions, DTM and somersaulting Mercs left Audi all on their own.

The F1 grid is definately a poorer place since we lost the BMW, Honda and Toyota brands to be replaced by HRTs and Marrussias.

The Mercedes CLR back in '99.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3rxq7U1mA

As for Le Mans, with the new engine rules for the LMP1 category in 2014, it will attract more manufacturers.

flazio

Jordan 191 wrote: »

The Mercedes CLR back in '99.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3rxq7U1mA

As for Le Mans, with the new engine rules for the LMP1 category in 2014, it will attract more manufacturers.

Oh Lord, won't you fly me a Mercedes Benz.

Alfa Quadrifoglio

need the japs and italians back ...... Honda, Alfa in touring cars ...... Subaru in rallying

PopePalpatine

frostie500 wrote: »

Toyota have a cracking car and Porsche are coming back in 2014 so the signs are promising for sportscars. We just need to get Ferrari to built an LMP1 car...

Talk is that we'll see a lot of manufacturers come back from 2015 onwards

I hope Porsche join F1, although IIRC the VW Group is against any of their brands joining.

Jordan 199

PopePalpatine wrote: »

I hope Porsche join F1, although IIRC the VW Group is against any of their brands joining.

Perhaps the only way to get Porsche to supply engines in F1 is by getting an outside source to fund the project like in the 80's and 1991.

The V6 turbo engines they built for McLaren in the 80's very good whereas the V12's they built for Footwork Arrows in 1991 were rubbish. There was Porsche branding on the Footwork in 1991 unlike the McLarens in the 80's.

iDave

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Perhaps the only way to get Porsche to supply engines in F1 is by getting an outside source to fund the project like in the 80's and 1991.

The V6 turbo engines they built for McLaren in the 80's very good whereas the V12's they built for Footwork Arrows in 1991 were rubbish. There was Porsche branding on the Footwork in 1991 unlike the McLarens in the 80's.

They were rebranded TAG werent they? Odd to think Porsche have an F1 title as an engine supplier but can never take credit for it.

frostie500

iDave wrote: »

They were rebranded TAG werent they? Odd to think Porsche have an F1 title as an engine supplier but can never take credit for it.

Well Porsche werent interested in racing in F1 in the eighties when McLaren ran their engines badged as TAGs. I think that when the turbo engines were coming onstream McLaren basically decided that they wanted a works deal where they were able to demand the specs of the engine and they just needed someone to build it to those specs.

Unlike any other team on the grid McLaren basically went to engine manufacturers and said "if we finance the build of this engine will you build it for us" and Porsche agreed to build the engine. McLaren had to find someway to finance the build and they came to an agreement with TAG for the naming rights of the Porsche powerplant

afatbollix

Its funny Cycling has more manufacturer sponsors than motorsport.

Sign of the times.