<< Return to the news list

Small teams don't like 'customer car' solution

Published on 02 Jun 2015 16:00
2
By: Rob Veenstra

F1's smaller teams are pushing back hard against the latest moves to introduce 'customer cars'. Four teams - Manor, Force India, Sauber and Lotus - are reportedly at risk of financial collapse, and perhaps as soon as 2015, according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. They are pleading for lower engine bills and a fairer distribution of the sport's billion dollars in official income.

But the solution put forward by Bernie Ecclestone and the big teams is 'customer cars'. The latest iteration is that grandees like Ferrari and Mercedes would make four cars apiece, supplying two to a satellite partner who would lose their status as a full 'constructor'. "We would lose our independence," Force India's Bob Fernley insists. "They would tell us what drivers to run and who we should vote for and we don't want it," he added.

Also gravely concerned is Pat Symonds, a veteran engineer who has seen F1 from the perspective of title-winning teams, from the very back of the grid, and currently with Williams. "I've never really worried about formula one as I do now," he admitted. "Customer cars are one way of sending the sport to the grave," Symonds added.

Fernley explained: "Once a customer, always a customer. We would have to dismiss our designers, sell our machines, give up our expertise. There is no going back. As a customer, we would be only the puppet of a manufacturer."

Sauber knows that story well, having given up making its own gearboxes during the BMW era, because the German carmaker developed its technology in Munich. Now, with BMW long gone, the Swiss team has to buy a complete gearbox from Ferrari. "We no longer have the expertise to do it," admitted Sauber team manager Beat Zehnder. And "It would be the same in every other area" if customer cars came in, he added.

Symonds said he knows why the big teams are proposing customer cars rather than accepting the need to ramp down their huge budgets. "If all the teams had to race tomorrow with the 120 million pounds that we have to live with, Williams would win the world championship. Because we are used to operating efficiently with that sort of money," said Symonds. (GMM)

F1 News Sauber Mercedes Williams Force India Ferrari Lotus F1 Manor Motorsport

Replies (2)

khasmir

Posts: 893
How much longer will it take until something will be done? Maybe wait until only 5 teams are left so everyone finishes in the points...

Not that it matters but I do have some suggestions:
* There should be a strict budget limit and on top of that teams can add the prize money from last year. Better results, more money...
* Same with TV rights and all, distribute according to results, no exceptions
* A budget cap on the engine itself, any team should be able to buy any engine for a fixed price
* With other cost savings in place maybe we can rationalize the silly limitations on the number of power units and other things that can be used, that is contradictory to what F1 racing is about, it's about racing on the limit, not about conserving stuff and taking it easy...
- + 0
- Jun 2 2015 - 19:02
McLarenMadMan

Posts: 6
The reason they are losing ratings is because Sky Sports are basically the only company that are allowed to air the weekend live, whilst BBC only have 1-3 races live, people don't want to pay silly money on add-ons just to watch a 2 hour race to see Hamilton act like a child,
- + 0
- Jun 4 2015 - 11:15