ford / jaguar bails on formula 1

[tweeker43]

motorsport

it seems to me that some of the panache of jaguar was in it's racing heritage (however weak it may be now in f1). pulling out of f1 seems awfully harsh.

on the other hand, maybe jordan and minardi can get more competitive engines. i'm betting the japanese pick up at least one of those teams.

i can't imagine there's a lot of engine builders waiting in the wings to support f1 teams.

 

[tdi-rick]

Ford as a team have only been involved for a short while, as they bought the Stewart F1 team about 8 years ago, but as an engine supplier they have been there for 35 years !

The famous Cosworth DFV engine won first race out in 1967, IIRC, (not that I actually remember it, being only 2 at the time

) and was the mainstay of F1 until the turbo era in the early eighties, and then being re-jigged slightly for Sportscar useage after that.

It is a sad day if Cosworth Engineering is disolved. A lot of the top engine engineering talent worldwide started off at Cosworth.
This goes even further than F1, as Cosworth do a h#ll of a lot of enginering work for other car companies, as well as engine work for many other categories, including supplying all the Champ Car engines, and Chevy in the IRL.

There is already speculation that GM may buy Cosworth to save its IRL programme, then also becomming an F1 engine supplier.

Actuall, I must add that Ford only bought Cosworth in '98, although they financed and badged the DFV, as well as a stack of other engines such as the BDA and BDD way back in the sixties.

Rick.

[ September 18, 2004, 02:17 AM: Message edited by: tdi-rick ]