Carmakers should supply engines only - Stuck

[CNR]

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=331756&FS=F1

Car manufacturers involved in Formula One might be better off withdrawing and serving only as engine suppliers, according to a famous German motor racing figure.
Hans-Joachim Stuck, a former Grand Prix driver and now representative for Volkswagen, advises marques like BMW and Mercedes-Benz to stop spending millions dabbling in the design of the chassis.
The 58-year-old acknowledges the carmakers' past and likely future successes, but believes the necessary investment (http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=331756&FS=F1#) of hundreds of millions of euros means the risk of failure is too high.




McLaren, whose biggest shareholder is Mercedes, and BMW's works team BMW-Sauber, are respectively fifth and eighth in the 2009 constructors' championship, while Renault sits in seventh place.

[gloomyDAY]

If manufacturers only supplied engines, then that would be bad for F1.

There is still an engine freeze, which is bloody stupid, so solely supplying engines is pretty silly. All the teams would just go with Mercedes or Ferrari since they have the strongest engines on the grid. Wait, this is reminiscent of another 2 manufacturer series.....oh yeah, WRC, which is in obscurity.

[wmcot]

With the engine freeze, all manufacturers would be gone by now and we'd have Formula Cosworth! :(

[Donney]

We would miss Ferrari then and that would be very bad for F1.

[Powered by Cosworth]

I can't imagine engine development would ever cost as much as aero development. Can't see the point in the freeze.

[K-Pu]

The engine freeze was another master move by the FIA, trying to reduce costs, and what did they achieve?

Nothing good. And engine freeze plus KERS is a beautiful thing, the alliance of opposites, night and day, black and white, FIA and FOTA!

(Maybe that last one not) :D

[wedge]

How it should be.

Major car makers trying to replicate Ferrari just doesn't work in this day and age.

[V12]

I agree with Stuck - but yeah with the stipulation that they drop the counter-productive and impure "engine freeze" and just let them get on with it.

[ioan]

Stuck is a bit daft, to say the least.
This is about CAR manufacturers not about ENGINE manufacturers.

Given that he won his sports car races in cars completely built by manufacturers, he should stop being an old hypocrite.

[wedge]

Porsche built customer cars

Sauber/Mercedes

TWR/Jaguar

Lancia LC2 - chassis by Dallara

[jens]

With engine freeze concentrating purely on engine manufacturing is quite useless. In the past an engine supplier could at least boast that they are making the best engines in the field.

[veeten]

Stuck is a bit daft, to say the least.
This is about CAR manufacturers not about ENGINE manufacturers.


If manufacturers only supplied engines, then that would be bad for F1.

'those that don't learn from history are comdemned to... look bad'. ;)

and here's some history, just to prove it.

http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/engines.html

[DexDexter]

The engine freeze was another master move by the FIA, trying to reduce costs, and what did they achieve?

Nothing good. And engine freeze plus KERS is a beautiful thing, the alliance of opposites, night and day, black and white, FIA and FOTA!

(Maybe that last one not) :D

On the contrary, the engine freeze is one of the few good things FIA has introduced, they should have done that with V10 engines, it would have saved a whole lot of money. Now all the teams have a competitive engine which makes the competition a lot tougher, gives small teams a better chance of succeeding. In the mid 90's there was a horsepower difference of up to 100bhp between customer engines (Ford) and works engines...those cars were not competing in the same category in reality...

[ioan]

On the contrary, the engine freeze is one of the few good things FIA has introduced, they should have done that with V10 engines, it would have saved a whole lot of money. Now all the teams have a competitive engine which makes the competition a lot tougher, gives small teams a better chance of succeeding. In the mid 90's there was a horsepower difference of up to 100bhp between customer engines (Ford) and works engines...those cars were not competing in the same category in reality...

Not only they all get a competitive engine, but also at a competitive price!