Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
For the context of the discussion (i.e. manufacturer or privateer oriented WRC and the consequences of loosing the manufacturers) I split the privateeers and the manufacturers by the money running the show. Who makes what components is not important.
Well in this case I think that F1 is completely irrelevant for this discusion because. The system is completely different to any other motorsport. You don't need to make road cars to be any relevant in F1. Does McLaren have any advantage over Williams just because they make road cars?

Ferrari and Alpine are clearly manufacturers without any doubt. But where to draw the line?

Daimler owns only 1/3 of the F1 team and the team is financialy sustainable, so Daimler actually doesn't finance the team, they do mainly technical support and of course make engines. So does that mean that Mercedes actually ISN'T manufacturer team?

I already mentioned McLaren. It was F1 team first, car manufacturer later (to help finance the team). But their system didn't change after they become to make road cars. So it helps them to only finance.

What about Alfa Romeo, were they manufacturer team? They were only a sponsor, no technical support at all.

Aston Martin is the most complicated case. You would suppose that Lagonda bought F1 team, but it's actually the opposite. Lawrence Stroll owned F1 Team first and bought Aston Martin Lagonda later, renaming the team after the car maker. They ofc share know how and engineers. Still they bought most of things on a technical side from Mercedes (engine, gearbox, wind tunnel, etc.).

Similar to McLaren, Red Bull was F1 Team first, but made several prototypes with Aston Martin (before Stroll bought them) and are making their first hypersport soon. Does that mean they are manufacturer?

See, the structure of F1's team is complicated and different to other motorsports so much that it doesn't make sense to take it as example for WRC.

With exception of Ferrari and Alpine no other team is 100% factory team by all thinkable definitions.

But on the other hand no team is fully customer like let's say JOTA in WEC, because every team had to design atleast some mandatory parts by themselves.

I think comparing WRC with WEC and Dakar is better.