What's in store for F1

[Scott]

Really??  I thought Ferrari, Mclaren and Williams were all profitable companies.  Williams and Mclaren both started as race teams and one turned into a profitable tech company and the other a profitable car company.  Ferrari has more years than not turned a profit also as a car company.  Though you can argue that the teams themselves can't be profitable because they spend all the money they make from sponsorship and FOM, I think you could only say that Williams are at the moment funding the race team from their business interests, not Mclaren and Ferrari.

[cosworth151]

I think you could only say that Williams are at the moment funding the race team from their business interests, not Mclaren and Ferrari.

Remember, McLaren doesn't has a major sponsor this year.

[Jericoke]

Really??  I thought Ferrari, Mclaren and Williams were all profitable companies.  Williams and Mclaren both started as race teams and one turned into a profitable tech company and the other a profitable car company.  Ferrari has more years than not turned a profit also as a car company.  Though you can argue that the teams themselves can't be profitable because they spend all the money they make from sponsorship and FOM, I think you could only say that Williams are at the moment funding the race team from their business interests, not Mclaren and Ferrari.

I mean the race team division, not the entire company.

I'm sure teams with big sponsorship, or costs carried by other divisions (Ferrari and Mercedes) could be profitable on the books, but that wouldn't describe most teams.

Considering that Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes function as owned advertising divisions of their larger companies, it's hard to say if 'advertising' pays off or not.  It's okay for Scuderia Ferrari to lose $100 million if they believe it creates $200 million in sales for Fiat Chyrsler.

[lkjohnson1950]

On the issue of profitability, here's a brief article on Ferrari/Maserati financials.

http://www.worldcarfans.com/114103083564/maserati-made-more-money-than-ferrari-in-third-quarter

[Scott]

I mean the race team division, not the entire company.

The point I was trying to make was that Mclaren and Ferrari were built as race teams, expanded into manufacture and sales of street cars (it took Ferrari 20yrs to do that, and Mclaren almost 30yrs).  Williams went from a race team to a tech engineering firm as well. 

For these three teams, at some point they were profitable enough as race teams to branch out into other opportunities.  They could not have done it had they not been profitable during their expansions.  i.e. they didn't start with a large fortune as the saying goes, they started out quite humbly and developed into large fortunes.

There is NO chance of that happening today with the small teams unless they can share fairly in the revenue (notice I didn't say even share but a fair share). 

[cosworth151]

Major League Baseball has something that has become known as the "Luxury Tax." If a team like the Yankees want to spend more on players than the cost cap allows, they pay into a fund for the smaller market teams. That could be a model for F1. If teams like Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes want to spend money like mad, that's permissible. However, they have to ante up to help the smaller teams stay alive.

[Irisado]

Pertinent to this discussion: Monisha Kaltenborn speaks out.  What she is saying strikes me as being very reasonable.

[lkjohnson1950]

More from FIF1, is there a conspiracy?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/29858916

[cosworth151]

Much of this came from the Team Principals press conference after FP2. I don't think it was an accident that the FIA put Toto Wolf (Mercedes) and Eric Boullier (McLaren) in the front row, with Gerard Lopez (Lotus), Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber) and Vijay Mallya (Sahara Force India) in the back.

Most of the questions from the press were about F1 finances. Wolf couldn't understand why they weren't asking about practice.