Nissan to join F1 in 2008?

[Wizzo]

Rumors are again mounting with suggestions that Nissan is considering entering Formula One with its own team. Rival Japanese automakers Honda and Toyota both have teams, and Korean competitor Hyundai recently announced their intentions to join in on the action as well. With the contemporary trend of automakers supporting full teams – as opposed to simply providing engines as was the practice in the past – Nissan is likely considering its own team and not just an engine contract with an existing one.

Of course Nissan's sister company Renault have a team of their own – a world champion team, actually. But while this shows the company's appreciation for F1, it's practically unheard of for an automaker to run two full competing teams. Other squads (Ferrari serving as the most prominent example) commonly supply engines to smaller teams, but Red Bull is the only company that runs two full teams.

One possible scenario would be for the Renault team to simply switch banners to Nissan. Given that the Renault F1 team has little to do with the French automaker, the move would be primarily a change of image, if CEO Carlos Ghosn sees fit.

A second possibility is being fueled by reports of Nissan talking with retired driver and former team owner Alain Prost, which would likely see Nissan buying out an existing team for the Frenchman to run.

The Nissan team is tipped to be hitting the grid as early as 2008, a full two years before Hyundai's and a mere two seasons away. If both Nissan and Renault were to both run teams, we wouldn't be surprised if Nissan served as the "farm team" for Renault, possibly using their engines re-badged as Nissans while providing them with extra testing data and some back-field support.

[Dare]

   Can't see it happening.The only way for Nissan in
   2008 would be to buy a spot,possibly Prodrive.

    Another item is Prost returning,not to sure he'd
    want to jump back in the frying pan again.

     Just can't see Renault giving up the fruits
     of their hard work.

[raindancer]

Don't know what redbull is doing with two teams ? Maybe they should give away some of their money.

[Chameleon]

Well, there have been romours that Toro Rosso is up for sale or will be - strenuously denied by Mateschitz, of course.  That could be an easy "in" for Nissan, I suppose.

[FW14B]

It would be interesting to see the Renault team's take on this given the 'alliance' between the two parent companies (which I believe still exists, or maybe I am wrong?)

[cosworth151]

I think either Spyker or STR could be up for sale for the right price. The main issue I see is that no car maker is going to want its name on a "B" team.

[raindancer]

Berger is a savvy businessman and will sell at the right price.

[rmassart]

If Nissan and Renault are practically the same company (is this true or not?) then the only obvious thing to be doing is to badge the Renault with as a Nissan. I can't see any shareholders in the world sanctioning a company to run two competing F1 teams.

[raindancer]

They are not. Both companies have numerous subsidiaries and have equity stake in each other and synergise manufacturing operations in some Geographies. However the managements and owners are different.
This started primarily for coping with the common European market.

[John S]

 I can't see any shareholders in the world sanctioning a company to run two competing F1 teams.[/quote]


Hang on don't Honda have two teams? Yeah I know neither of them are competetive so it probably only shows 2 teams are not a good idea.

[FERRARI MAN 009]

I think that 12 teams is not enough for a grid , i think it should go back to the days of 13,14 maybe 15 teams entering and pre qualifying to knock it down to 22/24/26 drivers competing in the race. and i would like teams like prost, stewart , tyrell etc. to rejoin the sport because there are too many engine makers . 20 years ago , ferrari were the only "Works" team on the grid so that would be good for the sport in my view


cheers


p.s has anyone looked at the best f1 race poll i did ?

[cosworth151]

Hang on don't Honda have two teams? Yeah I know neither of them are competetive so it probably only shows 2 teams are not a good idea.

Actually, Super Agrui isn't a Honda team. If they were, they wouldn't have the money issues they do. The team does have strong ties to Honda, but they are a seperate company.

My biggest disappointment of the 2007 season was that Honda finally passed SA in the standings!

Cos  (GPW's resident Super Aguri fan )