Mercedes set to buy into Brawn GP

[John S]

Racing will always be a sideline to the manufacturers. This time last year there were 5 manufacturer teams, including McLaren. Now one's gone, another will be gone at the end of the season and there are constant rumors that 2 more are on the way out.

Are you including Ferrari in the list Cos? I reckon with them, as they are manufacturers, it would be 6 this time last year.

[cosworth151]

Do you really want to say that Ferrari is the same as Toyota?

Ferrari, like Lotus in its day, builds road cars to support racing. with the other 5, racing is (was) basically an advert campaign.

[Jericoke]

Do you really want to say that Ferrari is the same as Toyota?

Ferrari, like Lotus in its day, builds road cars to support racing. with the other 5, racing is (was) basically an advert campaign.

Enzo Ferrari build and sold road cars to support racing.  Fiat went along for a share of the profit.

Enzo's gone, Ferrari races in Formula One to sell road cars.  It's a massive brand, I'm sure it turns a huge profit, which helps keep Fiat independant.

I'm sure there are plenty of people in the Ferrari organisation who believe that the entire operation builds to the F1 teams, but I doubt the people in charge look at it that way any more.

We saw earlier this year that Ferrari knows it is bigger than Formula One.

[lkjohnson1950]

Ferrari would be welcomed with open arms wherever they chose to race. They race F1 because it was Enzo's choice and it sells the high performance cars they build. I think they probably transfer more tech from F1 to the road cars than any manufacturer. They are different than Toyota or even BMW. The association with the F1 team is part of the Ferrari ownership experience. And what other manufacturer will rebuild your 60's car to showroom condition?

Lonny

[cosworth151]

And what other manufacturer will rebuild your 60's car to showroom condition?

Mercedes Benz will, through its Classic Centers in Germany and the U.S. Here's the one in California:

http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=7760557&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=7760557&iq_id=7760557#/onlymbMenu/classicCenter/

[lkjohnson1950]

I think that is so cool. I have read that it was disagreement over the direction of the McLaren-Mercedes road cars that opened the split between them and caused Merc to go it alone with the new Gullwing.

Lonny