Jaguar have just pulled out of F1

[jon_s]

This very moment, Jag have just announced that they are pulling out of F1, as of next year!

More details as they are released....

[evoWalo]

It appears Ford is cutting cost and going back to its core products.

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,10799251-23210,00.html

[jon_s]

Yep, there are now worries about the Ford Rally Team!

[Ghostbat]

From what I've heard Ford themselves are going to start an F1 team. Just rumors though.

[he7lius]

I think this is a bad decision, and bad news for F1 in general. F1 needs teams to to be interesting and in the last few years we only saw the lost of teams. :(

Maybe Audi would like to try and have a go at it. :D

[Ghostbat]

Definetely bad new for the only swede in F1 :(

But to be honest jaguar sucked pretty bad.

[mindgam3]

well as i stated in the rumours section, ford were considering axeing jaguar F1 and Ford WRC and making just one Ford branded F1 team. Looks like they may be going ahead with this. If so i think it should be great for F1 as ford will be able to pump alot more money into their team than they could with jaguar

[aks]

hopefully ford will go into f1, but personally i would love to see a lot more companies going in. audi is definately a good idea, but if lamborghini went in that would be even better!

[Sm@ck]

good ridance

[crayzayjay]

Here's a detailed report:

LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Jaguar will pull out of Formula One at the end of 2004, with parent company Ford's engine maker Cosworth also up for sale.

Ford's bombshell announcement on Friday has huge ramifications for the glamour sport, already facing an uncertain future with carmakers threatening to establish a rival championship. Cosworth also supplies engines to the struggling Jordan and Minardi teams.

"We (Ford) are withdrawing from Formula One at the end of the season," Ford vice-president Richard Parry-Jones told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Parry-Jones, in charge of Ford's F1 programme, said the U.S. car giant could no longer make a compelling business case for any of its brands to compete in Formula One and had taken the "difficult decision" to quit.

Ford earlier announced a reorganisation of its loss-making Jaguar car division, with plans to cut 1,150 jobs from its main plant in Coventry, England.

One of the most evocative names in motorsport but better known as a Le Mans sportscar marque, Jaguar entered Formula One in 2000 after Ford took over the Stewart team founded by three times world champion Jackie Stewart.

They are yet to win a grand prix and have gone through numerous changes of leadership since Stewart stood down as the team principal before the start of the 2000 season.

Parry-Jones said Jaguar could not compete dollar-for-dollar with German rivals BMW and Mercedes, partners to Williams and McLaren, and it was not in Jaguar's long-term interests to be at the back end of the grid.

World champions Ferrari, the team of Germany's all-conquering Michael Schumacher, and new arrivals Toyota have estimated budgets in excess of $200 million a year.

"Our focus now is on finishing the 2004 season and securing the future of the F1 business under new ownership," he said, adding that there were a number of interested parties.

He could not guarantee a sale would go ahead. "If it does not, we would be forced to face a closure scenario but we're not thinking about that at the moment," he said.

TOO EXPENSIVE
"I think both Jaguar Racing and Cosworth are both very attractive," said Parry-Jones.

"The Formula One team is very lean and efficient. For those who do want to get into F1, there is no better opportunity than a blue chip team like this."

Parry-Jones would not comment on the future of Ford's world rally championship team or involvement in other branches of motorsport worldwide.

He said the sport, where most of the revenues go to commercial rights holding company SLEC set up by Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, had simply become too costly.

"It is so expensive to be successful in Formula One," he said. "The money the sport generates is not distributed equitably to the various stakeholders."

Parry-Jones said progress on a fairer share-out had been too slow and Ford's decision was irrevocable, even if Ecclestone were to offer more of the revenues.

"This is a clear decision," he said. "The opportunity for that to happen is behind us."

FINANCIAL CLOUT
Ecclestone said Jaguar did not have the financial clout to be major Formula One players and they should have quit last year.

"It was inevitable and wasn't really a shock to me," Ecclestone told Reuters. "They couldn't really afford to be running around at the back of the grid with the likes of Jordan."

Parry-Jones said he had spoken to Jordan and Minardi, reassuring them that this year's engine contracts would be respected.

This year the Milton Keynes-based Jaguar team have operated on a tight budget, bringing in much-needed funds by signing Red Bull-backed Austrian rookie Christian Klien to partner Australian Mark Webber.

They are seventh in the 10-team championship, a point ahead of Toyota, with three races remaining.

Ford's involvement in Formula One spans decades. Their engines powered Lotus to the 1968 constructors' championship and subsequently won titles with teams such as Matra, Tyrrell, McLaren and Williams.

They have won 176 races since 1967 as an engine provider.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Shame really, i always thought they had a nice colour scheme :lol:

[possessed_beaver]

for sale... lets put our money together and make them an offer they cannot refuse!!

$250.00!!

[crayzayjay]

From what I've heard Ford themselves are going to start an F1 team. Just rumors though.
ummm... why would Ford shut down Jaguar and start a new F1 team? Ford is Jaguar.

well as i stated in the rumours section, ford were considering axeing jaguar F1 and Ford WRC and making just one Ford branded F1 team. Looks like they may be going ahead with this. If so i think it should be great for F1 as ford will be able to pump alot more money into their team than they could with jaguar
Again, that makes no sense. Rebranding the team has absolutely no effect on how much money Ford can put into an F1 operation. Besides, it makes more sense to enter F1 under the Jag brand rather than Ford.

[astonmartinandy]

for sale... lets put our money together and make them an offer they cannot refuse!!

$250.00!!

Haha add £10 in from me as well!

[Toronto]

well this is sad, but will they still be making engines? or will toyota start shipping them out?

[mindgam3]

From what I've heard Ford themselves are going to start an F1 team. Just rumors though.
ummm... why would Ford shut down Jaguar and start a new F1 team? Ford is Jaguar.

well as i stated in the rumours section, ford were considering axeing jaguar F1 and Ford WRC and making just one Ford branded F1 team. Looks like they may be going ahead with this. If so i think it should be great for F1 as ford will be able to pump alot more money into their team than they could with jaguar
Again, that makes no sense. Rebranding the team has absolutely no effect on how much money Ford can put into an F1 operation. Besides, it makes more sense to enter F1 under the Jag brand rather than Ford.

Of course it will have en effect, jaguar F1 is promoting jaguar, and is only a small section of ford, having fords own brand as an F1 team will surely allow them to put more money into it as ford as a whole is much bigger than just jaguar on its own.

As for the engines, they're labelled as ford but technically cosworth make them, and jordan use them too so i dont see any reason why they shouldnt stop making eninges.

[Wutputt]

Idd, the first rumours last week were Ford rebranding the Jaguar F1 team to Ford F1 team. The main reason was the fact the bosses thought not only Jaguar had to profit from Fords F1 operations and with Ford being a bigger brand on more levels of the automotive market then Jaguar, there are more marketing ans sponsorship possibilities.

But those rumours wrre shut down today, with the announcement of Ford selling the F1 team and Cosworth Racing.

[Toronto]

on a side note, ford has just upped their profit numbers over the last quarter, thus making their stock go up %2, so i don't think they are loosing money.

[crayzayjay]

Of course it will have en effect, jaguar F1 is promoting jaguar, and is only a small section of ford, having fords own brand as an F1 team will surely allow them to put more money into it as ford as a whole is much bigger than just jaguar on its own.

It doesnt work that way ;)

Ford cars are low margin (and some none), and by definition, (i havent looked at their accounts), Jaguar cars should have a high margin. It's more profitable for Ford as a group to drive Jaguar volumes than Ford. Jag is far and away the best candidate for Ford to take racing in F1, and if the group as a whole decided it couldnt afford to spend what it was spending on the operation, to suggest they could afford to spend more by rebranding the cars Ford just doesnt make sense :)

[5vz-fe]

I really hope they come back .......... this is really bad for the sport.

[redbaron]

I hope they stay in F1 as an engine supplier. Quitting Jaguar F1 is understandable to me, they were not really giving Jaguar a better image at the back of the grid...
They could better use half the budget to make a good piece of engine.

Quitting the WRC is a shame, they are at the top in every rally....

Ford is a brand which has a great heritage in WRC and F1, hopefully they would be still involved in motorsport in future.

[tigerx]

oh man, this is bad, i mean i don't care about jag F1 team but for god's sake DO NOT PULL OUT THE RALLY PROGRAM.

[jorge]

:( i was hoping that someday Jag would make something important in F1.

[sentra_dude]

Well shit...what is Ford going do when they want someone to build them a decent engine?! ;) :P

I think it makes sense for Jaguar/Ford to pull out of F1, not only is F1 unnecessarily expensive, even the teams that are doing 'well' don't even have a chance at winning the championship. If Ford stayed for even one more year they would burn through another couple hundred million, with probably no results. Its clear that some big changes, and a bigger budget would be needed to make them a real contender...and with Ferrari as strong as they are, why even bother. Not to mention the impending rule changes that will mean a disgusting amount of money spent just to meet those new regulations.

I think F1 should be very careful with the new rules they choose, some teams might just decide to leave rather than spend the money to meet the new rules if they are too drastic. :|

[tigerx]

i agree, i rahter have them spend that money on developing something REALLY good. but still DON'T PULL OUT OF RALLYING

[nthfinity]

http://www.fordracing.com/news/?article=26393
JAGUAR TO LEAVE F-1
[ 9/17/2004 ]

Milton Keynes, England — The Jaguar brand and Ford Motor Company will withdraw from Formula One at the end of 2004 and Ford will offer its F-1 businesses for sale.

Joe Greenwell said, "Jaguar's presence in Formula One has been a valuable marketing and brand awareness platform particularly outside our main markets of the US and the UK. However it was our collective view that it is time for Jaguar Cars to focus 100 per cent on our core business."

According to a written Jaguar release, “After a thorough review over many months Ford Motor Company has decided it can no longer make a compelling business case for any of its brands to compete in Formula One. Having reached this decision our focus has turned to securing the best future for our Formula One businesses and our employees in these businesses going forward. We are therefore putting our Formula One businesses up for sale.”


IMO, a sad reality.. and utter bullshit.
http://media.ford.com/newsroom/release_display.cfm?release=19178

FORD ANNOUNCES DETAILS OF JAGUAR IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS; INCREASES EARNINGS GUIDANCE FOR 2004

Featured Stories
Press Releases

DEARBORN, Mich., September 17, 2004 – Ford Motor Company and its Jaguar Cars unit announced today improvement actions for Jaguar and, separately, an increase in its third-quarter and full-year financial guidance for 2004.

Jaguar Actions

In a separate release issued earlier today, Jaguar Cars announced a series of actions aimed at improving its business fundamentals. (See the Jaguar Cars release, dated September 17, 2004, for complete details.) The actions included:


Cessation of final assembly operations at the Browns Lane plant by year-end 2005; these operations will be consolidated into Jaguar's Castle Bromwich plant.

Total personnel reductions of approximately 1,150, including those related to the consolidation of assembly operations.

A reduction of 15,000 units in Jaguar's remaining production plan for 2004.

Ford's exit from Formula One racing activities, including the sale of those operations.

The personnel reductions and the Formula One decision together are estimated to result in a charge to pre-tax income of approximately $450 million. Of this, it is expected that approximately $375 million of these charges are to occur this year, with the remainder occurring next year. Together with previously announced 2004 special items, these actions are expected to reduce full-year 2004 earnings by about 25 cents per share.

all jaguar closing/relocation/ details here--->http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=19179

i dont expect ford to pull out of WRC, or 'super rally' nonsence... to vital for the pocket rocket rally car niche

[SPEEDCORE]

Maybe they should come back as Mazda :mrgreen:

it be sad if we loose another team, hopefully the team can be sold to someone else or like ppl have suggested come back as Ford F1 team.

[redbaron]

Maybe this will be the entrance of Audi into F1. Audi already owns a large part of Cosworth, so maybe they would buy the F1 division too and start as an F1 engine supplier or maybe a complete team (former Jaguar).

[antonioledesma]

Ford since the beginning of their f1 programm, lost money in buckets. And one of the reasons carmakers are in F1, is to sell more cars. Many ppl look at F1...the see a jag win some races and think"mm, I'll better a jag instead of that bmw, which teams is at last place in constructors' standings"

unfortunately this is what F1 is coming. How many teams do you remember have pulled out from F1 because of money?
I know this may be stupid, but if the FIA puts a limit on the money spent, things would be different.
Just remember that ferrari spends around us$400 million a year, and teams like minardi, arrows, remember prost?, and many etc. don't have a 1/4 of that budget

[TopGearNL]

:(

Whose next, BMW, McLaren, BAR or even Ferrari

Its such a shame :(

What I really miss in Formula 1 is Lotus, I hope that they will come back in the future and kick Ferrari's ass

Once again, such a shame, there should be more teams coming and not leaving, all the teams such as Arrows, Prost I really miss them on Formula 1, OK there not the best teams in F1 and don't see them much, BUT there's an old preverb that says, The More The Merrier :)

[Ford Capri 2.8i]

Its bad news for the motorsports in general the abandon of the jaguar in the formula 1...for instance i see quite likely the Volkswagens purchase of jag formula 1s shares and the cosworth available portions as well......apart from this bad news for the formula 1, there is another bad news in rallying as well, once it seems that ford will leave rallying for the complete season of WRC 2005, and that they will concentrate on taking part in a few rallying races held in Europe.......for instance it seems that Markko Martin has already signed by Peugeot, and that François Duval is searching for a new team for the following year.....btw there is kind of good news as well in rallying, once the rallying teams will be allowed to have three cars for team from the following year

[jon_s]

LOL, lets send an e-mail to the new TVR boss asking if he wants to fund an entry into F1 lol

[noosee]

Thats sad. And very bad for F1.
I think now they must allow each team to run 3 cars because will be not enough cars on the track.
It would be very good if VW would enter.

[ZfrkS62]

noosee, do you really want to see a ferrari 1-2-3? i know i don't. I like ferarri and all but i don't want to see them monopolize the podium.

i think it would be interesting (probably won't happen) if all the teams EXCEPT ferarri were allowed the option to run their 3 car. this could accomplish a couple of things..

with three cars running, it could have a considerable impact on the grid. particularly the back. it would sure as hell make the red cars earn their victories if they suddenly had an extra 9 cars to fight against :D

[Wutputt]

when this actually happens, then it means one thing no more F1. to my knowledge unless something has changed there needs to be 10 teams or more in F1 for them to race, or it might be something like there needs to be 20 cars or more. but i believe its 10 teams or more to run. again unless something else has changed, thats what im aware of.
If I remeùber correctly, the Concorde Agreement idd says there have to be 20 cars on the grid. So when there isn't found any buyer for the ex-Jaguarr F1 team or Jordan and Minardi exit F1, there is a problem. What happens then is the teams have to place 3 cars on the grid.

[callen]

drop the jag name for F1, and go in under the Aston Martin name!! but they are selling cosworth, doesnt sound like they are interested in F1 anymore.... :(

[ZfrkS62]

we just have to hope that some rich bastard buys the team...someone get bill gates on the phone...

[jamberl]

I hope webber manages to get a drive with someone else.

[SPEEDCORE]

errr.... he is with williams next year...

[chipanggo]

why do i have this gut feeling that vw/audi will by the team? :roll:

[jamberl]

errr.... he is with williams next year...

:oops:

I read that he was in negotiation with them..... didnt realise he actually finalised the deal.

[ZfrkS62]

hmmm..webber and button driving the white and blue? or is it going to be webber and pizzonia? guess we'll find out after the Chinese GP. :?

[CSedl87]

IMHO Audi/VW will never enter F1, too much in $, and it would make Porsche look stupid. Porsche is a sister company, not owned but more instead like sister/brother, and has been made mockery of by Audi when they did 3 1-2-3 finishes. Porsche told them pull out and don't back the teams anymore. Porsche is never going to enter F1 because they don't have $500 mil a year to spend to get nothing back, and their racing dominance has already been established. I highly doubt Audi/VW will buy the F1 cosworth company as it's just dead money and it'll never help them.

[jamberl]

IMHO Audi/VW will never enter F1, too much in $, and it would make Porsche look stupid. Porsche is a sister company, not owned but more instead like sister/brother, and has been made mockery of by Audi when they did 3 1-2-3 finishes. Porsche told them pull out and don't back the teams anymore. Porsche is never going to enter F1 because they don't have $500 mil a year to spend to get nothing back, and their racing dominance has already been established. I highly doubt Audi/VW will buy the F1 cosworth company as it's just dead money and it'll never help them.

Porsche used to make F1 engines in the old days............. It would be cool if they did that again.

[sameerrao]

DC must be crying ... this was perhaps the best chance for him ....

[Ill Dottore]

It's a shame teh retirement of Jaguar of F1.. The British racing green is no more on TV. Hope that David Hunt manages to bring safe again the Team Lotus

Cheers

[mindgam3]

They may not be finished just yet.... maybe not as jaguar but certainly looks like there may well be the same number of teams next year.....

http://www.pistonheads.com/motorsport/default.asp?storyId=9153

[szumszer]

someone will scoop them up, I would not be surprised to see it next year under new name

[tekwar]

this is really bad news for us F1 fans. lets hope someone can buy the team out and maintain the 20 cars. The though of having 3 ferraris or 3 mclarens just doesnt sound very apealling to me. it would had been nice if ford gave a full backing to the team. But its understandable with the fragile car economy that they pull out especially if they werent making any profits from their time in f1.

[mindgam3]

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=31481

finally looks like a decent bidder for jaguar - looking to buy cosworth and pi systems too.

[lerex29]

I can't see why you would doubt Ford's participation in the future. After all, they are the pioneers of the automotive world. However, if you want to start talking WRC, give it all up to Subaru.