Project Brabham

[Daliracing]

Just saw this on the new here. Was wondering what you guy's think about the concept. lets discuss it here. here are some links
http://brabham.co.uk/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/project-brabham

[SectorOne]

crowdfunding eh?
The most succesful crowdfunding as of yet is a videgame called Star Citizen, at the moment they have managed to get 54 million dollars.
Doable? Maybe, maybe not, it´s definitely something completely different then what we normally see but i guess Kobayashi did it on a small scale to get his Caterham seat.

[matt21]

Maybe they should ask Franz Hilmer.

He wanted to bring the Brabham name back to F1 in 2010. But i think he doesn´t want this anymore, as the Brabham family went to court.

[Daliracing]

Was thinking about that story, back then i would love the name back. I hope it will work but i think its a gamble.

[AliMadsen]

It´s an absolutely brilliant idea!

Will it fly? No idea - but I´ve donated 25£ and think of it as a lottery ticket. If it works, I´ll be a co-founder of an F1 team in a few years

They propably don´t get the bulk of financing from crowdsourcing, but it´s an extremely efficient way of engaging your fanbase. And can be used to pull the big money from main sponsors.

BTW: Do you remenber the checkered dutch Le Mans car a couple of years ago - "Racing for Holland" I think it was. That was also "multi-funded" but before the days of webbased crowdsourcing.

I think I have just become a Brabham fan =D> =D>

[FW17]

What is crowdfunding?

[Richard]

Crowd funding is when someone issues an open invitation on a sites such as indiegogo for people to contribute cash to start up a business. Hence the business has been funded by a crowd. The idea is that funders are contributing small of amounts of cash that they don't mind losing, and the business doesn't need to jump through the hoops of more formal bank loans.

Normally the payback for contributing the cash is to get a discount on the eventual product or free perks. You can see the benefits of contributing to the Brabham project on the right side of their indiegogo page.

You can read more ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

[Hail22]

I can sense Ecclestone is getting his minions to look at this business model to see what its chances of success will be as Brabham is one of those team names that cannot be easily forgotten.

I hope it grows legs and they find an engine to support them, I cannot speak on behalf of my employer But I'd love to be a part of Brabham F1.

[Moxie]

I also think the idea is brilliant, but not so much for the crowd funding angle, as for the "open source" and "interactive" angles. I think I will contribute, but my decision to spend £25 or £125 has not been made. I'd like more information on the level of involvement contributors will really have. Don't get me wrong, i don't expect much for £125 but if the only real advantage is a pin and a polo shirt, I'll pass.

I think it would be neat to see a forum such as this one within the Brabham experience where certain future decisions are debated openly and polls conducted with non-binding results, then team management would explain their logic behind once they have made their formal decision. If this is their vision for "open source" and "interactive," I'd pay £125 for that.

[Steven]

Maybe they should ask Franz Hilmer.

He wanted to bring the Brabham name back to F1 in 2010. But i think he doesn´t want this anymore, as the Brabham family went to court.

Indeed, one of the sentences in the statement made by Brabham is that it took them "a long and hard time" to get the name in family hands, and now they want to use it fully.

The project makes me think of http://www.perrinn.com/ , also an open-source attempt to get into WEC. So far, no car there though...

[Tim.Wright]

This sounds eerily similar to USF1...

[matt21]

Maybe Hilmer would be still interested:

http://www.hilmer-motorsport.com/en/

[Vettel Maggot]

Why would you want to be involved in F1 at the moment is beyond me. Better of just donating money to charity instead of wasting it in F1.

[xpensive]

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

[SectorOne]

Why would you want to be involved in F1 at the moment is beyond me. Better of just donating money to charity instead of wasting it in F1.

I think Red Bull and Mercedes would beg to differ.
It´s just about doing it right and actually affording to play.

For HRT-like teams your statement is true though.