Real reasons of world class automobile manufacturers struggle for enter or return to F1

[theriusDR3]

Here are the real reasons why world class automobile manufacturers like Audi, Porsche, BMW etc. cannot enter or return to F1:
1. Core market motorsport business policy in every car manufacturers
2. Development costs either chassis or engines regulations are does not make sense
3. Prefers endurance sports cars, touring cars, electric racing and rallying

Any additions? Your opinions?

[Greg Locock]

Spend X billion to buy/set up team + Y million a year. probability good publicity=Z% Global reach in important markets =W% Number of actual new car buyers who are influenced by Motorsports = V%

X and Y are too big, considering that V, W and Z are too small.

The main reason marketing love sponsoring big events is so that they can invite their chums from other marketing department along, who will of course reciprocate.

[El Scorchio]

ROI.

[jjn9128]

None of the major OEMs are doing very well at the moment, people seem to be holding off on buying new cars until it becomes clear which path propulsion is going down. If they're not making money they're not going to spend it on F1. Something like Formula E is significantly cheaper, plays into the "green" image of companies, and can be used to develop directly for the EV market.

[JordanMugen]

Something like Formula E is significantly cheaper, plays into the "green" image of companies

GT3 is not green and also has many manufacturers, as does the Daytona Prototype class.

The key seems to be that a motor racing formula needs to be cheap or even better profitable to attract manufacturers, F1 is neither of those things!

[jjn9128]

Something like Formula E is significantly cheaper, plays into the "green" image of companies

GT3 is not green and also has many manufacturers, as does the Daytona Prototype class.

The key seems to be that a motor racing formula needs to be cheap or even better profitable to attract manufacturers, F1 is neither of those things!

Gt3 is at least based on production models. They're cheap too. Likewise Daytona prototypes are built on a common lmp2 monocoque with a pretty standard engine.

The f1 budget cap is too high if they want more manufacturers. The original cap promised in 2010 would have been good.

[Big Tea]

I still see the main blockage as someone in the board room thinking 'What if we just do not get to the top?'
You are not seen as failing if you are not in it, but if you are and do not eclipse all the private teams, you look to have failed against amateurs. Toyota could have not tried any harder and they 'lost face' over it

[JordanMugen]

I still see the main blockage as someone in the board room thinking 'What if we just do not get to the top?'

Therefore Balance of Performance categories such as Daytona Prototype are naturally much more attractive to manufacturers than competitions.

[Holm86]

The current engine regulations are a big factor, these engines are just too advanced, and even if a new manufacturer could build a great engine from scratch, all the other manufactures have 6 years of experience in how to utilise the ERS systems most efficiently that they would need to catch up with.

[El Scorchio]

The current engine regulations are a big factor, these engines are just too advanced, and even if a new manufacturer could build a great engine from scratch, all the other manufactures have 6 years of experience in how to utilise the ERS systems most efficiently that they would need to catch up with.

True. Although it's Ok for Honda now, does anyone want to go through the huge public disrespect they had at the hands of Alonso and McLaren?

Look at how Red Bull started treating Renault the moment they weren't winning any more, and look how pirelli have been treated. Who needs that sort of hassle, with people just rubbishing your product week in week out?

[strad]

The key seems to be that a motor racing formula needs to be cheap or even better profitable

Racing is never profitable in and of itself. What is the old saying? " The way to make a small fortune racing, is to start with a large fortune."

[AJI]

Greg pretty much summed it up, but I'll add my two cents.
The main reason manufacturers aren't entering is because F1 is a marketing platform hidden behind a pay-wall. Who would advertise with a company that is inaccessible to the general viewing public public? The current cars are conspicuously devoid of advertising when compared to only a decade ago.

[kimetic]

There's more investment into F1 teams than ever. It's only the big manufacturers who aren't coming in, because they know they would lose to the 4 who are in already. BMW, Toyota, Porsche, Peugeot, Ford, have all tried. The standard is high, is all. It's not as if it doesn't pay off, if they're up to it. But it's easy to look stupid, quite rightly as F1 is for the best of the best.

[izzy]

The current engine regulations are a big factor, these engines are just too advanced, and even if a new manufacturer could build a great engine from scratch, all the other manufactures have 6 years of experience in how to utilise the ERS systems most efficiently that they would need to catch up with.

But is there an engine of any kind that someone could come in and be competitive with? i mean in principle it's not much harder than a high revving V8 is it? If it's fuel flow limited which is pretty fundamental to the whole idea. After that there's just two electromotors and a battery and a turbo and making them work in a fairly obvious way like deploying early for the area under the curve down the straight, charging when you can, and so on. Lots of limits apart from H to K direct.

The hard thing is doing it perfectly and that's the same whatever the engine is. Especially combustion! Fuel, lubricants, cooling, it's always the same. When they were talking about dropping the H Andy Cowell said HPP'd make 100 prototypes of any new engine! i don't think Honda were representative 2015-18, that was more about how they ran the project

[Andres125sx]

Easy, F1 competition is not fair, with some teams receiving more money than the rest only because of their name. Who will invest on a competition where they know they will never fight in equal conditions?