Conceptual wrote:How much does the team spend of their own money, and how much comes from sponsors?
O.K. reasoned speculation.
It depends on the team,
I will speculate further using examples...
Williams: Probably do not put any of their own money in.
Reason: within a fairly short number of years they would fail to exist.
Background: Essentially an engineering firm with a marketing department, their chosen field of business, and one which they are talented and passionate about is motor sport, they require a profitable company in order to maintain their investment and keep up with the speed of development and essentially, the ever increasing costs of maintaining a foothold in the marketplace.
McLaren: As above obviously on a larger scale, they have little in the way of interests outside motor sport with which they could claw back any losses made within the sport.
Brawn: As above although as has been speculated on this forum, they may be sustained in the short term by a Honda 'golden parachute'
Red Bull/Torro Rosso: O.K. so they may make a loss within the sport.
Reason: Having recently acquired two existing teams they will be servicing a debt for some considerable time despite some of the savings that can be made from having a single chief designer, many shared parts and shared logistical and marketing responsibilities. This is unlikely to yield a profit as the teams main sponsor is itself, however this reasoning depends on how far you separate the racing side of the company from the rest of the business.
Background: We are talking about a company who believes (or wants to believe) that being involved in F1 sells more energy drinks (other energy drink brands seem to be beginning to think this may be the case) and if this is indeed the case then it could be said that they are making a profit (so long as they are selling more extra drinks than they are spending, but try and work that out) Red Bull has spent big on advertising long before it's entry into F1 and it got the company where it is today, that and some questionable ingredients. It will be strong competition and market saturation that ends up loosing this outfit money, not it's participation in F1.
Ferrari: Your guess is as good as mine, no one will ever know for sure.
My best guess is that several individuals highly placed within Ferrari, as well as Fiat, the Government and the Mafia are making out like absolute BANDITS whilst the company as a whole is haemorrhaging money and the whole exercise is funded to a large degree by the Italian taxpayer. And I'm sure if you presented these facts to the average Italian Taxpayer they would be quite happy with the situation, with a roll of honour such as theirs at least they are getting value for money.
As for the other 'manufacturer' backed teams I think you will find that encouraging them to participate is essentially a practical joke played on them by the rest of the motor sport community. Bernie is the ring leader having spent the last 15 years concentrating on making the sport look more attractive to 'big money'. Most long term participants have long since made the initial investment and are doing just fine for themselves one way or another thank you. However they occasionally like a large multi-national group to pump billions of pounds into the sport, bump up the Kudos for another decade, make a few breakthroughs and then roll over without leaving much of a dent in the reputation of those who remain. Oh, and they entice a few more sponsors in, sponsors thet can they be picked over after the teams departure.
Branson spelt it out loud and clear when he talked about the Brawn deal, sadly I cannot find the quote but essentially it was 'Formula 1 is a bottomless money pit and I would loose my shirt in this sport, I'm coming in under the proviso that the costs will be brought under control.
It seems they may not and it seems he is ending his association with Brawn at the end of this year, whether or not he buys Manor I don't know. Maybe he's done it by now, maybe someone else has. Maybe Manor will still be cost capped and allowed greater technical freedom
as has been promised them all along, maybe they will use virgin biofuel and kers, I digress.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 111469.stm
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73975
Dave Richards also pulled back from the brink a few years back, the Brink of an abyss that his well run and successful (though essentially cash poor when compared to the likes of BMW, Honda and Toyota) firm may have disappeared into never to return.
He had a choice, come on board and spend whatever we deem necessary (this may involve building you own chassis, and it may not) or stay out. A wise choice from a man who built his company rather than got hired to run it.
Force India remain a complete mystery, but good luck to them =D>
Whiteblue, I will endeavour to give Mr Sylt a read, hopefully it dosen't totally contradict what I said
