Porsche delays return to motor racing
For financial reasons [24/07/03 - 10:55]

Porsche, the German maker of luxury sports cars, has decided to delay its planned return to motor racing for financial reasons, chairman Wendelin Wiedeking said in an interview published in the Thursday edition of Financial Times Deutschland.

"We've set back this step for cost reasons, Wiedeking told the newspaper on the sidelines of a model presentation in Italy. The group's development division had already drawn up concrete plans for a prototype that could have started racing next year.

"We would have entered an attractive racing series and other makers would have followed us," Wiedeking said. He nevertheless ruled out participating in the prestigious Formula One series.

When Porsche pulled out of the Le Mans series in 1998, the chairman had said the group intended to return to motor racing after three or four years. That deadline was now being put back, Wiedeking said.

 

This is sad.

Recently, Jack Baer, PCNA liason for PCA attended the NNJR monthly meeting.

His 'disortation' on Porsche and racing included comments like "We can't compete with the big boys (Audi, Mercedes, Ferrari..etc) since we don't have the financial resources they do," and "We won't compete unless we know we can win, and MONEY is what makes cars win." He ended with the comment, "If we go back to racing, and we don't win, people will say, 'What happened?' "

To his final comment, I replied, "We are already wondering what happened to Porsche."

I guess there's always the Dakar rally that the Cayenne can enter.

-Zoltan.

 

OK, Audi and Mercedes I understand, they are much larger companies with deeper resources and money. But Ferrari? I can't believe that Porsche would call Ferrari a "big guy". I don't know what the financials are but it would seem to me that the two companies should be fairly close, with Porsche selling more cars but at lower average price than Ferrari. Yes, Ferrari is part of Fiat group but that company is in deep financial straights, so I can't believe they would subsidize Ferrari's racing programs.

What PAG had better remember is that all of their competitors are launching or have launched super cars to compete with the Carrera GT. If everyone else is racing their supercars and Porsche is not because they don't think they can win, why should a customer go out and spend $450K on a car that Porsche doesn't think is competitive?

Karl

 

Karl,
Ferrari's F1 team receives a lot of money from Marlboro and their other sponsors. Ferrari merchandising is far more lucrative than Porsche's. Ferrari have one of the most recognizable brands in the world.

If the rumors are accurate, the team's budget is somewhere between $200-$300mil per season. Ferrari has won the last three world championships and is always a contender for a race win. How could Porsche jump into F1 after a hiatus from racing and expect to be competitive with them? And don't forget Williams/BMW either they would also be a serious threat to any F1 aspirations by Porsche.

What other super cars made by rivals to Porsche are currently being raced?

Greg A

 

Don't forget that Ferrari is just one small branch of Fiat (the F1 cars even carry a Fiat logo on the sides of the car). Fiat has been in financial difficulty lately but even a strapped Fiat is a goliath when compared to Porsche.

 

Think about how little Ferrari spends on advertising (if any) and how much Porsche spends. That amount alone could fund a good team and car development.

 

I am sure that the Ferrari Enzo and the Mercedes SLR will be see tracktime is some official racing series soon. (Along with the GT-C, hopefully). Too bad it probably won't be in the USA!

I can understand Porsche's logic somewhat: as a small company, PAG really doesn't have the financial backing that the others do. HOWEVER, wasn't Porsche traditionally the UNDERDOG in these venues? Put LeMans and the 917 cars aside (and some other cars/race series), and most of the race programs they were involved in they were out-classed, out-financed, and out-powered, yet they still managed to win and to be a labelled as "Giant Killers!"

I want the old Porsche company back!

-Z.

 

Hello guys. This news is not a suprize to me at all. Yes, .... Iam even MORE disappointed with them too !! The good doctor is correct, there is a car being scheduled for next year according to my factory source. One of the problems is the internal battles they are having to determine what engine, what series this car is going to run. And of course , how badly the FIA is going to screw them once they finish the car and have it ready for testing.

Other problem. Porsche is one of the manufacters that the CART racing series is considering as a new engine supplier. Problem here, how many people does Porsche want to dedicate strictly to this project ??? Ala the SUV. When their bread and butter is road racing and they are in desparate need to regain their name again in Motorsports !!


I don ' t buy the exuse of strictly being a " MONEY " issue. Porsche can still get some big money sponsers if they want with no problem. Yes, even with current economic struggles that exist in Europe.

The feeling I get , this whole fiasco might get worse before it gets better. Porsche just has to decide one way or the other what the hell they are going to do. All of the decision makers have to agree ........ there lies the problem people !!!!



Theo

 

Z-Man,
Those cars aren't currently racing. The Enzo will probably race as a Maserati and there is no evidence the SLR will race. My point is that I don't believe the CGT is tarnished by not racing when none of its competitors are racing either.

Theo,

Porsche stopped listening to their founding father a while ago.

Greg A

 

In deed!

Those bastards! I'm so pissed!

 

I don't expect Porsche to go head to head with Ferrari in F1. However, I do expect them to go head to head with Audi and Bentley in endurance sports car racing. That doesn't take hundreds of millions of dollars every year. It simply takes a commitment to do it.

 

And don't forget about the trickle down of technology to the road cars. Look at BMW and Ferrari, both of which race in F1 and both of which have been offering good clutchless manual transmissions for some time. While Porsche continues to bumble along with the Tiptronic. And I don't think there would have been so many issues with PCCB if Porsche had first proven the technology on the race track before foisting it on their customers.

I'm not saying Porsche has to race in F1, the FIA/Le Mans prototype or even GTS would be enough. If Porsche were to enter the C-GT in GTS, I'm sure Ferrari, Mercedes, Lambo, and others would follow. I also agree that Porsche can build the same kind of sponsorship and logo merchandise programs as Ferrari to help fund the effort. They can also make a lot of money selling cars to privateers and last year's engines to their competition like Ferrari does.

Maybe it would be best if Porsche is acquired, since they don't seem to be able to do what's necessary on their own.

Karl

 

God help us and Porsche if it's ever acquired by anybody. We may not agree with their current motorsports program (or lack of it), but Porsche is the most profitable auto manufacturer in the world right now.

I think F1 is the wrong way to go, but I wouldn't be surprised if Porsche were to participate in CARTs new program. It's a perfect market for Porsche...American based, but with a worldwide market. And Porsche is one manufacturer with a V-10 in their arsenal. Personally, I'd love to see that...especially if American Patrick Long were to become a CART/Porsche factory driver. (http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/roadracing/7321/) It would be a positive for CART and for Porsche.

Of course I'd prefer Porsche to stay in sports cars, but it seems the money Audi and others are spending on the top level sports prototypes is coming close to F1 development costs...and to what gain? I wouldn't mind them trying to compete at, say the GTS classes, but I've kinda lost flavor for the upper echelon prototypes. I guess I'm becoming one of those people who like to root for the car that looks like my own. (...you know what I mean)

Don't worry, I'll never be a NASCAR fan...

 

uhh... all i know is that audi is doing pretty good these days, i know i've been seeing a heck of a lot more audis on the roads than i have in the past.
As for racing, i think GTS has the potential to become the hot ticket. It's the perfect class; who wouldn't want to see the world's supercars competing against eachother, enzo, lambo, saleen s7, corvette, carrera gt, viper, etc.
And when it comes to funding, i don't think porsche would have trouble finding sponsors after its 5 yr haitus from racing, it will be the "talk of the town". A Carrera gt would not be nearly as expensive to campaign as audi's prototypes

 

I guess this displaces the hope that the CGT's V10 would be used in, or for, an F1 program. Nonetheless, not racing the CGT, to me, doesn't make sense; Porsche has spent a ton of money developing the car, why not put it to use? As others have noted, getting sposorship for a factory effort should not be difficult as Porsche has an established racing pedigree the world over; then again, the truth may be that Porsche, the Co., has become a money making machine, and has decided to trim it's roots in the "racing" arena.

Ferrari's F1 teams has an annual budget, reported to be, close to 400mil; Marlboro foots the majority of the bill to a tune of 250-300 mil, or there about. The new enzo will see competition in an FIA sanctioned endurance series, it will, however, be badged a Maserati. Further, the Masarati challenge series is also afoot, and allegedly offers a good bang/buck v. the ferrari challenge; I guess FIAT is trying to affirmativly re-establish the Maserati namebase; however, the Maserati market/resale value sucks... traded-in coupes are going for ~ 20k off MSRP.

Either way, I'd love to see Porsche back on the grid (factory style), but for now I'm happy to seeing them release the limited editioin cars into the states; itll be nice to see the GT 3 around town, as well as the CGT.