posted Dec 22, 2008

I haven't looked at the figures too closely but the figure of 4% down on total sales year-on-year sounds amazingly good to me! I expect Toyota to weather the storm somewhat better than the others so I guess it's a combination of the yen plus discounting which is killing their profits.

I am feeling more and more that Toyota will be the next to pull out of F1 though. Still a tie between them and Renault. I'm off to look to see when Renault report their figures - I expect they'll be significantly worse than Toyota.

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posted Dec 22, 2008

I'll qualify my last posting - I think F1 is more important to Renault than Toyota. Renault are in a worse state but will hang on as long as possible in F1, whereas Toyota could just pull the plug anytime as they don't have the racing heritage and F1 is not exactly targetting their core buyers.
Question is - would one team pulling out make it less attractive to others? We ought to really fear the news of another team leaving as it could start a domino effect.

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posted Dec 22, 2008

I can't see Renault pulling out.
I was at their HQ in Oxford the week before last and work on next year is very well advanced, they have brilliant business processes in place for optimising their work processes and have a clear strategy and goals. They appear to be 100% commited to and ready for the challenge of 2009.
And boy do they have some sexy cars parked up in their suite, 5 ex F1 cars including Prost, Schumy and Alonso, Derek Bells Le Mans monster and a perfect R5 Turbo - Jean Ragnotti 1982 Ivory Coast.

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posted Dec 22, 2008

Fozzo - I am sure Brackley would have looked/felt much the same before Honda dropped their bombshell.

There continue to be straws in the wind. Toyota make their first loss in ~70 years and at £1.1 billion it is significant. BMW remain tight-lipped but the mini plant is getting an extended Christmas break and they are laying off staff (so far only staff on short term or agency contracts but it is an indicator) while Prodrives ability to invest in F1 may be a little influenced by the news that Aston Martin are laying off a third of their staff.

In a way I am sorry that Tata are hooked up with Ferrari - in many senses that is an organisation that should be in F1 in its own right.

Renault have a strong heritage in F1 and are more likely to want to stay in F1 but are likely to be dependant on the French Government to help stay in car making. Their continued involvement may hinge more on the strings attached to their bailout than anything else.

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posted Dec 24, 2008

So the rainy day has come after 70+ years - what did they do with all the profits they made previously? Didn't they save any of it for just such an occasion?

Same applies to Honda and others....

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