FORMULA ONE racing has been thrown into turmoil after Ford announced that it was killing off its Jaguar team at the end of the year and leaving the sport.
The team was put up for sale yesterday, along with its Cosworth engine business, as Ford wielded the axe on its entire Jaguar operation in Britain. The headquarters factory at Browns Lane in Coventry, the company’s base for more than 80 years, is to be closed and production of its big saloons and sports cars moved to Birmingham.
The decision to end Jaguar’s dismal foray into Formula One is the most high-profile signal that the company is suffering, and has serious ramifications for a sport already on shaky foundations. Jaguar’s Cosworth business also supplies Jordan and Minardi, and they are now left in the lurch with no engines to power their cars and with a new season only six months away.
Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s promoter, is contractually obliged to put a minimum of 20 cars on the grid for every race, but he now faces being at least two short. If Jordan, already negotiating to sell up, and Minardi disappear due to lack of money and a viable engine supplier, that number will fall to 14, the lowest for a generation.
Ecclestone claimed the Jaguar decision was “inevitable”. He said: “It wasn’t a shock to me. They didn’t have the necessary financial investment to be competitive and in my opinion they shouldn’t have run this year at all. They are closing a factory, so it would have been a bit cheeky to keep the Formula One factory going. But if no one buys Cosworth and it goes out of business, then Jordan and Minardi are in serious trouble.”
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Ford was clearly embarrassed that it was funding a high-profile Formula One team that soaked up an estimated £300 million in five years while having to make crucial decisions about the future of thousands of production jobs in the car business.
By its nature, Formula One consumes money and flaunts its wealth — even if sponsor money is harder to find. While Jaguar Cars lost millions of pounds and the workforce struggled to sell saloons worldwide, the Formula One team raced cars with £3 million worth of diamonds embedded in their noses at the glittering Monaco Grand Prix in front of film stars such as George Clooney. The stunt was out of proportion to the achievements on the track. Since taking over Sir Jackie Stewart’s Ford team in 2000, Jaguar has managed only two third places, while the team is seventh out of ten this year. Even so, Ford’s budget was meagre by comparison with Ferrari, the reigning champions, and teams McLaren and Williams. The crunch came as high-profile sponsors, including HSBC, Jaguar’s title sponsor, decided to pull out, taking with them about £25 million of the team budget. Richard Parry-Jones, who controlled the Formula One team for Ford, said that there was no longer a “compelling” business case and that Mr Ecclestone’s failure to reform the finances of the sport, in which his companies get 53 per cent of the revenues, also helped to propel Ford to the exit door.
Jaguar will compete in China next weekend and the final two races of the season, although it will be a pointless exercise. Mark Webber, the team’s No 1 driver, flies to Beijing today on a promotional tour, but the brand he will be promoting will soon drop out of the world’s most high-profile motor sport.
Ford is considering quitting the World Rally Championship at the end of this season. Ford crews at the Rally GB in Wales this weekend are expected to be told that the company will sanction only enough money to compete in the European rounds of the championship next year. A decision is likely next month.