Parr: The end of manufacturer dominance in F1

Monday 9th November 2009

Williams' chief executive Adam Parr believes Toyota's withdrawal from Formula One marks the "end of manufacturer dominance" in the sport.

Last week, Toyota announced their immediate withdrawal from the sport, citing economic difficulties as the reason. Added to that team president John Howett revealed that Toyota had already "discussed and rejected' the possibility of selling their Formula One team.

Toyota's demise leaves just three manufacturers in the sport, Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes and Renault, however, the latter's future in Formula One is in doubt with reports claiming that they will leave at the end of next season.

But while manufacturers are walking away from F1, privateer teams are coming to the fore with four new outfits, Lotus, Manor GP, Campos and USF1 joining the fraternity next season.

"This week marked the end of manufacturer dominance in F1 - something that had been growing for a decade," Parr told the Financial Times.

"It's not that manufacturers are not welcome in F1; it's just that the maths doesn't make sense.

"If you spend $750m a year to own an F1 team and come ninth two years in a row, you are going to stop. But for an independent, at times like these you just put your head down and keep going - because you have no choice."

But while Parr speaks of a changing era, McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh insists that F1 has not be "fundamentally changed" by Toyota's withdrawal.

"Now is the time for all the stakeholders in F1 to pull together," Whitmarsh said. "F1 is still a sensible place and still a fascinating sport in which to invest and participate. People should stay calm because F1 has not been fundamentally changed by the announcement.

"If we continue to develop the working relationships between all of the parties we can make F1 better, more sustainable and more attractive to the fans."

Your Comments

rick

"biso9700: Loved your post. I love the way you complicate little things to make yourself accountable.

Hiring british workforce doesn't make a company or anything else british my friend.

Mercedes-benz is german.

Live with it."

biso9700

"I just wanted to add that i enjoy the fact that this is "PlanetF1" and not British F1, the deverisity in opinions and views from around the world make interesting reading, although some posters opinions are too deverse for my taste!"

biso9700

"As it appears PF1 will not allow me post the links i had found, you will have to make do with this! "Before joining the team, Duesmann was head of development at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines and based in Britain. He had already worked at Merecdes-Benz for four years after completing his mechanical engineering degree, before spending eight years at FEV Motorentechnik in Aachen" taken from the official Formula 1 site! and this from Motorsport.com, "After his return to DaimlerChrysler at the beginning of 2004, Duesmann's final position there was head of development F1 engines

at Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines in Brixworth (Great Britain)", now this is the "German brain" you said was responsible for the Mercedes FO108S 2.4 V8, it was claimed by yourself that "The development and building of prototypes, for Mercedes F1 engines, is done at Mercedes facility at Unterturkheim, Germany, by German brains", it may be a German brain in charge(although i never disagreed with that point), but it is CLEAR in all the records that the development of EVERY Mercedes F1 engine has ALWAYS taken place in Britain at what used to known as Ilmor!. Now i have to make something else clear Brent!, believe it or not, i actually respect most of the posts you make!, you seem to have a balanced rational view on most things and i find myself agreeing with your opinion pretty much all the time!, but i think when it comes to certain things you show a bias that doesn't seem to fit with your rational!, i never claim that all things to do with F1 are all solely British work, and without the input of other nationality's i don't believe any team based in Britain would enjoy the success they do, but as you said before, credit where it is due!"

Brent

"I thought you were going to prove me wrong? I doubt PF1 can help, it wasn't them or anyone else reading the posts that decided I wasn't credible. I'm sure most people either read and ignored what I wrote or researched it and found it was true.I am sorry I used the word idiot to descibe you, name calling adds nothing to debates."

All comments on this story