The Ford Cosworth customer - The Grim Reaper of F1 engines?

[Yoong Montoya]

I've just noticed that many of the teams that have gone bust in the 90s were using customer Fords. Pacific, Simtek, Forti, Lola and now Arrows. And Jordan now have a customer Ford deal. Will they be next? Of course, this is probably just coincidence.

[ASCII Man]

Not a customer deal, Jordan has a partner deal, recent engines, but Jordan will have to rely on Jaguar/Ford/Cosworth/whoever develops the engines for the continued development of the engine during the season and won't get as much engine upgrades as Jaguar.

Minardi will get a customer deal, engines from the previous season and no engine development/engine upgrades whatsoever.


Not entirely fact but that is the way it usually goes.

[Super Tourer]

According to Richard Parry-Jones from Ford, Jordan is a customer deal. The fact that someone at Ford Europe has chosen to push some wooden dollars around the table with DHL doesn't alter that.

Ford Europe are subsidising the cost of the engine against a deal from DHL to buy Ford trucks/vans, with Ford entering into a seperate agreement with DHL to distribute Ford parts.

How much of this is happening now, who know's? But as I understand it Ford Europe are not supplying the whole engine deal free, and with DHL gone, what happens to the rest of the deal is anybody's guess.

EJ is putting an ultra brave face on it, but I would guess he has a short fall in the engine deal as well as the main budget. I would also guess, their best real hope of a title sponsor rest's with Red Bull, who are the only real pro-active sponsor without an obvious partner, unless they choose to throw their lot in with Sauber again.

All IMHO as usual

ST

[autosportfan]

Actually, any team that decides to go for a Cosworth simply get what they pay for. Cosworth would be quite happy to supply Minardi an engine just one step down from the Jaguar spec, however this is be at a higher price than an earlier one.

[ASCII Man]

I don't know, but i'm sure EJ will be able to talk his way out of this mess as he always finds a way out of anything.
At least i hope so...

[ParkLife]

I think the Jordan Ford deal is comparable to the Mugen Honda deal they had. It's certianly not Works, but it's not really a customer either.

It's more like a Semi-Works deal, that they pay for. They are not getting old engines as such, but a development of the engine used last year. Jordan have their own dedicated Cosworth engineers who are developing their RS engine.

I don't think it's as black and white as simply Customer or Works with this one.

[KA]

Originally posted by Yoong Montoya
I've just noticed that many of the teams that have gone bust in the 90s were using customer Fords. Pacific, Simtek, Forti, Lola and now Arrows. And Jordan now have a customer Ford deal. Will they be next? Of course, this is probably just coincidence.

I don't think there's any real significance to that- most of those teams have used customer Ford/Cosworths because there aren't that many alternative customer engines available- Cosworth has always tended to be the favoured customer engine for small teams right back to DFV era.....

[BootsOntheSide]

In those days, to paraphrase Henry, you could have a customer engine form any company, as long as its Ford Cosworth.

In the 70s the availablility of the DFV and its developments allowed teams such as Williams and Arrows, not to mention the likes of Wolf, Tyrrell and others, to enter with a competitive engine cheaply. The way F1 has gone in the 90s, the situation has changed, to the point that it is no longer practical for an individual.

[bosch!]

Prost went out of business while using a Ferrari engine, should we be expecting sauber or Ferrari to fold?

As for the Jordan Ford deal I dont think that ANYBODY had a clue as to what it meant / would cost with DHL involvement, without DHL its even less clear!