VW in F1 in 2011

SpeedTV said: Campos leaves team, to be Volkswagen in 2011: Bernie Ecclestone and Jose Ramon Carabante have joined forces to rescue the Campos team, Spain's Diario AS newspaper reports. The deal will reportedly see team partner and president Carabante take over from Adrian Campos and lead the outfit to its Bahrain debut next month, before the German car giant Volkswagen steps in for 2011. AS said the team intends to change its official name from Campos Meta 1 prior to the start of the season. The Valencia headquarters will remain for now, and the multi million euro debt to Italian car constructor Dallara will be paid. The newspaper said Bruno Senna's contract as race driver will be honored, and that the hopeful Serbian outfit Stefan GP will instead need to look to assume USF1's official entry.

Oh god, how many coilpacks would they need to change?

funny rendition on Vortex...

that is hilarious.

Love it.

I wonder if it will be called the VW team or one of their higher level brands, like Bugatti or Lambourghini. Can you imagine how crazy the fans would be for the Italian GP with Lambourghini vs. Ferrari?

VW's done a great job with Audi/Bentley in the various Lemans series', but will they keep the Lemans prototype team and the F1 team going at the same time? That's a lot of money with probably zero overlap in parts and little overlap in technology. Maybe they'll ditch the prototypes and just compete in the GT class with the R8.

Bob

eh, I don't think VW would want to pull the plug on the Audi R15, especially considering the huge history of success that Audi LMP1 cars have enjoyed. plus, fielding a factory-backed GT2 class R8 would pretty much be VW pitting two of it's brands against each other (Audi v. Porsche) and I don't think they particularly want to do that.

that being said, if they do get into F1, it wouldn't surprise me if they got Audi and Lamborghini or hell even Porsche working together on the engine rather than having VW do engine development, since all of those companies have a LOT more experience building fast petrol-powered engines than VW does (at least as far as 6+ cylinder engines is concerned anyway). I wonder, maybe they'll run the team under the Porsche banner instead of Lamborghini or Bugatti? that makes a bit more sense, because why would a German auto manufacturer run their F1 team under an Italian name when they have a perfectly good German marque that has had SOME experience in Formula 1? (albeit back in the '60s and they weren't overly successful I don't think)

Here is the deal though if they have two different brands battling each other in the same series and a potential customer is interested in either brand and eventually purchases one or the other (based on performance in the race and/or series), the money is still going to the parent company either way, correct?

slyp_dawg said: when they have a perfectly good German marque that has had SOME experience in Formula 1? (albeit back in the '60s and they weren't overly successful I don't think)

They won one race. They had some American guy driving at the time. Someone named Dan Gurney...whoever he is..

I think they'll definately go with a halo brand like Lambo or Porsche. It just doesn't sound right, "And coming into the first turn its the Ferrari followed closely by the Volkswagen!".

But if I had to pick between F1 or their prototype team, I'd take prototype everyday of the week!

gi drewsifer said: It just doesn't sound right, "And coming into the first turn its the Ferrari followed closely by the Volkswagen!".

Dunno, it worked for these guys...

I don't think they will run Lambo. I remember reading something about the founder saying that the would never do factory backed racing and they have basically stuck to that. Bugatti would be the logical choice.

Gubby wrote:

gi drewsifer said: It just doesn't sound right, "And coming into the first turn its the Ferrari followed closely by the Volkswagen!".

Dunno, it worked for these guys...

OK, so I recognized Don Knotts face but couldn't think of his name, then I couldn't remember the name of the show he was on, so I had to ask my wife for help. At any rate I think I'm too young to get your reference.

EDIT: Wait, Herbie the love bug! Now I get it. I thought you were being serious.

It's from "Herbie Goes to Monaco," or something like that--I can't recall the exact title I remember seeing bits & pieces of this film during classic Disney re-runs when I was a wee one, and dismissing it as ludicrous garbage--"Ah come on dad, there's no way that stupid Volkswagen could beat those Ferraris!" I was a very serious 5 year old

GI_Drewsifer wrote:

Gubby wrote:

gi drewsifer said: It just doesn't sound right, "And coming into the first turn its the Ferrari followed closely by the Volkswagen!".

Dunno, it worked for these guys...

OK, so I recognized Don Knotts face but couldn't think of his name, then I couldn't remember the name of the show he was on, so I had to ask my wife for help. At any rate I think I'm too young to get your reference. EDIT: Wait, Herbie the love bug! Now I get it. I thought you were being serious.

Why is George W Bush next to him?

Lamborghini does have history in Formula 1, so they may be a good choice. They supplied engines for a few teams from 1989 to 1993. And the reason the founder didn't want to go racing was because he saw it as a financial drain on the company. If VW is spending the money to go racing and has to put a name on the team, why not use Lamborghini? It won't cost Lamborghini any money.

They also converted engines for marine use and supplied them for use in offshore racing Class 1 boats (often referred to as Formula 1).

http://www.lambocars.com/archive/marines.htm

Bob