F1 News
Date: 23/06/2011
That's the opinion
of team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who explained that - while McLaren is
branding its own engine for a new road car - the marketing benefits of being an
F1 engine supplier only make economic sense on a large scale.
"No,"
replied Whitmarsh, when asked about McLaren building an F1 engine. "It’s
nice our road car has a fantastic engine, which is in its class a downsized
turbo-charged engine. But there isn’t any temptation to do so.
"Formula One is an incredibly powerful marketing opportunity and it’s an area that automotive companies have seen has been beneficial for brand exposure, brand differentiation.
"Formula One is an incredibly powerful marketing opportunity and it’s an area that automotive companies have seen has been beneficial for brand exposure, brand differentiation.
"But the cost of Formula One
is such that you need to amortise that over millions of cars per annum. Not
thousands. McLaren’s maximum planned output, certainly for the foreseeable
future, is no greater than 4,500 units per year.
"So it really doesn’t make
sense to use a marketing tool like Formula One for the engine," concluded
Whitmarsh, speaking during a Vodafone Phone-in.
McLaren, whose drivers' Jenson
Button and Lewis Hamilton are second and fourth in the 2011 championship
standings heading into this weekend's Valencia round, has used Mercedes-Benz F1
engines since 1995.
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