Auto Makers Go for Glory in Record Numbers
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| The three biggest players in motorsport, Ferrari, BMW/Williams and Mercedes-Benz/McLaren continue to battle out positions 1,2 and 3. |
The end of the motorsport season is a time when drivers, teams and sponsors are evaluating the year's success and failure ratio, deciding where to make changes for the following year, and in some cases whether to continue at all. This last trend is hardly the case for the world's largest automotive manufacturers however. More and more the big names, along with their big money, are diving into the fray, making it all the more difficult for smaller teams with shallower pockets to keep up. F1's Arrows team is a prime example, struggling for funds it didn't even manage to complete the 2002 season and may bow out of the series altogether. F1 has always been the main stage for carmakers to exhibit their most brilliant engineers and technology, with companies like Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Honda and Renault battling it out for years. More recently BMW and Toyota have entered the melee with two of the most powerful engines on the grid.
But why do automakers spend the millions of dollars every year to go racing in the first place? Is the timeworn slogan 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday' still realistic? It seems so. Not only that, but for many just showing up and placing mid-pack derives enough attention and respect from race fans to boost overall sales. Has Honda suffered a loss in new Accord and Civic buyers due to its awful 2002 F1 season? Not. After all, most new car shoppers never tune in auto racing at all, allowing even losing teams the chance to spin how their sophisticated racing technology helps them to build a better 4-cylinder economy car. And in all respect it does.