chatasos (Τάσος)
Developer - Administrator
Peugeot 207 1.6 (17V!) GT (2009)
Ένταξη: 12 Απρ 2002
Δημοσιεύσεις: 2612
Τόπος: Αθήνα
|
 Δημοσιεύθηκε: Τετ 18 Δεκ 2002, 12:35:05 Θέμα δημοσίευσης: Growing number of automakers choose rallying over Formula 1 |
 |
|
A growing number of automakers see rallying as a popular and more cost-effective way to race than the more glamorous Formula One.
Automakers traditionally view motorsports as a prime way to build brand image and sell cars to race fans. Formula One's colorful spectacle of thousand-horsepower racers hurtling around tight tracks in exotic locations from Monaco to Malaysia has long made it racing's top attraction.
But F1 is in a small slump. Skyrocketing costs are bankrupting smaller teams. Ferrari is recently so dominant that bored viewers aren't watching as much as they used to.
Meanwhile, rallying fans are growing rapidly. They not only watch TV coverage, they turn out in person along cross-country routes to watch what look like production cars race against the clock.
"It has been cheaper for us to become world rally champion, and with a lower budget, than to earn only a few points in Grand Prix racing when we were only suppliers of F1 engines," said Corrado Provera, sports director of Peugeot. "We just did not get enough return on investment in F1."
Peugeot left Formula One to re-enter rallying in 1999. It has since won the world title twice with its 206 model. Peugeot never was seriously competitive in F1, despite a 180-member engineering team and an annual budget of tens of millions of euros. Peugeot's rally team has 160 specialists.
Motor racing teams never reveal annual budgets officially. International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC), which runs the World Rally Championship (WRC), estimates that "rally teams can spend in excess of E50 million." (Editor's Note: The Euro is roughly equivalent to the dollar at present exchange rates)
During the 2002 rally season, Ford, Citroen, Hyundai, Skoda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Peugeot all entered official works-backed teams with three cars each. Peugeot won the world title.
"That [world championship title] cost Peugeot between E70 and E80 million," a rival team manager said. "We know what we have spent ourselves."
But it's still far cheaper than F1. Insiders say 2002 budgets ranged from E115 million for Mercedes-Benz to E275 million for Ferrari and Renault.
Rally cars are production look-alikes but are effectively exotic, high-tech prototypes, with more than 300hp and four-wheel drive.
At the end of each season, Peugeot offers team cars for sale to private buyers, at E500,000 each. It helps reduce team expenses. Rally teams have outside sponsors, but they don't spend as much as those involved in Formula One.
Though not officially confirmed, Toyota's three-year budget to enter F1 with a car completely designed in-house is about E400 million.
"We will communicate the spirit of challenge in this sport," Shuhei Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Europe, said earlier this year. Toyota expects to achieve some serious results by 2003, its second full year of actual F1 racing.
Even carmakers that only supply engines to F1 teams have budgets in excess of E100 million. Only those connected with top-tier teams such as Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes-Benz and Williams-BMW are successful enough to win individual races.
And the big exposure creates its own potential for negative publicity. Jaguar's three-season F1 involvement is an example.
Jaguar finished seventh of 10 teams this season with only eight championship points. The most common televised shots of its distinctive green racers were retirements due to mechanical failure: drivers climbing from stalled, smoking cars. Last month, Jaguar parent Ford fired ex-F1 champion Niki Lauda as head of Jaguar motorsports.
"The problem with Formula One is the difficult image and technology transfer from the racing cars to production models," said John Jullens, principal of BBDO consulting in Munich. "And it is extremely expensive as well."
F1 participants say the circuit improves both brand awareness and image.
"But most carmakers are already well known, so they only seek an improved image," Jullens said. "F1 engagement makes sense for Ferrari, and also BMW and Mercedes-Benz, because these brands are linked with fast cars and performance. But for Toyota, F1 may help to improve their image but then they have to be successful."
TV exposure of Formula One is enormous. This year, a collective 3 billion TV viewers worldwide watched at least one of the 16 Grand Prix races.
"You need only one F1 team to get such a global exposure, against a multiple of national sponsors involved in, say, football for the same effect," Jullens said.
But F1's TV attendance fell significantly this year as Ferrari won all but two races and clinched early its third consecutive world championship.
In comparison, a cumulative TV audience of more than 500 million watched 14 international championship rallies. During the first four rallies this year, TV viewing rose 12 percent and the minutes broadcast increased by 43 percent, ISC said.
"We expect total TV viewing to increase by 50 percent within five years," said Marc de Jong, director of sports affairs for ISC/WRC. "But this year, we have seen an increase of 500 percent in the USA alone."
Besides TV viewers, de Jong said, "a cumulative total of 10 million people actually lined up along the rally stages to watch rallying live."
Rally supporters say the sport generates more enthusiasm among fans than F1. For one, F1 currently has 10 two-car teams. In rallying 60 to 100 private racers supplement the teams backed by automakers.
ISC said 59 percent of adults globally are aware of rallying as a sport. In several major markets, awareness is even higher: 82 percent in Spain and 70 percent in the UK.
Some automakers say rallying is better marketing in part because fans see racecars that look more like production vehicles, however modified under the skin.
"But you have to be successful in competition and offer a good product," Provera said. "With our championship cars we have proven why the Peugeot 206 is Europe's best-selling car. In turn, our performance also made it clear that the 206 appeals to young customers, because sports success means fun to drive."
Since Peugeot joined rallying with the 206 three years ago, the average age of the 206 buyer has come down from 43 to 37, he said.
Subaru's brand image has changed from agricultural practicality to dynamic sportiness during the last decade because of rally successes, executives say.
Skoda also says it has benefited from rallying.
"It has offered us enormous marketing and promotional opportunities in new markets like Argentina," said Pavel Hortek, marketing manager of Skoda Motorsport.
Skoda has limited its annual rallying budget to E20 million, the lowest in the sport. Its lower-medium Octavia model is larger and heavier than most entries, and has not made a big impact. But that could change next season when Skoda is expected to switch to the newer and more agile Fabia supermini.
"It looks as if automakers will focus on promoting their compact B-segment models via rallying," said one rally insider. "Ford will do that with the Fiesta in 2004."
Mitsubishi is another veteran expanding its rally involvement. Already a several-time world champion in rallying, the Japanese carmaker will take a dual strategy: It will compete in WRC events with the Lancer, and in long-distance cross-country events with the Pajero sport-utility.
"With Lancer we will focus on improving our image as a performance brand, while with Pajero the aim is to strengthen our quality and durability image," said Ulrich Walker, a board member and executive vice president of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. "And we will also use competition to promote new design developments of performance models. Motorsports and its related activities will contribute to our turnaround efforts."
Mitsubishi has developed a special Pajero Evo model, designed as a sports coupe, for the grueling Paris-Dakar rally. Volkswagen will enter its new Touareg sport-utility in the next Paris-Dakar, and BMW is expected to follow in 2004 with the X5.
Walker did not disclose Mitsubishi's rallying budget.
"But we will spend our money more efficiently, and make competition involvement more transparent," he said. "Part is paid by marketing, and part by r&d."
Walker would not discuss what future vehicle lines Mitsubishi would race.
"But the compact NCC [to be produced at NedCar from 2005] could play a role in our competition strategy," said Stefan Jacoby, president of Mitsubishi Motor Sales Europe.
Automakers with multiple brands must assess racing strategies.
At PSA, CEO Jean-Martin Folz has allowed Citroen to rally at the same professional level as Peugeot, irritating some at Peugeot.
DaimlerChrysler has a more defined strategy.
Walker said: "We rally, Mercedes-Benz does Formula One and our friends at Chrysler concentrate on NASCAR racing in the USA."
Πηγή : autoweek.com
Ο φορουμάρχης επέστρεψε παντρεμένος & ανανεωμένος! |
|
