How Porsche can return to F1
Reports of Porsche’s interest in F1 sparked much excitement, but how serious is it and what form would a return take?
So, Porsche is going to be back in Formula 1 in 2021? Well, not quite, and perhaps not even by a long shot. Yet. But it is a possibility, and the positive thing for the German manufacturer is that, should it decide to return, there is no shortage of potential partners to make it possible. But it’s far from certain to happen, both from the perspective of Porsche internally and the kind of F1 that it would come into. So where exactly is Porsche’s thinking now? Publicly, of course, it’s saying little, precisely because there is very little to say. Last month, Lutz Meschke, deputy chairman of Porsche’s executive board and member of the board for finances and IT, met with F1’s bosses at Monza. With the Porsche LMP1 programme coming to an end this year, and the launch of a Formula E works team for the 2019-20 season, Meschke made it clear that an F1 programme is being looked at.
“F1 could be one of the right places,” said Meschke. “As you know, Formula E is very important for us now, and F1 is always a good topic to think about. And I think we are in quite good discussions regarding the new engine.”
A few weeks later, and you had various stories doing the rounds about Red Bull being bought by Porsche to become a full-blown works team for 2021, along with suggestions of Mclaren-porsches on the grid. Both of these scenarios are vastly premature, and the chances of them happening are still varying levels of small.
But no matter how positive Mclaren is about its Renault engine deal, no matter how much senior figures talk up the fact that it has parity with the Enstone-based factory squad, it is categorically not the works team. This was the team that ditched the market-leading engine package in Mercedes to link up with Honda so it could become just that and, while the idea of finding a new works partner is being brushed off, team boss Zak Brown would not be doing his job if he were not looking into finding one for 2021. But the lessons of the Honda relationship will be learned, and Mclaren won’t be so rash in linking up with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) as a works partner just for the sake of it.
“First of all, we’ll be a works team,” says Brown. “I don’t think there is a difference between what’s in the back of the Renault, the Red Bull and going to be in the Mclaren. My biggest concern is over lack of budget restraint by the two guys [Mercedes and Ferrari] leading the championship now,
so that’s what the sport needs to address as opposed to the difference between a works and a customer engine because I don’t believe there is one. At least in the world of Renault.”
But being a works operation isn’t just about getting the best bits out of the parts bin. It’s about having a two-way relationship to optimise the integration of the chassis and the engine, and it would be perverse for Renault to take Mclaren’s requests over the requirements of its own team.
“Yeah, Eric [Boullier, Mclaren racing director] is very confident with his relationship and history with Renault that we won’t be compromised,” says Brown when the limitations in co-engineering are put to him. “I think Renault wants to see us win races, as Red Bull has done.”
But you only have to spend a few minutes listening to key figures at Mercedes talking about the advantages of the close collaboration between its engine facility in Brixworth and the race team in Brackley to realise the potential benefits. Put it this way: the only situation in which a true works team wishes it wasn’t is when it’s in the situation Mclaren was in with Honda.
But while ‘Mclaren-porsche’ may sound good, there is a flaw that makes such an alliance almost impossible. Mclaren is a road-car manufacturer, and one of its key market rivals is Porsche. As Brown said when asked whether discussions were held over a Ferrari deal: “Given we are in the automotive business, it would be hard to have a Mclaren-ferrari.”
So, Mclaren is a potential partner of the right standing for Porsche. But as a wider company, it’s desperately fanciful. Red Bull doesn’t have quite the same problem. Doubly so with the possibility that it could lose its Renault supply deal with only Honda as an alternative. Inevitably, team principal Christian Horner downplayed any Porsche interest when asked about a comment he made to Sky Sports F1 in Singapore.
“I was asked a question about Porsche coming into Formula 1 and I answered that very clearly – that we have an existing relationship with an OEM that doesn’t make Formula 1 engines and, obviously, that will continue,” he said.
There’s also been talk of Aston Martin becoming an engine supplier, or possibly merely an engine badger – especially
“F1 could be one of the right places for Porsche”
given the fact that the company will be Red Bull’s title sponsor from next year. Aston is one very live iron in the fire for Red Bull, but Porsche would definitely be of interest. Again, if there’s any chance of a grandee marque like Porsche coming in, it would be remiss of a team not to court them to see if something were possible, even if the clashes may be insurmountable.
But this is looking at things from completely the wrong perspective. The question is not how Porsche is going to come into F1, but if it will. There are two interpretations of the change of engine regulations, currently mooted for 2021 to be a turbo V6 with simplified energy-recovery systems. While that’s potentially cheaper and simpler to produce, there will be less carryover of technology from the LMP1 engine programme. As Porsche’s interest in F1 is understood to pre-date the resolution to change the engine formula, there’s no guarantee that this will appeal as much as Meschke’s comment suggests.
Even more troubling, as Brown references, is the whole financial landscape of F1. Cost-cutting is still on the agenda, but yet to be delivered. There’s talk of a more equitable share of revenues, but that is yet to manifest itself. So, Porsche will be unsure of what kind of financial commitment it will need to make, just as potential partner teams are on shaky ground.
And engine programmes need a good lead time, so the clock is already running on this putative 2021 entry.
There’s a general move towards downplaying the need for road relevance in F1 today. Porsche is a company with a long history of using its racing programmes to develop the road breed, which perhaps explains why it is far more closely associated with sportscar racing. But if that road relevance is not needed, then the impetus can only be for marketing reasons.
On the one hand, Porsche is a premium performance brand
“Porsche is a performance brand and F1 is an ideal marketing platform”
and, as such, F1 could be argued to be the ideal marketing platform for it. But it’s also established that reputation with only a perfunctory involvement in F1 as a works team, peaking with a victory for Dan Gurney in the 1962 French Grand Prix. And its real success in F1 wasn’t even under its own name, with TAG financing the development, build and operation of the Porsche V6 turbos that won 25 grands prix, and three drivers’ and two constructors’ crowns with Mclaren from 1983-87. The less said about the quality of the normally aspirated 3.5-litre Porsche
V12 that powered Footwork in 1991 the better (see page 24)…
A glance at Porsche’s European sales figures for the first seven months of 2017 also paints a different picture. Of the 46,000 cars sold – an increase of 10% from the previous year in difficult market conditions – two thirds were the Panamera, Cayenne and Macan. So, the majority of what it’s selling are bulky saloons and SUVS. The 911 makes up about 20% and the Boxster 10% – so even if F1 was felt to be a valid marketing platform, you have to ask if it’s marketing to the right people.
While there is a cost attached, it could be argued that the Formula E programme would dovetail well with F1. One is the green technology development bed, while the other is the high-profile performance series with the big names and races. Provided, of course, Porsche is willing to commit to a nine-figure annual budget for an engine programme alone.
These are the kinds of questions Porsche will have to answer if it is to decide to enter F1. And remember, it has not actually come into F1 cold of its own volition since the early 1960s – the TAG Porsche was independently financed and the ’91 engine used that technology as its basis. So, this would represent the significant reversal of a policy that has stood for half a century.
Perhaps the best way to look at Porsche’s interest is as the perfect test case for F1. If Formula One Group gets the new direction right, gets the costs under control and makes an unarguable case for manufacturers to join, then why wouldn’t Porsche do it? But if it can’t, why should Porsche bother with a category it hasn’t properly entered on its own dollar since the days before aerofoils were in use on grand prix cars?
So, don’t get overexcited: Porsche will wait and see. If F1 can change itself then it is possible that a project will be greenlighted, and then there are plenty of directions for Porsche to take. If not, it’ll be another manufacturer that feels it doesn’t need F1, or that F1 hasn’t changed enough to draw it in.