Rumour: McLaren has bought Cosworth [split]

Yes, and Montezuma has been bitching about the state of F1.

The thing that would be more relevant for both is to get into LMP for 2014 or 2015. Both companies are about moving forward technologically, and F1 hasn't been to keen on doing that anymore.

Todays 'Cosworth' no longer has the gravitas of the one of yesteryear.IMO.It's now just a nostalgic name...Best kept there....In the past.

... Mclaren was founded as a seat for Lewis and he's gone now. ...

I don't recall mentioning anything about Lewis.

Makes sense, McLaren have been on the path to in-house engines for a long time.

So we've gone to McLaren buying Cosworth, to McLaren making F1 engines, to McLaren supplying other teams. All in a few hours.

It will be remarkable to see:
McLaren-McLaren
Force India-McLaren (are FI still going to Ferrari )



Quite incredible to have McLaren as engine supplier to other teams!

Is the Cosworth road car division seperate? That would stop us from seeing McLaren Cosworth road car special editions.

What about Ferrari-McLaren, Red Bull-McLaren

Technically that was McLaren-Ferrari.;)

if Honda were to buy or invest in cosworth, maybe it'd be for facility, in order to use it as maintenance base, i imagine. To operate from tochigi dont make logistics sense, they'd surely need a european base, even just as an engine supplier. all speculation anyway..

Edited by Talisman, 07 February 2013 - 22:15.

Cosworth don't just do engines now, they do all sorts of other engineering stuff.

Todays 'Cosworth' no longer has the gravitas of the one of yesteryear.IMO.It's now just a nostalgic name...Best kept there....In the past.

Yes and No.

I don't know what the situation is now, but Cosworth (race engines) and Cosworth T(technology/engineering) were two seperate arms.

When Cosworth was sold (90s? 2000s?) Ford bought the racing side, Audi the Engineering side.

The racing bit of Cosworth has expanded by a decent amount into aviation and defense.

Todays 'Cosworth' no longer has the gravitas of the one of yesteryear.IMO.It's now just a nostalgic name...Best kept there....In the past.

If this is true, it is most likely about road car engines. The current McLaren road engine is built by Riccardo, but do they have the capacity to scale up the way that McLaren plan to do? But down the line, who knows?

I would have thought that if McLaren wanted to expand road car engine production they would be better off by paying Ricardo to expand, buy that part of Ricardo's business and expand it themselves or set up a joint venture with Ricardo.

what if McLaren decided to pull out of F1 altogether at the end of the season?

Are McLaren even Ferrari-sized yet? I'd rather pay for someone else's engine than do my own. A Merc or a Renault has a little bit of factory subsidy in it. Doing it yourself is 100% cost and I don't see McLaren having their own engine driving car sales any more than what they currently have.

Yep.

And Ford and Cosworth...... and TAG and Porsche........ and sort of Renault and Mecachrome etc......

Edited by oetzi, 07 February 2013 - 23:45.

What does F1 offer Ferrari? There is your answer.

So we've gone to McLaren buying Cosworth, to McLaren making F1 engines, to McLaren supplying other teams. All in a few hours.

Has the Audi cosworth division being sold again or being left to drift, don't hear too much about it nowadays.

McLaren could be interested in Cosworth for its non F1 business, would make sense for their development as a technology provider.

Acquiring Coworth is a better deal given that it's a British brand with a british base, thus Mclaren could get a government loan or subsidy to make the acquisition and "generate job" in return for a handout from Westminister. Furthermore Coworth is a well respected brand that even has ties with other engineering industries just like Mclaren themselves. This would also bode well for manufacturing F1 engines under the Cosworth brand and maintain a competitive advantage and secrecy as opposed to being an engine buyer or outsourcing it to Ricardo. There was never been a better case for Mclaren to manufacturer their own road car and racing engines than now - especially with Mercedes having chosen to compete against their customers.

Ford paid Cosworth to build stuff.

TAG paid Porsche to build stuff.

Mecachrome sold superannuated Renaults.

Doesn't Mecachrome built and still builds Renault's F1 engines?

Doesn't Mecachrome built and still builds Renault's F1 engines?

Of course the other fun discussion I was kicking around with a few people, was what if McLaren decided to pull out of F1 altogether at the end of the season?

Would be crazy if true, but highly suspect its just fake rumor.

Doubt McLaren is crazy enough to split from Mercedes engines.....


Cosworth comes back 2010 supplying 4 teams engines, 3 years later they are left with one engine deal.

Cosworth



Please tell us, what is there left to buy?




Charlie

Todays 'Cosworth' no longer has the gravitas of the one of yesteryear.IMO.It's now just a nostalgic name...Best kept there....In the past.

So we've gone to McLaren buying Cosworth, to McLaren making F1 engines, to McLaren supplying other teams. All in a few hours.

Apart from McLaren fans and the odd Brit, nobody would notice.

I thought McLaren fans were odd Brits....

McLaren having to find a further 15 million euros (£12m) per annum for the engine and KERS power-boost package to compete in Formula One.

Since McLaren is already a huge motorsport supplyer - ECUs to F1 and NASCAR - maybe it is better to buy Cosworth and sell complete engines.

Mercedes might have created a monster here, since McLaren can snatch customers from them in the future.

The divorce transformed a partner into a bitter competitor.

Guess still sport car market will be better suited to do this work, rather than this extreme formula one market. If Mclaren fails to deliver at the day one, their brand will be completely damaged, lose races and they lose Mercedes.
Merc may look at Mclaren to work on technology or two for their road car business on the engine front as well. Just another inspiring technology exchange... Road car engine is so different from Formula One engine in anyways.

Doubt their brand would be damaged, they have lived through Peugeot engines.

That's the problem, though - if a McLaren engine is a dud, they can't blame a partner. It makes them look bad, not the supplier.

That's the problem, though - if a McLaren engine is a dud, they can't blame a partner. It makes them look bad, not the supplier.