Any thoughts of a Volkswagen-backed works team in Formula 1 have been crushed following severe criticism of the sport by motorsport boss Bernhard Gobemeier.
The German manufacturer has been linked to a return to F1 as part of a reshuffling of their motorsport operations with Porsche, who recently announced an end to their participation in the LMP1 category in the WEC and, along with Mercedes, will join Formula E from season six.
“Like other manufacturers, we at the invitation of the FIA are participating in the discussions about the future Formula 1 powertrain,” Porsche’s R&D chief Michael Steiner confirmed to Auto Sport und Motor recently.
Furthermore, he revealed much of the WEC LMP1 team would remain with the German sportscar maker adding: “We need all of these people in the future. The great team we built for LMP1 is highly motivated and represents an enormous wealth of knowledge.
“The team at Weissach is not working on an F1 engine at the moment, but it is working on a high-efficiency engine at the concept level without a decision about what we are doing with this engine.”
Though those comments leave much to interpretation, Gobemeier had very little positive to say about F1 as a proposition slamming the costs for all involved.
“Formula 1 is on a dangerous path. It is expensive. Most of the teams, apart from the big four, have financial problems and tracks cannot pay what they are asking for,” he claimed.
“We see it everywhere, Mercedes has over 1,500 people working on the F1 project that is not even considering the suppliers, though it is not so much. It is probably 2,000 people on two cars. You should consider how expensive wages are in England and how expensive material is.”
Reducing costs is one of the main priorities of new owners Liberty Media, in regards to the new engine, which Porsche may or may not be interested in, and in general, the idea of a budget cap and/ or standardised parts is being considered.
“In America, they have cost control on their minds,” Gobemeier continued. “They manage it well. In Europe, there are a lot of different categories. In some of them, cost control is really good. But, F1 is completely out of range and so is the WEC.”
His issues with F1 go beyond just financial as well, revealing concerns over the commercial appeal, despite efforts from Liberty Media to improve this area too.
“The number of sponsors is going down and so are the spectator numbers,” he said. “At the same time, the cost is increasing. Something is not fitting there. They have to make the races more spectacular.”
