Comments on: Remembering The Ferrari 637

By: PC beschleunigen

PC beschleunigen — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:34:51 +0000

PC beschleunigen…

[...]Remembering The Ferrari 637 « Oilpressure[...]…

By: The finest racing cars you’ve never seen | Race of Two Worlds

The finest racing cars you’ve never seen | Race of Two Worlds — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 02:14:53 +0000

[...] 637 – To many the Prancing Horse is Formula One, so when Maranello produced a bona fide Indycar in 1986 the racing world took notice. Sadly the 637 was just a political tool, leverage to help Ferrari get [...]

By: Leigh O'Gorman

Leigh O'Gorman — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:09:09 +0000

Aah yess, true but Ferrari are a very different company now. I do remember them being fairly awful at everything in the early 90′s; however they are much more consistent and “with it” nowadays

By: Filipe Furtado

Filipe Furtado — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:01:56 +0000

The problem is that Ferrari has almost no history of building chassis for other teams (the first time they provide a costumer chassis is the current A1GP car). They barely ever even put their engine in other cars (they did that for the first time in 91 and had mostly avoid provide engines to anything but backmarkers). So it’s very unlikely they would want to join the series as a chassis or engine supplier.

By: Leigh O'Gorman

Leigh O'Gorman — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:28:27 +0000

Tom,

Would have to disagree with you there. Right now there are potentially only five or six circuits that FOTA could run on due to either safety measures or existing FIA contracts.
They may have to run on circuits that are either not up to safety spec (which might lose the confidence of drivers) or move to circuits that are up to spec, but not suited to FOTA’s potential machines.

Also, what about their car designs, their regulations, their TV contracts – we have yet to hear about these…
I’m not saying FOTA don’t have them, but I would be very surprised if they could keep all that a secret.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:35:22 +0000

I think Ferrari’s ridiculous buff of running in the IRL was so unsuccessful, they decided to raise the ante by convincing FOTA to “start it’s own series”.

An F1 split will not have much positive effect on IndyCar. The IRL, despite the focus on Brazil, and the Motegi race, is a North American series. F1 has already abandoned NA in favor of the Middle East and Asia, or anywhere there is someone willing to pay the ridiculous $$$ to run an F1 race.

So why wouldn’t an F1 split bring renewed focus on IndyCar? Well, presumably the FOTA series would move to claim the tracks the F1 has turned its back on. I am sure with the backing of the global brands Toyota, Ferrari, BMW, Red Bull, etc. they would be keen to run in Canada and the US. Therefore, they’d only bring more open wheel competition for the minimal sponsorship, and advertising money that is out there.

Elsewhere in the world (Japan, China, South America) FOTA and the new FIA F1 series would go toe to toe, soaking up what international options (Surfer’s Paradise, Shanghai) remain for IndyCar.

An alternative view would be that this would hopefully refocus IndyCar on what distinguishes them from F1, and keep them from aspiring to become another CART series running street courses and road courses around the world. Something that I think few IndyCar sponsors are really interested in. (I’ve been to Europe and Asia over 20 times on business and don’t recall seeing any Target, or Dollar General Stores.)

In any case, I don’t see much reason for IndyCar to rejoice in F1′s civil war. Now, if NASCAR started to implode, well that would be another story…

By: redd carr

redd carr — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:54:04 +0000

yes, unlikely. but if ferrari wanted to bring in a team or two and make that commitment to the irl for 2011 say–I’d like to think that the irl would be willing to make some adjustments. I think it would neat.

By: Leigh O'Gorman

Leigh O'Gorman — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:42:06 +0000

A crazy idea? I don’t think so…
We heard the interview with BB and CC and we heard Scott Dixon complaining at Texas MS; therefore would there be a potential for Ferrari to be that extra chassis builder/engine supplier as opposed to strictly entering a race team?

They could also enter as a team, while also supplying chassis and engines under the FIAT name. With F1 not in north America at all this year, many of the manufacturers were lamenting the fact that a major market was off the calendar for the first time in a very very long time (the 60′s I think), so I don’t think it’s so improbable.
Unlikely all the same though…