Less than two years after re-affirming, through vice-president Richard Parry-Jones, its commitment to Jaguar and its Formula One programme, Ford announced last week its decision to give up and sell both the team and engine suppliers Cosworth. Atlas F1's Karl Ludvigsen analyses the Blue Oval's final PR blunder in the sport

I've kicked around the public-relations corridors of some of the world's largest car companies. I've also been a PR advisor to major motor and component makers. That's where this week's headline comes from. It's a saying that we ruefully accepted as applying all too accurately to our profession. We were usually the last to know about anything new affecting our company, and we were usually the first to be let go when there were cutbacks.

I couldn't help thinking of this during recent events in the world of Formula One. We had the PR people at Renault maintaining adamantly that Jacques Villeneuve wasn't even going to be testing their cars at Silverstone, let alone stepping into the cockpit to race one. Last to know, for sure, as we found that Jacques not only tested but is also replacing Jarno Trulli to fight the good fight against BAR-Honda for second in the points standings over the season's final races.

And then we have the managing director of Jaguar Racing, David Pitchforth, who donned his PR hat to set us all straight on the situation with his team. Rumors were flying that there'd be a major announcement to the effect that Ford would pour all its motorsports resources into Formula One in the future and rebrand the team as "Ford" — just what this column has been recommending ever since Ford took over Sir Jackie's team.

On Monday September 13th last David Pitchforth said, "We already get a lot of money from Ford Motor Company. We got more money this year than we did last year. I have put in my budget for next season and we have a budget that will make us a competitive team. We have a lot to concentrate on at the moment and there are no decisions or announcements going to be made. There is definitely speculation on one or two facts that has led to that suggestion but it's not really right." You can draw your own conclusions as to who in this instance was last to know.

Speaking of PR puffery, let's not forget that in the spring and summer of 2002 Richard Parry-Jones, a group vice president of Ford, conducted what was described as a comprehensive study of Formula One racing and Ford Motor Company's other motorsports activities. After weighing the data with what was claimed to be great care, he came to the unequivocal conclusion that F1 remained of vital importance to Jaguar, both to reinforce its role as a prestige brand and as a world-leading center of engineering excellence in the motor industry. At Indianapolis in September he announced to the world's press that the main board of the Ford Motor Company had wholeheartedly endorsed his findings. As a result of this, he said, Jaguar Racing was in a position to build confidently for future success.

Parry-Jones, one of the bright young sparks of the Jac Nasser era at Ford, now stands with his famous study and his reputation in tatters. So, for that matter, does the Ford board, which has proven itself incapable of making a decision that can maintain its validity for more than two years. Ford prides itself on its rigorous analysis as a basis for decision-making, and Parry-Jones is an alumnus of the product-planning infrastructure that underpins that analysis. He used those skills to show a Ford board that manifestly is utterly ignorant of the realities of top-level motor racing.

Richard Parry-Jones, you'll recall, is the man who was deputed by the car-company grouping GPWC to conduct the negotiations with the FIA and the Ecclestone interests over arrangements for a possible alternative championship after the expiration of the Concorde Agreement in 2007. That doesn't seem to be going terribly well; in fact Parry-Jones is doubtful of seeing more TV money going to the carmakers in the short term, at least, and now that Ford/Jaguar are pulling out he won't be needed on board in the GPWC in the future. Or is Richard looking for a permanent post with them, now that his credibility at Ford is at an all-time low?

One man whose credibility has risen with the Ford/Jaguar decision is Max Mosley. Max has been consistent in saying that carmakers will come and go in Formula One and there's precious little that can be done to encourage or discourage them. Here is the perfect example to illustrate his point. Sadly, too, the defector in this case is an American car company. Over the years they have proved themselves to be by far the least reliable partners, the most fickle participants, in international agreements. They don't know what it means to make a long-term commitment of principle to a concept, and they don't want to know. Each new CEO wants to feel free to ditch any and all of his predecessor's initiatives. Fortunately Formula One has committed Swiss, German and Japanese participants.

As for Ford's treatment of Cosworth, it borders on the reprehensible. Let's not forget that the Cosworth group as a whole was sold to VW's Audi arm. Ford, alarmed that its racing engines would be built by a business rival, then negotiated to buy that part of the business from Audi. Ford has never backed Cosworth Racing sufficiently to allow it to move its engines into the first rank, but its vee-tens have been propping up three of the current teams, without which the grids would look pretty barren.

Now Ford wants to flog off Cosworth Racing to the nearest passing trader. To be sure, the economics of Formula One engine building aren't looking very attractive. It will take a while before some of Max Mosley's cost-reduction measures kick in. Some sponsorship for its engines may be feasible, as in the case of Petronas backing for Sauber's Ferrari engines. As well, there are other business opportunities in the racing-engine world, many of which are profit-making. In short, Ford should keep Cosworth Racing — a brand intimately associated with its motor-sports history — and help it become the successful free-standing entity that it deserves to be.

Now for a final piece of PR flackery, this time from the mouth of Richard Parry-Jones himself. "I think both Jaguar Racing and Cosworth are both very attractive," said the Ford executive. "The Formula One team is very lean and efficient. For those who do want to get into F1, there is no better opportunity than a blue-chip team like this." Last to know, I think. And probably first to go.

About the author:
Long time columnist at Atlas F1, Karl Ludvigsen is an award-winning author and historian who managed racing programs for Fiat in America in the late 1970s and Ford of Europe in the early 1980s. He is the author of seven books about racing drivers and numerous books about classic racing cars and engines, all of which draw extensively on the many images in his Ludvigsen Library in Suffolk, England.

Contact the Author Contact the Editor