SEPTEMBER 17, 2004

Cosworth and America

The Cosworth Racing company has important contracts in the United States of America, supplying all the engines for the Champ Car World Series and providing engines for the Chevrolet operations in the Indy Racing League. The sale of Cosworth could therefore have a huge impact on the American racing scene and it may be that the Ford Motor Company knows that in order to keep those operations going, the companies involved may agree to take over the engine business. What is interesting is the possibility that General Motor might buy Cosworth to save its IRL engine programme and could then enter Formula 1 as an engine supplier. Whether or not the management of GM would be interested in such a programme remains to be seen but with GM moving into the European market with Chevrolet replacing Daewoo, there is a good case for such a move, particularly as Ford is not going to be asking a lot of money for the business. As an aside this might result in a Red Bull takeover of Jaguar Racing because the Austrian drinks firm has been waiting for the opportunity to go into business with an American car company in F1. This however is largely speculation.

There might also be a side benefit for GM buying Cosworth as Chevrolet is a supporter of IRL and buying Cosworth would go a long way to wiping out Champ Cars, although engines could be found elsewhere. Ford is one of the big supporters of Champ Cars at the moment.