The Ultimate Rebadge: Lexus Considers Formula One?

More propaganda from the Lexus myth-making robot.

"But what the heck, they have the money to do whatever they want."

I think the robot means "we" but is programmed to create the illusion of objectivity. Great work Toyota technicians.

TOYOTA, REBADGE, and RECALLS like THREE PEAS IN A POD.

I just think of how far Williams F1 racing has fallen. A very bad partnership with BMW who wanted to much power and say in the team. I could see the same thing happening here. Williams has always been my favorite F! team but it might be time to dissolve. But long live the glory years of Mansell, Senna, Prost, Rosberg(not Nico), Piquet and Patrese.

The partnership with BMW only soured after it became obvious that BMW wanted their own team. The FW23 and FW25 were good cars with excellent engines. Williams cocked up the FW26 because their wind tunnel wasn't working properly, and by the time the FW27 was launched it was obvious BMW were going to be looking elsewhere - so that whole season was a wasted opportunity.

Use various brand names when selling engines to other teams. What a clever way to advertize with virtually no monetary investment...

Makes sense and it would spice up the grid a bit.

Ummmm...amd get the Fernando and kimi as the 1st and 2nd driver.

JUGNU

Yeah, you'd wish. LOL

Give Frank a big budget and let him dominate.

So are we going to see F1 become like NASCAR in the form of teams?
NASCAR
Pontiac, Chevy... basically the same thing

Formula 1
Toyota/Lexus?
or
BMW/Mini
or
Mercedes/Smart

well of the 3 you names 2 are the only ones that don buy OR sell engines, BMW and Merc, all the other teams either sell engines, or buy customer engines.

Formula One sucks.

NASCAR is where it's at.

There is no comparison.

F-1 is a sport that is watched by royalty, heads of states and extremely famous/rich people (just think about the Monaco GP), a sport that has the best car technology and is the undisputed queen of all motorsports.

Innovation is key and is crucial and the pace of innovation is so staggering that the teams that don’t press on with full speed (like Renault right now) find themselves in an immediate disadvantage.

The fact that they can get 800+ hp out of a non-turbocharged 2.4L engine after only one year of development (and that their engines run above 16,000 rpm, up to 20,000 rpm) tells volumes about the cutting edge technology that they have, I do not know the exact numbers in Nascar (I’ll just put a quote here from howstuffworks, if somebody knows better please correct me “The displacement is large — 358 cubic inches (5.87 liters). Not many cars have engines this big, but the ones that do usually generate well over 300 horsepower”)

Are we really comparing 51 hp/liter with 333 hp/liter here ???

F-1 is the best car technology there is, and the toughest competition there is for drivers, you can be a champion in any other motor sport if you come over to F-1 you’re not guaranteed success (like Montoya, who was very good before coming to F-1 and in F-1 he just could not prove himself and was not the best - this is why he switched to Nascar.

About the competitiveness: just look at one pitstop in Nascar and in F-1. If the mechanics would be running for tools when the car comes in or take minutes to change tires they would be immediately fired in F-1. Changing all tires in an F-1 pitstop takes 3 seconds. Refilling the car with gasoline takes 8 seconds (and this is only due to the fact that the speed at which they can pump the gasoline is limited so that the fuel would not self-ignite).

Just look at the annual salary of the top drivers (tens of millions of dollars) or at the annual income of Michael Schumacher (over a 100 million dollars a year).

Toyota and Honda are both pouring hundreds of millions of dollars (Toyota spends more than 450 million a year) into their F-1 effort because they know that if you are to be a serious carmaker, this is the place to prove yourself.

No other motorsport comes close (well, maybe a convincing LeMans victory like the recent win of Audi makes some heads turn, especially when it is done by diesel engines) but really, F-1 is the true gauge of a carmaker.
Both Toyota and Honda, the strongest car companies in America know that. So does BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, and of course Renault.

I dare say, all technologially innovative companies in car business today know that they have to be there.

Formula 1 is way better because theres a lot more engineering and science behind the cars and the cars are a lot more sophisticated. Plus F1 drivers require more skill.

How do F1 drivers require more skill?

Put an F1 car in a NASCAR and it would get run over.

lol

Please don't even dare to compare NASCAR to F1.

Go ahead and put your F1 driver on a NASCAR track and he'll get his butt kicked and maybe a busted nose too.

driver skills in different arenas were best shown in the battles between CART and IRL before the former went to its single engine supplier decline.

when CART drivers were first allowed in the IRL Indy race, they simply trounced the IRL boys.

do nascrud drivers even KNOW how to turn right?

I am not a redneck but Nascar has the best drivers in racing

You're right don't compare Nascar to F1. Nascar is a regional competition while F1 is global.

Did you ever go to a concert where the band plays in the round?

That's what NASCAR is.

The race can be seen from any seat, unlike F1.

F1 is like watching Golf, you stand by a hole and players come and move on.

NASCAR is like watching a football game, it's all right there in front of you.

lol nascar, round and round and round we go.

Lots of sports go round and round.

Ice skating and running.

Get it!!

oh yah, concerts plays in the round, me better watch nascar bobby joe.

NASCAR is for the fans.

F1 is for the slub that stands waiting for a car to drive by.

First, NASCRAP engines make much more than 300 hp, probably around 650 or more. But, F1 has much more technology. We will see how Montoya does.

So what, the F-35 Lighting II has more technology than an F1 car and is faster.

If everything that is posted on this site is true, in a couple of years, there will be 20 f1 team. To those who are already there, we add hyundai, nissan, lexus...

Nascar is TRASH. I've been forcing myself to watch Montoya, but I keep falling asleep in front of the TV.
Who cares if it’s all in front of you?
It's SOOOO BOOOORING. Idiots driving in small circles that crash into each other every 5 minutes and then spend another 5 minutes behind a safety car. I would rather watch golf.

El. you are clearly an idiot and a redneck.. F! vs. nascar..?? ask any one of th epilots the G forcs and the conditioning it takes to compete.. ask them of the precision.. and how one wroing turn gets you P5 vs pole.. think abou the strategy as part of aseson.. not some fat guy (tone stewart) or hoosier (Dale E.) that has the format of a oval (hit the gas and turn left!!!), think about the infield tight turns, high speed corners (SPA), aerodynamic downforce (average F1 car generates more drag driving.. than a corvette does with you stepping on the brake at full force!!... but you dont get it.. becasue you are fat and wear wranglers.. you big redneck..Jeezz. id smack you if you came to cali

This is what happened with Bentley. They re-badged the Audi R8, and for one year, they won... so, basically, the R8's engine was undefeated.

I expect the same from the R10.

I don't see Lexus having much success right at the beggining of F1. Toyota has a ways to go.

*Beginning.

And don't take that as a flame- but it's pretty impossible for someone to achieve instant success. Even your so highly-regarded Lexus.

Ben55 & AmazingBimmer, look at you!!!

I don't care what sport it is, be it Curling, Chess or Auto Racing. If youre the best then you'll go far.

Like fish in a barrel.

Repost:

There is no comparison.

F-1 is a sport that is watched by royalty, heads of states and extremely famous/rich people (just think about the Monaco GP), a sport that has the best car technology and is the undisputed queen of all motorsports.

Innovation is key and is crucial and the pace of innovation is so staggering that the teams that don’t press on with full speed find themselves in an immediate disadvantage.

The fact that they can get 800+ hp out of a non-turbocharged 2.4L engine after only one year of development (and that their engines run above 16,000 rpm, up to 20,000 rpm) tells volumes about the cutting edge technology that they have, I do not know the exact numbers in Nascar (I’ll just put a quote here from howstuffworks, if somebody knows better please correct me “The displacement is large — 358 cubic inches (5.87 liters). Not many cars have engines this big, but the ones that do usually generate well over 300 horsepower”)

Are we really comparing 51 hp/liter with 333 hp/liter here ???

F-1 is the best car technology there is, and the toughest competition there is for drivers, you can be a champion in any other motor sport if you come over to F-1 you’re not guaranteed success (like Montoya, who was very good before coming to F-1 and in F-1 he just could not prove himself and was not the best - this is why he switched to Nascar.

About the competitiveness: just look at one pitstop in Nascar and in F-1. If the mechanics would be running for tools when the car comes in or take minutes to change tires they would be immediately fired in F-1. Changing all tires in an F-1 pitstop takes 3 seconds. Refilling the car with gasoline takes 8 seconds (and this is only due to the fact that the speed at which they can pump the gasoline is limited so that the fuel would not self-ignite).

Just look at the annual salary of the top drivers (tens of millions of dollars) or at the annual income of Michael Schumacher (over a 100 million dollars a year, best paid driver in the world in the last 10 years).

Toyota and Honda are both pouring hundreds of millions of dollars (Toyota spends more than 450 million a year) into their F-1 effort because they know that if you are to be a serious carmaker, this is the place to prove yourself.

No other motorsport comes close (well, maybe a convincing LeMans victory like the recent win of Audi makes some heads turn, especially when it is done by diesel engines) but really, F-1 is the true gauge of a carmaker.

Both Toyota and Honda (Nissan and Hyunday are thinking about F1), the strongest car companies in America know that. So does BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, and of course Renault.

And the audieces. Only the Olympic games and the World Cup have bigger audiences than an F1 race. Formula 1 is the second most popular sport in the world, second only to football (= soccer in american english). In Italy if people would as interested in F1 as much americans in NASCAR than F1 would be an AVERAGE,

I would tend to agree with EL34 in the fact that Nascar is a spectator sport whereas F1 is an enthusiast sport. I like F1 much more than Nascar but they are 2 completely different birds. GM and Ford pour much more money into Nascar than anyone does in F1 simply from the fact that they help back multiple teams and Toyota will do the same once they get up to speed in the Cup Series. Not sure about Dodge, they may be on the way out. F1 careers are usually short except for Ricardo Patrese and Michael Schumacher and after their careers some come to the US to race. Villenueve, Montoya, de Matta and Mansell to name a few. And Dale Jr is from NC.

More money...that's ridicolous.

Toyota spends 500 millions per year on Formula 1. In NASCAR the budget is ~125 millions, just ~1/4 of Toyota's F1 budget.

DarkOneForce, I don't give a damn about royalty, heads of states and extremely famous/rich people.

And neither does NASCAR.

And they don't give a damn about NASCAR either, along with just about all F1 fans around the wolrd.

DarkOneForce, I'm not in the world - I'm in America and I go to NASCAR at the California Speedway and in Las Vegas.

If I want to watch F1 I'll go watch some kids skateboard.

Well there is a contradiction since America is in the World.

Anyway what does kids skateboard have to do with F1 ?!

DarkOneForce, I go to this outdoor mall called The Block, it's in the city of Orange in Orange County, Ca and there is a 40,000 sqft. indoor skate park and to me, IMO watching F1 is like watching a bunch of punks on skateboards.

NASCAR is for the grownups.

Well that would make NASCAR a bunch of dogs chasing their tails roand and round and round.

And when those "grown-ups" will grow up maybe they'll learn about Nurburgring, Spa, Monaco...and maybe how to turn the other way. LOL.

OK, OK, NASCAR isn't that easy, but still it can't touch F1 in anything else.

Skills, money, circuits, technology, performance, audiences, strategy...or even feudal political warfare , that's all in Formula 1s side.

round and round, round we go. wuzz up elle, ricky bobby in da houze