Indian F1 Grand Prix aficionados rejoice! Word, from none other than Ferrari head honcho Luca di Montezemolo has made it known that Tata branding would appear for the first time on the scarlet Ferraris of Felippe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen fighting for world championship honours in 2009!
"For the first time an Indian brand will appear on the Ferrari," president Luca di Montezemolo told Italian media. "It's historic." A Ferrari spokesman confirmed a deal had been reached and said the details and duration would be announced shortly.
Montezemolo is absolutely correct for such a deal being of historic proportions and this holds true not just for Ferrari or for the Tata Group but also for F1 and India for a variety of reasons. Given the fact that F1 is in the midst of a major changeover - technical, sporting, economic and what have you, this deal assumes major importance for Ferrari which seems to be bucking the trend to add in more backers to its sporting efforts.
While Reuters has reported that Luca di Montezemolo revealed that it was the Tata brand which would appear on the bodywork of the Ferraris next year, it wasn't exactly revealed whether it is the Tata Group (as we think it is) or is it to be Tata Motors as many are rampantly speculating. The Tata Group would join such big names as Shell, Alice (an Italian internet company), Acer Computers, AMD microprocessors, drinks giant Martini and Dubai-based finance and investment firm Mubadala as the main backers of the Ferrari F1 team in 2009.
The Tata Group is no stranger to F1 and also to Ferrari because they first weighed in with financial support to Narain Karthikeyan when he drove for Jordan in 2005. A year later the Tata logo adorned the Williams F1 cars driven by Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg on the F1 circuits while Narain Karthikeyan was the test driver for the outfit.
Ferrari has benefited massively from the efforts of Tata Consultancy which has supplied major programmes and solutions in various technological areas to the design, manufacture and operation of not just the F1 cars but also the eclectic sports cars which are the pride and envy of many enthusiasts in equal measure.
In fact, the relationship between Fiat SpA and the Tata Group has been predominantly in the automotive space and the duo have a joint venture in India for cars and drivetrains. This year, however, did see Tata Motors back a Ferrari initiative in India which was said to be a precursor to the Prancing Horse making its debut on the Indian car market in 2009. With Tata Motors said to be in the reckoning to set up an all new exclusive sales channel for top end marques like Ferrari, a Tata association with the Scuderia's Grand Prix team does only seem natural.
From the Tata perspective, this is a bold move which signals its determined intent to soldier on in its bid to becoming a global automotive major. With its truck and car manufacturing business in India already among the top echelons of the game and its global acquisitions like Jaguar - Land Rover and Daewoo Trucks giving it both a qualitative as well as an aspirational edge, a move into F1 is clearly an inspired move.
The timing of the deal has many guessing though, coming in the present economic downturn, with Honda having exited F1 and Suzuki and Subaru having pulled out from the World Rally Championship. However what everyone has to realize that all three Japanese OEMs have never achieved any worthwhile successes on the race tracks in this decade while Ferrari have kept on winning unabated with Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Felippe Massa for the last eight years.
Nothing succeeds like success according to Norbert Haug, boss of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "Mercedes-Benz's contribution (to F1) is cost-efficient, the resonance in the media and in the public which last season and Lewis Hamilton's win generated was worth many times our financial investment."Maybe this is one yardstick which the Tata Group would be comfortable relying on to go racing with Ferrari in a most cost-efficient and successful manner next year.
"For the first time an Indian brand will appear on the Ferrari," president Luca di Montezemolo told Italian media. "It's historic." A Ferrari spokesman confirmed a deal had been reached and said the details and duration would be announced shortly.
Montezemolo is absolutely correct for such a deal being of historic proportions and this holds true not just for Ferrari or for the Tata Group but also for F1 and India for a variety of reasons. Given the fact that F1 is in the midst of a major changeover - technical, sporting, economic and what have you, this deal assumes major importance for Ferrari which seems to be bucking the trend to add in more backers to its sporting efforts.
While Reuters has reported that Luca di Montezemolo revealed that it was the Tata brand which would appear on the bodywork of the Ferraris next year, it wasn't exactly revealed whether it is the Tata Group (as we think it is) or is it to be Tata Motors as many are rampantly speculating. The Tata Group would join such big names as Shell, Alice (an Italian internet company), Acer Computers, AMD microprocessors, drinks giant Martini and Dubai-based finance and investment firm Mubadala as the main backers of the Ferrari F1 team in 2009.
The Tata Group is no stranger to F1 and also to Ferrari because they first weighed in with financial support to Narain Karthikeyan when he drove for Jordan in 2005. A year later the Tata logo adorned the Williams F1 cars driven by Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg on the F1 circuits while Narain Karthikeyan was the test driver for the outfit.
Ferrari has benefited massively from the efforts of Tata Consultancy which has supplied major programmes and solutions in various technological areas to the design, manufacture and operation of not just the F1 cars but also the eclectic sports cars which are the pride and envy of many enthusiasts in equal measure.
In fact, the relationship between Fiat SpA and the Tata Group has been predominantly in the automotive space and the duo have a joint venture in India for cars and drivetrains. This year, however, did see Tata Motors back a Ferrari initiative in India which was said to be a precursor to the Prancing Horse making its debut on the Indian car market in 2009. With Tata Motors said to be in the reckoning to set up an all new exclusive sales channel for top end marques like Ferrari, a Tata association with the Scuderia's Grand Prix team does only seem natural.
From the Tata perspective, this is a bold move which signals its determined intent to soldier on in its bid to becoming a global automotive major. With its truck and car manufacturing business in India already among the top echelons of the game and its global acquisitions like Jaguar - Land Rover and Daewoo Trucks giving it both a qualitative as well as an aspirational edge, a move into F1 is clearly an inspired move.
The timing of the deal has many guessing though, coming in the present economic downturn, with Honda having exited F1 and Suzuki and Subaru having pulled out from the World Rally Championship. However what everyone has to realize that all three Japanese OEMs have never achieved any worthwhile successes on the race tracks in this decade while Ferrari have kept on winning unabated with Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Felippe Massa for the last eight years.
Nothing succeeds like success according to Norbert Haug, boss of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "Mercedes-Benz's contribution (to F1) is cost-efficient, the resonance in the media and in the public which last season and Lewis Hamilton's win generated was worth many times our financial investment."Maybe this is one yardstick which the Tata Group would be comfortable relying on to go racing with Ferrari in a most cost-efficient and successful manner next year.
