Ferrari power for Spyker? Cosworth out of F1

UPDATE #4 This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' with today's announcement by Spyker that they will use Ferrari engines in 2007. Cosworth is out of F1 after this season.

Cosworth's managing director Bernard Ferguson told autosport.com that the company has been left 'numb' by the announcement.

With Cosworth out of options for next season, Ferguson admitted the company is highly likely to be absent from Formula One.

"No, I think the facts speak for themselves. I don't think we are going to be in Formula One next year," said Fergusson.

"Obviously we have got to go back and look at the options and there are perhaps opportunities with all the legislation on engines that the FIA are putting together, so maybe we could help with the policing of that, but we are a bit numb.

"We haven't had the opportunity to think it through yet. We will do that next week. We will go back and see what we are going to do with the rest of our lives.

"I think maybe even one of the manufacturers who has under-achieved this year might want an homologated engine that is good for next year. Who knows?

"It is very disappointing," he added. "We thought that we had a pretty strong product, a pretty reliable product and pretty good staff, but unfortunately what they wanted was more a relationship with a car manufacturer for road-engine purposes.

"Unfortunately that is not something that we can provide, so we are pretty disappointed. We felt the deal was in the bag actually because a large part of their 2007 car has been designed around our engine."

09/25/06 According to this Dutch website, it's almost a done deal that Ferrari will supply engines to the Spyker MF1 team in 2007. With the announced South Korea race in 2010, Cosworth's only hope to stay in F1 may be to get Korean auto giant Hyundai to badge their engine and enter F1. Sans that it appears Cosworth's days in F1 are numbered.

09/11/06 We are dropping this rumor down to 'speculation' as Kevin Kalkhoven tells AutoRacing1.com that "Cosworth is still in the running to supply engines to the Spyker MF1 Racing team." However, they are up against Ferrari, but Ferrari is already supplying a 2nd F1 team and so we wonder just how hard they will try to get the Spyker deal. Cosworth definitely has a fighting chance. Negotiations are nearing the final stage.

09/11/06 Renault will power either Red Bull Racing or Scuderia Toro Rosso next year, after agreeing a deal for an engine supply during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

Dietrich Mateschitz – the billionaire president of the energy drinks giant that owns both teams – confirmed after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza that he had agreed a deal with the world champions for them to supply one of his teams next year.

He would be drawn however, on which of the two teams would get the deal.

"We will have two cars with Ferrari and two with Renault engines in 2007," Mateschitz said.

With Ferrari also powering Midland according to the reports below (we would have thought that Spyker would badge the Cosworth engine), Cosworth is indeed out of F1 for 2007. Maybe they can land a deal with the new David Richards team in 2008, but again as we predicted, Cosworth would be out of F1 unless they found an engine manufacturer to badge their engines.

09/06/06 Sep.6 (GMM) The Midland team could switch to Ferrari V8 power for 2007, according to German publication Auto Motor Und Sport.

With the Silverstone-based squad set to lose its Toyota engines to Williams, the magazine reported that a meeting between Jean Todt and MF1 representative Victor Muller is scheduled to take place at Monza.

If true, the news would also indicate that Midland is close to being sold, as Muller is the CEO of Spyker Cars, a Dutch car maker that is linked to a $100m buy-out consortium.

It is also a blow for Cosworth, which is running out of prospective partners for 2007.

Muller, meanwhile, is also reported to have been in contact with Toyota's high profile former technical director, Mike Gascoyne.

The MF1-Ferrari link is interesting, as Red Bull already has an engine supply contract with the Italian marque that is almost certain to be enforced next year.

And, referring to Toro Rosso, Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz told Motorsport Aktuell: ''Perhaps both of our teams will have Ferrari engines in the coming season.''

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