Interview with Cosworth's Ferguson

The Northampton-based company certainly do not have the budgets or manpower to match the likes of BMW, Honda, Toyota, Renault or Mercedes-Benz, but their vast knowledge of V8 engines has paid dividends in helping Williams regroup after the end of their relationship with BMW.

Having produced for the start of the season what many regarded as the most powerful and highest revving engine, Williams' Mark Webber has had nothing but praise for the job they have done. "It just shows that a lean army can be quite frightening," he said.

But despite that promising start to the year, Cosworth are still facing an uncertain future. Their deal with Williams is only until the end of this year, and the Grove-based outfit are known to be seriously considering a switch to Toyota customer power-units in 2007.

Autosport.com caught up with Cosworth's commercial director Bernard Ferguson to reflect on the season so far and what the company's plans are for the future.

Q. What is your verdict on the start of the season?

Bernard Ferguson: I think before the season started some people thought that Williams and Cosworth were past their best and it was a marriage of convenience. I think the team and Cosworth were both very determined to prove that it is a million miles away from that. Yep, that is what we think we have done. Certainly the performance of the team has outstretched that which most people expected and at the moment it is a little frustrating before we haven't fully fulfilled our potential, but we will.

Q. You obviously set about to create one of the best V8 engines. Has it surprised you that you have been able to do that, against the financial might of the manufacturers?

BF: No. We always set to do that. We weren't particularly surprised by it, but we were pleased by the fact that the plan was coming together. We always like it when a plan comes together. So we are delighted but not totally surprised.

But you never know what is going to happen with anybody else's engine. You only know the details of what you are doing, and even in testing you don't know what people are trying to achieve. Are they testing gearboxes? Are they testing tyres? Or are they testing anything else?

So until we got to the first race we were not too sure, we had a quite good feeling, and then at the first race we had a fairly successful time. It is a little bit of a shame that there have been a few DNFs for various reasons since then, so we have not shown our potential - although I am sure we will.

Q. The engine mileage over two race weekends means quite a limited amount of running for the Williams race drivers on a Friday. Do you expect that to change soon?

BF: I don't think there is anything particularly unusual about the fact that we limit the mileage. We do that normally, but we will get more and more aggressive as we get more confident in the engine all the time. It is a huge challenge to produce an engine to a completely new format and then expect it to race competitively for two race weekends.

It is a big challenge and obviously we started running a bit conservatively, if you can call revving to 20,000rpm conservative, but we just want more of it. That will happen continuously for the season.

Q. What is the plan for next year with regards to supply of engines?

BF: Ideally we would like to have two competitive teams, but then again wouldn't everybody. I think basically what we are trying to do is do the best possible job we can do for Williams. That is to make a decision to go anywhere else very difficult for them, but also by doing that it gives us a shop window for the rest of the grid.

There is a very small market place and everyone can see what everyone else is doing, and I think that we are getting a lot of good press in real terms and in terms of perception from the rest of the teams. We are exploring conversations with other people that have not advanced that far at this stage for next year, but I think that will pick up quite quickly now we are into Europe.

These guys (Williams) have already started conversations about the engine installation in the chassis, everybody else is doing the same, I would think by some time in June all the deals that are going to be done, with everyone and not just Cosworth, will be pretty much signed and sealed.

Q. What about the possibility of getting a manufacturer to re-badge the Cosworth so you would not need to charge a team like Williams any money for engines?

BF: It is still an objective. It has not been hugely successful up until this time because I think manufacturers are a bit cagey and not exactly sure what the rules are, and they get frightened of all these 100-200 million Euro figures they get quoted. Certainly most of the big manufacturers are in the sport now and it is a big ask for some of the smaller manufacturers.

Because if you work out the costs of being involved in the sport, in terms of they get used to hearing about 100-200 million, and if you spread that over their car production that is quite a big figure. So we are still pursuing that, but whether or not we will get anything done in time for 2007? It is a bit tight really.

Q. Are you confident that you can give Williams a competitive enough price to not go the Toyota route for next year?

BF: I don't know what their bank book looks like, unfortunately! I believe that we can and I think there is a very interesting point with engines, and the pricing of engines. Nobody ever considers that there is anything unusual about a manufacturer spending 100-200 million Euros on engines as a manufacturer, but then strangely enough when you come to talk to a team, and I am not talking about Williams specifically but about all the negotiations I am involved in, all of a sudden this 200 million that gets spent on something in one direction, everyone expects to buy for 10 million Euros and it to be exactly the same specification as the one that has got 100 million Euros on it.

When the number goes up beyond 10 million Euros, everyone looks at you as if you are profiteering but there is no logic in that. It is just an expectation that has come out of people putting hope in front of expectation.

Realistically we can offer them what we believe is a very competitive price but we do have to pass on a lot of our engineering costs to our customers. It depends how many there are, because we cannot absorb them like a Honda or a Toyota or another manufacturer because we don't do anything besides making racing engines. We are not using this as a marketing exercise to sell washing machines, it is our raison d'etre.

Q. Would it be a benefit in bringing down costs for other teams, like Williams, if Toro Rosso went the V8 route next year?

BF: Certainly that would help. Obviously they have proved to be quite a developing team all the time. They are in a no-win situation because every time they do well people say they have got an advantage because they are running a V10. We don't believe that is true, we have spent a lot of time actually working on this equivalency. The equivalency regulation is an equivalency regulation and not a Toro Rosso should be at the back regulation.

I think to expect that they will do a bad job is unreasonable on the team. They are well organised, they do a good job, they are well turned out, very professional, and with very professional management, and if they were to talk to us about V8s then I would be more than happy to have a conversation with them. And of course it would help with the overall picture.

Q. But you haven't spoken to them yet about it?

BF: At the moment they have a contract with us for V10s for 2007 and I am sure that is not guaranteed to cheer up any of the other teams up who have a view on the V10. We are contracted to them for next year, and they are contracted for the V10, and if they want to come and talk to us about V8s then we are very happy to talk to them. But in the end it is their call.