Tata is the latest high profile car manufacturer to be mentioned in connection with a possible Formula One project for the 2014 season when the new technical regulations aimed at attracting more manufacturers to the sport are enforced.

Indian involvement in Formula One has increased massively over the past couple of years, with two Indian drivers and of course the Force India F1 team. This along with the inaugural Indian Grand Prix which takes places at the end of this month makes it unsurprising that India’s biggest car manufacturer is being linked to the series.

Reasons for change

Toyota is just one of the five manufacturers who have either reduced their investment or withdrawn completely from F1 over the past eight years, leaving just Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and independent company Cosworth as engine suppliers to the 12 teams.

The main reasons for these withdrawals have been the high levels of investment required (with Toyota alone rumoured to have been spending over $250 million per year) and the sports lack of relevance to the increasing green movement within the automotive industry.

A survey conducted by MoneySupermarket.com revealed that 65% of motorists will aim to purchase a more environmentally friendly vehicle the next time they are on the look out for a new car. It is therefore unsurprising that car manufacturers are aiming to participate in motor sport series that allow them to experiment with and develop fuel saving technologies. This has resulted in an increase in the popularity of the Le Mans series with car manufacturers, with Toyota and Volkswagen owned Porsche believed to be joining Peugeot, Audi and Aston Martin on the grid in the near future.

The new regulations

The sports governing body, the FIA, has therefore announced that the current generation of V8 engines will be replaced with V6 turbo’s. This links into the strategy of Renault, who is estimating that 75% of their road cars will be powered by smaller capacity turbo motors by 2015 due to the fuel saving potential of such engines.

Initial fears about the reduced power out-put from these engines has been addressed with the announcement of an increased capacity KERS hybrid system, which at 120kw per lap will have double the capacity of the current devices which at present have only a minimal impact on lap times. This will not be the case with the new systems; forcing manufacturers to investment money into the development of their hybrid devices with advances made likely to be applicable to the car manufacturers road car designs.

The FIA has also got the teams to agree to a RRA (Resource Restriction Agreement) which places a cap on their total spending, ensuring that no manufacturer will be able to employ Toyota-like budgets in the future.

The Nissan owned Infiniti car company has been the first manufacturer to officially endorse the new regulations; beginning a relationship with championship winning squad Red Bull Racing to develop their KERS devices for 2014.

Possible options

If Tata were to enter F1 it would be in an attempt to boost brand awareness outside of its native country. The performance of the car manufacturing arm of the Tata business has been strong in India, but sales in other regions which are dominated by established players have been slow. Like Infiniti, Tata could therefore involve itself in the international motorsport scene in an attempt to boost both brand awareness and hence sales.

Ploughing millions of pounds into a mere sponsorship logo on the side of a racing car would be unlikely to get the company noticed, and it is therefore far more likely that the company would wish to either provide engines for an established team or even buy a team. Both options would allow it to develop brand new F1 stand V6 engines and 120kw KERS systems which could be applied to their road car designs.

One team owner who may be interested in either selling up or even entering into a business partnership with Tata would be Vijay Mallya. Mallya’s Force India team has been plagued by rumours about his financial commitment for many years, with many of the team’s sponsors actually being owned by Mallya himself. Entering into collaboration with Tata would therefore ease his financial burden and boost the team’s Indian identity.

Mallya recently denied rumours that he was planning on selling his team outright to Indian businessman Subrata Roy, simply stating that he took great pride in putting an Indian team on the F1 grid; confirming that he would remain as Team Principal and has “no plans whatsoever to exit”. This surely does not rule out a potential partner such as Tata who could help run the team and contribute both financially and technically.

Another option would be for Tata to enter into a similar deal with the former championship winning Williams team. This would make sense, with Jaguar having recently agreed a deal to develop a supercar for the road with Williams Engineering. Interestingly, it is believed that Williams newly signed deal for a supply of Renault engines only runs until the end of 2013.

If Tata does decide to finally enter F1 in 2014, it won’t be short of options.