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Holden’s motorsport manager Simon McNamara says cost-reduction proposals in V8 Supercars need to be well thought out before being implemented.
V8 Supercars Australia executive chairman Tony Cochrane on Saturday revealed 14 proposed cost-reduction methods for the championship, but McNamara said initial reaction had been skeptical from team owners.
“I think the cost reduction idea is very good idea but they’ve been talking about it for a very long time and, as Tony said yesterday, they talk and talk and nothing’s really happened,” McNamara told AAP.
“Talking to some team owners post yesterday’s meeting a lot of them are not happy with what they’re talking about. It would mean significant redundancy and added cost to them if they go down the path of a lot of the stuff.
“If it stacks up numbers-wise for the sport, and if it makes sense, then okay it’s a good thing and they should do it.
“I think they forget a fair bit about whether the fans are interested and what they want out of the whole thing. They’ve just got to be very careful about how they do it.”
McNamara said Holden would have to be reassured if cost-cutting is made that they could still get significant research and development from their racing teams which is then applied to their commercial operations.
“The biggest concern is that it dumbs down the sport and it dumbs down the cars and from a manufacturer point of view you have to have some sort of technical application that you can take back to the company,” he said.
“Otherwise there’s no point doing it. We could just go and put our logo on a football jumper. It doesn’t mean anything, we just get the exposure out of it and at significantly less cost.
“If it gets to the point where the cars don’t do that, then as a manufacturer you question why you do it and you look at what’s next.”
McNamara said Holden and Ford’s long history in the sport should also see them involved in any discussions to introduce new manufacturers in the future.
He said Holden was happy to have new brands in V8 Supercars but cited Chrysler and Nissan’s short-lived involvements in the championship as reasons to be cautious.
“We keep hearing about all these manufacturers that want to be involved but at the end of the day, we haven’t seen it and the only other two manufacturers that have been involved in a commercial sense are gone,” he said.
“One (Nissan) lasted six months and you wonder what that’s all about. Holden and Ford have been in it from the start.
“We’d like to know what the deal is. It doesn’t matter who comes in, it just needs to be a fair process.”
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