[WEC] LMP1 cost

[MC_PEA]

Hi
Does anyone know how much teams like Audi and Toyota spend of their LMP1 programs? If anyones got any links on this subject it would be great.


Cheers

[Aysedasi]

Do you mean just for Le Mans or for the WEC as well......?

[isynge]

I guess the other complication is how much you account for the associated marketing activities that go with an LMP programme. Even comparing works programmes - the sheer scale of the Audi presence at Le Mans dwarfs that of Toyota which doesn't have much bearing on what they actually spend on the car.

The other consideration is that Toyota's facilities at Cologne are all very much connected with their former F1 programme - trying to somehow see what the associated cost of that was is likely to be impossible.

[MC_PEA]

I'm looking mostly at the designing and development of their cars (sorry i didn't word it very well)

[Aysedasi]

In which case I think I'll move this to the main sportscar forum, rather than here in the LM subforum.

[TF110]

It's hard to find out information on specifics like that. The only thing I could suggest would be to use search engines to figure out costs of the customer cars and engines. That may be easier to figure out. Then you have an idea of how much the privateer teams spend on just their car, so you have that part down! Figuring out their budgets and their sponsorships is another story.

[deggis]

=> http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....postcount=2180

Audi 2010: 70M eur (Audi Sport's total budget 100M, 30M for DTM)
// http://archives.tomorrownewsf1.com/b...rt-100me-14412

Peugeot 2011: 75M eur (20M from Total)
// http://www.sportune.fr/sport-busines...-de-80me-49254
// http://archives.tomorrownewsf1.com/p...e-partir-26174

^ note that two sources are citing the same figure(s)

Wolfgang Durheimer on RCE May 2012: "To compete in Le Mans you can do it with 50 million [Euro], and a World Championship would double that."
// http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issu...t&prev=si&p=83

Rob Leupen (Toyota) said 80M eur, but that was probably more like a general estimation or estimation of what they would need/like to have:
// http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....postcount=2167

As as summary: all of these figures are in the same ballpark, so I trust they are quite correct.

[Pandamasque]

Originally Posted by deggis

Wolfgang Durheimer on RCE May 2012: "To compete in Le Mans you can do it with 50 million [Euro], and a World Championship would double that."
// http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issu...t&prev=si&p=83

If simple operating buget for WEC excluding LM24 is 50M, I doubt the other 50M would cover not just LM24 but actual car design, development, homologation etc.

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by deggis

Rob Leupen (Toyota) said 80M eur, but that was probably more like a general estimation or estimation of what they would need/like to have:
// http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....postcount=2167

For what it is worth, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...mans-race.html reports that the budget of Toyota was only 40M euro in 2012.

That number could explain why TMG claims that they only have 1/3 of Audi's budget. 40 x 3 = 120 million.

[deggis]

That's a new link to me...

And that's definitely a worthy link because:

Toyota is spending as much as 40 million euros ($50 million) on entering its TS030 hybrid at Le Mans and six other endurance races this year, according to Leupen. Ullrich declined to comment on Audi’s budget.

We can only wonder how much the 2nd car adds to the budget.