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Ford CEO Jim Farley Says Racing Helps With Tech, Not Sales

Ford is in the midst of a major motorsports revival, with the automaker entering or re-entering a number of series over the past couple of years. Most would understandably assume that such a move is intended to generate consumer interest in Blue Oval vehicles across the globe – after all, as the old saying goes, “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” – but that doesn’t seem to be Ford’s intent, at least, according to some recent comments from CEO Jim Farley himself.

A photo showing the exterior of the Ford Raptor T1+ from a side view.

When asked if the business of selling race cars is a profitable one in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Farley responded by saying “Yes. We put about 20,000 people through all of our driving schools around the world. We have Bronco off-road rodeos as an experience. People pay to go do that. So yes, it’s a profitable business when you tie it to production vehicles, when you tie it to racing as a business. We used to look at it as ‘write a check, win on the track, sell on Monday morning’ kind of thing. That’s not the paradigm we’re looking at racing with anymore.”

Farley recently stated that the automaker is relying on its racing efforts to develop technology that will eventually trickle down to its road-going models, essentially using the race track as something of a research and development program – something that a few automakers have done in the past. The same is also true in reverse, as Ford has been using its 3D-printing technology to help in the development efforts for its new power unit that will be utilized by the Formula 1 team Oracle Red Bull Racing starting in 2026.

At the same time, Farley has also made it quite clear that performance-focused models are quite profitable for the automaker as well – including its Raptor lineup – noting that “our off-road business alone is a huge percentage of our global profit, and it’s growing fast.”

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

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Comments

  1. His daily dose of baloney. Yesterday, he said racing and performance vehicles are huge profit centers and today, this, neither of which are true. It’s to justify his obsession, nothing more.

    Reply
    1. Oh no, people (including car execs and buyers) have hobbies, we can’t have that!

      Reply
    2. Do you ever have anything positive to say?

      All you do is spew negativity.

      Reply
  2. And cool hobbies at that! Not like golfing or something sedate.

    Reply
  3. Racing also does not help quality control. Ford will win the recall crown in 2025 thanks to Failure Farley, where his racing enterprise comes ahead of the customer.

    Reply
    1. Ford was in about the top 25% in initial quality last year, ahead of Honda and way ahead of Toyota.

      Reply
      1. Initial quality is a joke, given its horrible recall record Ford cannot be mentioned in the same sentence as Honda and Toyota. Ford will be number one in recalls for the year 2025.

        Reply
    2. Stellantis had most recalls overall for 2024

      Stellantis – 72
      Ford – 67
      BMW – 36

      Most vehicles recalled 2024

      Tesla – 5,135,991
      Stellantis – 4,804,285
      Ford – 4,777,161

      Reply
  4. “Racing” if used correctly brings a name and sporty image to the company, but wasting so much money on F1 is the madness of a CEO with no ideas, no plan, no vision…

    Reply
  5. I agree that racing helps with technology. In the late 1970’s, I was a Service Manager at a Honda Auto, Cycle and Power Equipment dealer. That was when Honda got into F1 and Indy Car racing. They would send Engineers from Japan to work at the track on rotation of about 4 weeks at a time. Then they would go back to the factory R&D Dept to put to use what they learned and how to improve the vehicles.
    That is why Honda grew in quality so fast in the late 1970’s-80’s.

    Reply
  6. It also helps when IMSA gives Mustang an advantage over the competition over the past 2 years!

    Reply
    1. How wrong you are troll a la gm…

      BOP helps keep a level playing field for all entries in IMSA, FIA WEC, and GT World Challenge America.

      Reply

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