The Ford Motor Company's global leaders have sent out clear signals that they believe motor racing involvement gives the company a strong public image and is an integral part of the brand's DNA.
As Ford Australia contemplates whether or not to continue backing motor racing domestically from 2015, the Detroit giant has made some pointed statements about the merits of participating in global racing programs.
The views reflect favourably on the merits of continuing to compete on the world motor racing stage which would, on the surface, be reason to believe that the Blue Oval badge could well continue to back domestic racing programs going forward.
In the first of a series of videos produced by the company, Ford's president and chief executive Mark Fields said image and credibility was garnered through racing competition.
“It's very important for us to have the street cred to be able to back up what you see in our vehicles in terms of performance with actual results in how we do in racing around the world,” Fields said in the video.
“We can compete with anybody and win.”
Fields was elevated to the top position within FoMoCo after turning around the sliding performance of Mazda in the late 1990's and then running Ford's Premier Automotive Group which included Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.
Ford's global marketing boss Jim Farley acknowledged that motor racing had changed in the context of ‘race on Sunday and sell on Monday.'
“To be honest motorsports has changed fundamentally. So racing has been more image, high technology space.”
See below for the first instalment of Ford's racing heritage series
http://youtu.be/CY7xUimBWFo