Smart, the maker of minuscule city cars, isn’t one of the names thrown around in conversations about motorsports. Had it not been for Ford, though, a move into Formula 1 could have changed that.
In a video produced by The Race, the story of how Smart nearly entered F1 is covered in great detail. The story starts with Honda’s on-again-off-again relationship with the sport.
After pulling out of its deal with Jordan Grand Prix in the early 2000s, Honda left Eddie Jordan’s team without an engine. The outfit used Ford engines as a short-term solution, and then looked to Mercedes for a longer-term deal.
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The manufacturer, already in the sport as an engine supplier to to McLaren, was eager to advertise its new Smart brand and talks were on for a deal that would see Smart-branded engines powering Jordan F1 cars in 2004.
Ford scuppered the deal, though, as, according to Jordan, they changed the parameters of their contract, forcing Jordan Grand Prix to stick with its underpowered engines. Adding insult to injury, just a year later Ford pulled out of F1, allegedly giving Jordan just a seven-minute warning before announcing its exit.
Jordan quickly signed a deal with Toyota, but, with no pace and no prospect of competing against the powerful manufacturer teams, Eddie Jordan sold his team to Midland Group for $60 million in 2005.
Although just a footnote in the history of F1, it’s interesting to ponder the impact a major F1 deal could have had on Smart. Could the exposure have changed Smart’s image for the better or would it have had exactly as much impact as Caterham’s (not to mention Jaguar’s) F1 team had on that brand?
