Why Doesn't Porsche race in F1 GP?

[FINFAST]

Apologies for what may seem a rather dull question, but I was just wondering why they don't?

[fieldl]

Cost vs Return
Why do they need to? Look at the other racing series they have cars that compete. The majority of these are with 911 RS Cup cars which links directly to the car range. Excluding the LMP of course.
Lack of factory racing team??? Do Porsche actually have a factory team.

[Lurking Lawyer]

Cost?

Up until recently, Porsche hadn't been profitable - they simply wouldn't have had the money to do so, even if the will had been there.

Plus, Porsche's racing heritage is more in the GT type series rather than open wheel series like F1 - perhaps they don't see any real return in terms of additional sales of their road cars in having an F1 branded racing team.

[FINFAST]

so why is renault so competitive? even with them winning championships it wouldnt make me want to buy one of their cars!? have renault seen a relative increase in car sales to balance their "investment in F1"?

[Asterix]

They had a presence some years back with the TAG engine but as has been noted, the GT Cup series means that they can 'demonstrate' their cars that share the same identity as their road cars.

[s3am]

They have had great success with production race series that provides a direct visual, and engineering link to its road cars.
It would be a huge leap and with no definite further benefits to venture into F1. Le Mans on the other hand... hmmm.

[CharlesW]

Actually Porsche have competed in F1 back in 1961 and 1962. And they actually won a couple of races. However most of their success has been in sportscar racing.

www.grandprix.com/gpe/con-porsc.html

[loach]

Because Wendelin Wiedeking doesn't allow the pursuit of any activity that doesn't wash its own face finacially, and he feels F1 is a money pit. If someone came to Porsche and offered sufficient money for the development of an F1 engine, he might change his tune, though I don't think he believes in competing in much where a win isn't almost guaranteed. He's sharp etc, but he's not in this business for the love of cars (unlike a lot of German motoring execs, who are mental petrol heads).

[sjn2004]

Its a lose-lose situation, cost a fortune and could damage their 'reputation' if they performed poorly. Porsches repuation is mainly built on racing success many many years ago, take that new Cayenne(that they entered in some unheard of race across Russia), will they dare enter the Paris-Dakar vs BMW/Volks/Mitsubishi.