Linux (Car) Crashes At Indy 500

thanksforthecrabs writes to let us know that the Linux-sponsored Indy 500 car had a rough day at the track this weekend: it was the first car to crash on the track and finished dead last. Joost sponsored a car that came in a respectable seventh.

Re:Of course it crashed..

[Herby Sagues]

Now, seriously, I find this a great idea: why have all sports to be sponsored by corporations? Individual sponsoring could be a good alternative. I don't see the relatioship with Linux though. It would be more like Linux if the community designed the vehicle and even left all the innovations open for the other competitors to benefit from them (as long as they also keep their designs open). But this is not the case. It is a traditional "closed source" car, only that it is sponsored by the public in a more direct way than the traditional publicity model. The other alternative is a more nationalist focus to sports competitions. I would really like it if in sports like Formula One teams stopped using a chassis from one country, an engine from another, tires from yet another and drivers from wherever is left. It would be much more exciting to see a competition between the Italia team, the France team, the British team, Americans and so on. Sponsorship could come from governments, citizens and even companies related to those countries.

Re:No...

[rapidweather]

If the car had "won", would everyone want to adopt Linux? No.
Putting your product, name or cause on a racecar is exactly why you don't see a "Windows" racecar.
Every time that car had a mishap, lots of jokes would be forthcoming.

The idea behind putting your name on a racecar is that if the car wins, then that win
is somehow transferred to the product. "If whoever can put a good, winning car out there must have a super product." Back in the days when tobacco companies sponsored racecars, it was supposed to make it "alright" to smoke if there was a tobacco sponsored racecar even on the track. It didn't have to win, just sit around with a nice paint job, promoting the product.
Now, we have laundry soap sponsors for racecars, and every thing else. "If whoever puts a racecar out there with the name of a laundry soap on it must make a really good laundry soap". "When I go down the grocery store isle, I'm gonna pick up a box of that stuff and put it in my shopping basket, for sure!"
It's all about advertising. The Goodyear Blimp is a good example. It really has to hold "air" to stay up, just like the tires that Goodyear sells. At least Goodyear's airship had a valid point there. I see no correlation between "Linux" and a winning or losing racecar.
The Microsoft people might not be so dumb after all. No "Vista" racecar.
 

Re:No...

[Usquebaugh]

I'm not in marketing but here's my take on it:-

Race car sponsorship is not that easy. It's all about product visibility. I'm a big F1 fan but I have a had time remembering who sponsors who. But I can tell you who the sponsors are, just from repeated exposure. For instance Mclaren just had a 1/2 at Monaco who sponsors Mclaren? But I can tell you who sponsored Lotus in the late 70s and williams in the mid 90s, JPS and Sega respectively.

The Indy 500 is a huge media event, nobody is going to make a big deal about the Linux car. Same as nobody made a big deal about CA, SAP etc etc when they sponsored cars.

At the other end of the performance spectrum, brands have left F1 due to the cars being too successful. There was a time when Williams won everything in site and the only time they were reported on in the mainstream media was when they didn't win. Some of their sponsors didn't like this negative only reporting and left Williams for other teams.

So with sponsorship it seems to be that you need to be in certain sports if you have a certain product image. Be it F1, MotoGP, Americas Cup Sailing etc etc. Winning is nice but a lack of it is not seen as a marketing failure.

Now the one big market where the above fails completely is car companies supporting race teams. Toyota, Honda are spending billions of dollars in F1 and are not even in the top ten! Like Jaguar before them they need to succeed and it's hard decision to make when they're not. Do they stay until they do win or do they leave as losers? Personally, I look forward to Honda and Toyota spending many more billions before they learn how to win.