"If you want to raise blood pressure around here, you'll do it when you discuss Formula One because there are no neutral people," Allan Gilmour, Ford's chief financial officer, told reporters.
"This is a high visibility sport related to automotive products. The other view is no, we don't need to be doing this. It is interesting and exciting but it's terribly expensive."
It is estimated that Ford spends more than $158million (EUR160m) a year on its F1 operations.
Ford named its F1 team Jaguar Racing two years ago and it currently ranks eighth out of 11 teams in the manufacturers' championship.
