Mosley’s PR man linked to Ecclestone job

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In the round-up: Bernie Ecclestone is tipped to hire Max Mosley’s former public relations representative Richard Woods.

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Bernie Ecclestone turns to spin doctor Richard Woods in fight for F1 (The Guardian)

“Woods has been regarded as F1’s foremost media advisor since his time as the FIA’s director of communications, when he worked alongside the body’s former president Max Mosley between 2002 and 2009. In the summer of 2009 he media managed Jean Todt’s successful presidential campaign and still works for the FIA in a consultative capacity.”

RBS ‘careless’ with $2.7bn loan to Formula One (The Independent)

CVC chairman Donald Chairman: “The banks were at the height of a banking boom. They didn’t read the [Memorandum of Understanding] properly. They didn’t quite work out that it wasn’t a Concorde and they lent money against something that turned out to be very flimsy.”

Quantum still working on Lotus deal (Autosport)

“High level sources from within the investment group as well as the Enstone outfit have revealed that efforts to complete the Quantum deal are ongoing and have been ramped up over recent days.”

F1 star Jenson Button delivers a high-speed Christmas treat for Frome (Frome Standard)

“Jenson Button promised the people of Frome the loudest noise they had ever heard and they certainly go it when the Formula One racing champion screamed through the narrow streets of Frome tonight.”

Frome Jenson Button Christmas Lights (YouTube)

Jake Humphrey interview: Formula One should join BT Sport to avoid getting left behind (The Mirror)

“I think if Formula 1 want to be in a place where the best sport is they really have to look seriously at joining BT Sport and being part of this revolution, because if you’re elsewhere then you’re just going to be left behind.”

Human Ignition – Official Trailer (YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCh5l1R-HiA

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On this day in F1

One-time F1 racer Guy Tunmer was born on this day 65 years ago. The South African driver started his home race in in 1975 driving a late-generation Lotus 72E for Team Gunston. He finished 11th but was never seen in F1 again. He died from injuries sustained in a motorbike accident in 1999.

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Keith Collantine
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43 comments on “Mosley’s PR man linked to Ecclestone job”

  1. It really shouldn’t be so difficult for someone to convince a group of foreign investors to sink hundreds of millions of dollars into a venture that they do not understand each year with no immediate or obvious or guaranteed return on investment or success.

  2. Within 2 weeks Pirelli will start testing the 2014 tyres in Bahrain, the good news is that during the tests the 2013 cars will be used which is an opportunity for Pirelli to have a good feedback and useful data, the bad news is that only 3 teams will participate in those sessions Ferrari,Red Bull & Mercedes which is unfair for the rest of the teams in my opinion, it seems that Ferrari were pushing to be the only team present in that session and Lotus has declined the offer because of financial problems ….

    1. Unsurprisingly, when I heard somewhere that eight of the eleven teams have smaller or larger financial problems, I suspected these were the three which haven’t got any…

      1. McLaren has financial problems? I didn’t expect that!

        1. Well, first things first, it was not confirmed news, just a rumour. And it is about 6-month old. My guess is that yes, they might have had some difficulties – not as much as Lotus or Williams, etc., but some. I think it was no wonder they signed Perez with his Mexican money in the first place.

          I don’t know about their Telmex contract (Perez’s sponsor), but if its a multi-year one, it is also no wonder they ditched Perez for an even brighter prospect. Promoting Kevin Magnussen was just about the best thing for a driver market increasingly played by money instead of talent.

          1. It might be that as the 2013 season is over, the team will have to pay for their engines from now on, suddenly going testing doesn’t sound that great an idea for their wallet!

    2. For next year testing the 2013 cars is better than nothing at least to Pirelli. At least they can go back to back with the 2012 tyres, something that could prove to be a bit of an advantage for the teams that are out there they can map with a couple of months of in advance what are the tyres primal characteristics but in the end they can’t rely much on it as the final tyre could change a fair bit but they will lobby though.

  3. I disagree totally with Jake Humphrey, in fact I have serious reservations about broadcasters such as Sky and BT potentiall being the front-runner in terms of fighting over the F1 rights in the future, and as a MotoGP fan the fact that the BBC have lost out to BT for the forseeable future makes me nervous.

    Although BT is looking like challenging Sky in becoming a hugely profitable business due to their subscription fees, they have fairly low viewing figures for even core sports like football. F1 is a popular sport, but it has a constant battle to be viewed by a broad audience, which the teams themselves need and even demand. By tucking away races on a network with low viewing figures, F1 risks losing a broader audience.

    Whilst the extra revenue from pay-to-view deals might initially be advantageous, there might be a longer-term consequence of a lower viewing figures and sponsors who turn-off from less publicity and attention. I find it sad, but F1 might become irrelevant with subscription-only TV packages. I can’t see how this is positive for anybody, in the longer-term.

    I’m almost ashamed to see Jake say this as an ex-BBC man himself, we’d all like to see F1 stay with the BBC even in the current 50% live-races-shared-with-Sky-deal, there’s a great team presenting it, there’s no mid-race adverts, and it is and has always been the best place for Formula One in this country. I really hope the teams see sense over money in negotiating broadcast rights.

    What F1 needs to do, is find a way to be able to offer BBC level coverage, across the globe, and cheaply or even free to the average person on every street corner.

    It shouldn’t be confined to elite fans, it should be available to everyone.

    1. So true StephenH, F1 is shooting itself in the foot by moving to pay TV. Not many people can afford Sky, I don’t know much about BT Sport but I do know it’s extra money on top of the license fee you pay for basic TV. This means that less people get to watch F1, the result being that in 20 years time the F1 grid will be full of Max Chiltons instead of Lewis Hamiltons: money instead of talent. Also, less viewers means less sponsors, less sponsors means less budget for the teams and less profit for Bernie and his gang of crooks, sorry, investors. It’ll be the death of F1.
      The BBC was the best thing to happen to F1 in the UK for a long time when they finally got the rights back, Sky has been the absolute worst.
      In my opinion pay TV is in itself a flawed concept, especially for sports: sport is meant to be accessible for all, not just the rich (you know, that legacy thing they’ve been banging on about since the Olympics).

      1. I disagree, the BBC coverage might have been a positive boost back in 2009 but the current production is really low quality, the commentary and presenting team is in the main very poor and the overall production is pretty awful. It’s quite clear that the original enthusiasm of the BBC for F1 has all but disappeared.

        F1 is a very expensive sport to put together, why is it that we expect it to be delivered to us free? Accessible is not the same as free. (Nor indeed is the BBC free, the only difference is that the money is taken from us by force and not by choice.)

        I don’t see a problem with their being a sale of rights where the highlights is sold separately to the live coverage – the BBC can then provide it’s cheap free option each race weekend with Sky/BT providing the full package. The Sky channel isn’t cheap but I think you get good value for money with it.

        1. Highlights just aren’t the same and are only needed if the race is on at 5AM and you can’t be bothered to get up. People want to see the race live. 600£ or whatever Sky charge per year is not accessible to normal people. The BBC’s coverage is a lot better than Sky’s to boot.
          I watch F1 because I love the sport, not because I want to line Murdoch or Bernie’s pockets. Moving to pay TV will eventually be the death of F1 in the UK as people just won’t care about something they can’t watch live. F1 is forgetting that it’s popularity is due to fans, and there are more fans who can’t fork out for Sky than who can. The figures say it all: the BBC average about 4 million per live race, and 2 to 3 million per highlights package, yet Sky average less than a million for an exclusive one.
          I would wholly recommend people to check out The F1 Broadcasting Blog, it offers excellent figures and comparisons between the BBC and Sky.

      2. @tyreblowout
        As an American, with a very different sports broadcasting system, I am astounded by your comment – not in a negative way but I am amazed by the confidence with which you state that sports should be accessible for all.
        In the US, many of the major events in sports are accessible only through cable TV subscriptions and F1 racing is accessible only through a high-cost digital cable subscription package. I have always respected the UK’s investment in public broadcasting and, I have to admit, I’ve always been a bit jealous.
        If you really have such altruistic views regarding the accessibility of sport, you have to fight like hell for it. Once a product/service leaves the public sector and enters the private sector, it never becomes public again.

        1. @pandaslap
          Very true, you have to fight like hell for it because people are driven by greed. I would absolutely hate it if the UK ended up like the US in terms of pay per view TV. Worryingly it appears to be the way we’re going.
          I can only reiterate what I said earlier, IMHO sport is meant to be an opportunity to have fun and get involved in something you love :it should be for all, not just the rich. I just wish more people thought the same, but what can you do…

    2. You adress pretty much what went through my mind while reading that article StephenH.

      I completely fail to see why joinging BT sports instead of Sky+a bit at BBC will do anything for the sport (apart from possibly getting a bigger bag of money). Its still a pay per view solution that will be too expensive for the casual fan, and it doesn’t even offer watching at least highlights and some races on free to air.

    3. Bernie doesn’t care about team sponsors, he doesn’t get a cut from them and they erode the financial dependence (on FOM prize money ) he has worked to secure since the 1st. concord agreement, when he can get his 50% cut of team sponsorship he might be more interested in viewer numbers than he is in Licence fees but at the moment the licence fees are the main source of the half/threequarters of a Billion Dollars he and his successors take away from F1 every year.

  4. Neil (@neilosjames)
    1st December 2013, 1:13

    “I think if Formula 1 want to be in a place where the best sport is they really have to look seriously at joining BT Sport and being part of this revolution, because if you’re elsewhere then you’re just going to be left behind.”

    That is magnificent, F1-worthy PR tripe. My hat is well and truly off to you, son.

    1. also not like he is biased or anything ;)

    2. The only time I ever heard of BT Sport was when Jake Humphrey said he was joining them. But then, I am not in the UK so what is it actually?

      1. @mike-dee It’s a new sports broadcaster in the UK. BT is a phone and broadband company that has recently expanded into providing TV packages as well. At the moment BT Sport is busy buying up broadcasting rights to various sporting events. Effectively it’s a competitor to Sky which has more or less had the monopoly on broadcasting sport in the UK for many years now.

    3. It really is a bad quote. Their figures are tiny.

      They only got Champions League because BT PLC parent company paid by putting up line rental for all earlier this year.

  5. I just watched a live interview with Maldonado on Fox Sports Latin America, I can’t believe how biased these guys are, I’m not saying they should say to Pastor “hey you’re a pay driver” on his face, but they’re acting like this is the best thing that has happened to F1.

    BTW I’m not having a go at Maldonado I’m just annoyed that people who don’t know much about F1 and see shows like this get a completely twisted view of the reality, people are intelligent enough to know if they support a driver or not, they don’t need to be told lies.

    1. @mantresx
      It’s the same story here in Denmark since Kevin Magnussen was signed with McLaren.
      Suddenly F1 is in every newspaper, with articles like: “This is how Kevin can win the championship in 2014”. “Expert: Kevin could realistically be champion in 2015.”
      “Magnussen could be as good as Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna”.
      It does get rather tiring quite quickly.

      1. Have to agree with that! In Denmark myself and am so tired of it. Now that there’s a Danish driver everyone at work thinks they are experts and have only just noticed I wear a McLaren Jenson cap everyday!

  6. Getting real tired of you **, Quantum. It’s painful. Lotus. Wat r u doin? Lotus. Stahp.

    1. Seems like they regurgitate the same story once every 2 weeks.

  7. Domenicali and Stella the maintenance crew of Alonso’s ego :) – to me it seems a bit over the top. He certainly deserves it, it’s just the way they do and promote it that I find odd.

    1. to me it seems a bit over the top. He certainly deserves it, it’s just the way they do and promote it that I find odd.

      but they’re not doing it for you @tmf42 – they’re doing it for Alonso…

      1. Alonso should not need such a creepy atta-boy.I thought he was the best driver in the world.

    2. Makes you wonder why Fernando is getting a written reference now. CV/resume going out tomorrow?

  8. Bernie might get fired but he will still be running the show as an advisor-contractor- major shareholder or whatever his spin doctor thinks he should be known as, there are not many legal investments you can make that return 35-50% pa, and no one is going to want to let that unravel by letting a regular businessman take control.

  9. Jack (@jackisthestig)
    1st December 2013, 7:17

    I’m guessing Mosley’s PR man was on holiday when the Nazi sex dungeon story broke.

    1. LotsOfControl (@for-unlawful-carnal-knowledge)
      1st December 2013, 7:36

      ha,ha,ha
      Made my day. Thanks.

    2. @jackisthestig
      Little fun with an actionable remark, eh?
      The Nazi stuff was an invention of a tabloid who lost all trails regarding this story.

      1. but the story still broke.

  10. Mosley’s PR man linked to Ecclestone job

    Am I the only one who saw the name ‘Ecclestone’ and then read the title as ‘Money’s PR man linked to Ecclestone job’?

  11. I wish Lotus would just forget about that Quantom deal, and focus on getting sponsored by people who actually pay them real money.
    If this Quantom deal was “most definitely” gong to happen, then why hasn’t it happened months ago? This has been going on for far too long.

    1. Like Honeywell?

      1. I remember they were working on a deal with them in 2012 as a title sponsor and it somehow fell through. I don’t understand why they didn’t try to work out at least some other sponsorship from them in the past 12 months…

        1. Don’t you think Lopez et all have been working on that for the last 18 months at least?

          Its just that its not all that easy to get the amount of money they are looking for. Signing Maldonado was just for that reason – to help secure the future of the team, give them some breathing space

          1. No. They obviously did not or just not competent enough. Having such success for past two years just to screw up their image in the end. And keeping a crash driver for two seasons does not get sponsors exited either. While Lotus engineering team should get well deserved praise, there should get heads rolling in Lotus high tier management ranks!

  12. Mosely’s PR man? Was Michael Jackson’s doctor busy?

  13. Crckey. It’s not until you see F1 drivers working in tight conditions that you realise just how good they all are. Seeing Button spin that F1 car around like that in Frome was scary! It’s pretty amazing to see. I wish I had a chance to see that.

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