New Williams ‘not massively different’ – Bottas

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas says the new Williams FW37 is much like its predecessor.

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Bottas expects 'big challenge' (BT)

"There are no massive differences (with the car) to last year, but a lot of positives."

Ron Dennis says any change to F1's rules should be 'dramatic' and from 2017 (Sky)

"They will find new ways to spend money that you wouldn’t even believe. So the actual cost constraint has to be exercised by the senior management of a Formula 1 team."

Formula 1 team title sponsors are history - McLaren's Ron Dennis (Autosport)

"If you look at what title sponsorship would normally be, it would be somewhere between 40-50 per cent of your budget. Where the budgets are for a competitive team, no company will come in and give you that kind of money."

Lynn not bitter over Red Bull departure (F1i)

"They said ‘Look, to be honest with you we haven’t got any opportunities in the next two years’, so I said ‘OK, do you mind if I look elsewhere?’ And they said ‘No, of course, we can’t stop you’."

F1 power unit upgrades set to make usage harder to manage (Adam Cooper's F1 Blog)

"Now they risk a dip in performance if they are forced to go back to earlier parts. While mileage on older equipment could be used up on Fridays, juggling the elements around still presents a challenge, especially now drivers only have access to four power units before penalties kick in."

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Snapshot

IndyCar tested at the NOLA Motorsport Park, a new venue for its 2015 season, earlier this week. Among those running were ex-GP2 driver Luca Filippi (above) and Simon Pagenaud following his switch to Penske (below).

Comment of the day

How large a part of F1’s lost audience are now watching it on illegal streams?

The 2010 F1 season was the last on free-to-air TV in my country. I haven’t watched a single race on TV since then, but I did stream.

I think that’s what’s happening to some extent. Not all people can be bothered with streaming and all that goes with it, but I would bet that half of those ‘lost’ viewers are still watching, but not the way Bernie intended them to.

TV in the current format is an obsolete medium. And the fact that FOM is acting as if it isn’t won’t help with those viewing figures either.

So in one sense, F1 itself isn’t any worse than it was six years ago. It isn’t necessarily losing viewers due to being worse or less interesting or whatever, but I think the biggest worry is that it isn’t attracting any new ones either.

I’m a hard core fan, but I started watching F1 by seeing it on a TV at my friend’s house while we were doing something else, playing on a floor with Lego or whatever. Then he told me how he once saw some cool race, and so I decided to watch it the next time I caught it at home. And from there I went on to become a fan.

Today, I don’t know how anyone can become a fan when you’d need to be a hard core one in the first place to even think about shelling the amount of money they are asking for the pay channels.
Biggsy

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On this day in F1

Maurice Trintignant, who scored both his world championship victories in the Monaco Grand Prix, died ten years ago today at the age of 87.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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67 comments on “New Williams ‘not massively different’ – Bottas”

  1. Completely agree with the COTD.

    With Australia mimicking the UK’s free to air/pay TV mix this year I’m almost certain that I’ll end up streaming races again. $600 + install fee is a lot of money when I’d only be getting it for ten races.

    1. Seema pointless paying for this service when sometimes there is only 1 race in a month. Only positive I can think of is watching the races uninterrupted.

      1. It’s very late notice really. Last week it was confirmed that it will move over to Foxtel from 2015… now it’s like “actually instead we will make you pay for watching it this year to screw you over” with a month before the season begins.

        As much as I incredibly hate giving my money to Foxtel and their horrible overlord Rupert Murdoch; it’s F1 my favorite sport so of course I will pay for it. Myself and other hardcore F1 fans will pay for it, but it’s a shame that future potential F1 fans have now been locked out.

        The good however is that finally Australians will be able to watch HD practice, qualifying, and race on TV with NO ad breaks! I have signed up already, but I have this horrible feeling I have had money taken beneath me for watching a sport that should be free for everyone. Sport in general should be free for everyone, but try tell that to the greedy well off who run it all.

        1. I will add to that 10 races will still be broadcasted live on channel ten; with the remaining broadcast delayed on the following Monday night. Which I suppose then ‘potential’ fans can still follow it, albeit delayed – which may not be that of a problem for a casual follower.

          1. I think everyone who can’t watch F1 free on tv, should stream. Why give money to Murdoch which could be used for better things? When sponsors start backing out due to lack of exposure, and the tv conglomerates realise F1 isn’t bringing home the bacon, we’ll get start seeing the races on FTA again.

    2. I also have a very analogous story to that of COTD. Only here the last year of free to air F1 was 2008.

      It was also the first year I started properly watching F1, and also the last year I wached TV. TV in it’s old form is dead to me.

    3. I too agree with the COTD. I gave up streaming it off the internet, mainly because it was illegal. I believe it should be free and legal. Having poor quality images didn’t help.
      Looking in detail at what Ron said on Autosport, it is apparent the money needed to run an F1 team is huge, so huge that no one corporate can afford it, but then corporates expect lots and lots of people to see their brand name on TV, but they get almost nothing. Even F1 management say the viewing audience has dropped, although they call them “fans”, so my guess is a “fan” is someone like me, someone who follows the sport via web pages, but doesn’t necessarily see it on TV.
      How is a General Manager of Marketing supposed to account to the Board of Directors for the huge amount of money given to F1 when hardly anyone sees their brand name?

  2. They said ‘Look, to be honest with you we haven’t got any opportunities in the next two years’

    Sadly, this just strengthens my opinion that the Stoneman-Red Bull deal is a media stunt from the team’s side. When he starts really performing well – which I have no doubt he will, he’s very talented – Red Bull will say, ‘Look, we gave a driver who’s coming back from having cancer his big break.’ But sadly, there’s really nowhere within the Red Bull family Stoneman can go. Admittedly no-one expected Vettel to leave but 3/4 of the Red Bull drivers in F1 have been there for a year or less, and the other seems pretty settled. On top of that, they’ve placed him in FR3.5, which we all know is now worth next to nothing as far as progressing to F1 is concerned. I hope Stoneman uses the year to his advantage to show what’s he worth, and if Red Bull don’t give him a shot, he heads elsewhere, Alex Lynn style. Otherwise – sadly – I can see his talent being wasted as a reserve driver or something.

    1. The Red Bull program is great and all, but as you said seats are running out. How long will Ricciardo and Kyvat stay at Red Bull – most likely for the next two years if not more. Then you have Sainz and Verstappen in their wings. All four of them are young and have a potentially long career ahead of them. If not they will follow the route of Buemi, Alguesuari, etc. Their is just not enough space. It was different when Webber and Coulthard were at Red Bull.

    2. @bradley13 Well, it’s probably that, but it also gives RB insurance. The FIA don’t count years missed (e.g. illness as in Stoneman’s case), going by last 3 years rather than last 3 full seasons. So, Stoneman needs top 2 in FR3.5, vs. Rowland and de Vries, which is tough but possible. Gasly needs top 4 in GP2, where there is now a lot of talent pooling, with Vandoorne, Marciello, Evans, Lynn etc.

      If one of the RB drivers disappoints and is kicked out early, then one of these guys might be next in line – although it could easily be for 2017, in which case Gasly can be promoted after two strong years in GP2. Otherwise, it’s simply a great chance for Stoneman to get the FR3.5 chance that he missed, to match Rowland and de Vries, after matching Lynn last year.

    3. @bradley13 I have to agree.

      While Stoneman’s personal story is admirable, it’s a little odd to select, for a Young Driver Program, someone who is just 3 months older than JEV, who has been booted out. In fact he’s older now than JEV was in his final race for Toro Rosso.

      You’d have to expect Red Bull to give Sainz and Verstappen at least 2 years (as they told Lynn) – even next year Stoneman will be 25 and hardly a typical Toro Rosso prospect.

      1. should be 3 months younger than JEV

      2. Well I think it’s great such a talent is moving up despite earlier setbacks. Sure, there’s the age part, but he has basically missed 3 years of single seater racing and I’m happy that he doesn’t have to suffer for it more than he already has.

        We’ll see what RBR has in store for him the coming years but for now it’s great he’s in a top-level feeder series. Take it one year at a time, see where he arrives.

      3. Dean Stoneman is 24. I’d say he meets the usual definition of “young” but maybe not the Toro Rosso definition of “young”.

      4. While I have been a bit skeptical of the way the RB young drivers program works, more specifically with the lack of any A- or B-plans for the drivers in it, I think it is at least a positive to let Lynn know about his prospects and free him to look for his own path. Williams might be a good chance for him.

        For now Dean Stoneman gets a change he didn’t get before, and who knows where it will bring him – at least with some more time in motorsports to show his mettle in the mean time. He doesn’t seem likely to be another ‘oh yes, wasn’t he in STR that season, or the other?’ guy, like Verstappen, he was notable before joining the program, not just because of it.

        1. *like Verstappen too, he was … – just to be clear – being Dutch and using too many comma’s by default :p

    4. I guess he wouldn’t be able to afford FR3.5 without them, plus he’s been placed in a good team, so I can’t really see the negative from his point of view.

  3. Since moving abroad I can watch delayed races on tele, but the commentary not being in English isn’t very appealing, So I stream races from Sky and watch them when I can or download ones which I don’t have the time to watch live.
    Now if FOM did have this online I probably would pay, but they don’t so neither do I.

  4. ColdFly F1 (@)
    13th February 2015, 1:43

    @keithcollantine – if you fill out the Sky survey saying that F1 is the only sport you are interested in, then they will increase the prices.
    Just say you like Golf and Cricket and they might drop F1 back onto BBC!

    1. I quite literally, laughed out loud. That really is the sort of logic Sky uses I’d imagine.

      +1

      1. @coldfly @julianwins You could argue that one either way, though. If lots of people show they aren’t interested in F1 they would determine it a niche sport and charge more for it.

        However the idea of having a pricing structure where you can be charged just for F1 is appealing. At the moment you have to pay a very large amount of money to watch F1 and are given a load of content you don’t necessarily want (as per that tweet). If the price was 25% of its current level but you only got 1% of the channels (i.e., just the F1 channel), that would probably be a more reasonable deal.

        But it still wouldn’t address the point made in the Comment of the Day that having it on a subscription channel is a barrier to new fans discovering the sport.

        1. What worries me is that they just paid an obscene amount to show football and that I will no doubt have my prices increased because of this when I never watch it. I watch most other sports on Sky, which is why I have it – it’s good value for money for me. However, I think that if Sky wants to pay stupid amounts of money to broadcast one sport, then the people who want to watch it should have to pay more. Having something like a pay per view sport system could work, or just that you have to pay a small premium to watch the most expensive to broadcast sports. It’s easy enough to lock a channel down to someone who hasn’t paid the extra money to watch football when a game is on.

          I feel sorry for people who only have Sky Sports for the F1. While the coverage is great, it is a large sum of money to pay to watch one sport.

        2. @keithcollantine I’m pretty sure you can get a Now TV box for £9.99. You can then get a sky sports day pass for £6.99 or a week pass for £10.99 (prices as of today, which is a special offer)

          If you’re only interested in watching the races, you could watch the Sky races for £80 a season and the others on the BBC. Or you could get the week pass and catch the qualifying and practice sessions on Sky too for £120 a season (including the box) and watch the others on the BBC.

          I know you flagged about Now TV in your article about the cost of watching F1, and this is the closest I see to be able to only buy the bits you need. I don’t watch any other sport (on TV), so it’s not a bad deal for me.

          I agree, that taking F1 of free to air television is only going to be harmful for future viewers. I myself started watching, flicking through the TV before Sunday lunch and seeing Damon Hill in that beautiful Williams car.

    2. I must admit that when i was looking at the survey I saw the headings:

      Free to Air | Bundle with a cheap Channel Package | Bundle with an Expensive Channel Package | Charge Pay per View

      1. @dragol, That reads as a perfect translation to me

  5. Wow, a COTD?
    Thanks! :)

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      13th February 2015, 8:44

      time to register!
      ‘@biggsy’ is still available ;-)

    2. Good comment

  6. On COTD…I became a hard core F1 fan when there wasnt even full live F1 coverage in Malaysia..we only started getting live F1 coverage in 1998 if Im not wrong, that too on pay TV. Prior to that, races were delayed telecast (some years it was like a week later!!). For the first few years, the race in Sepang was shown live on FTA, after that it was all pay TV.

    I guess I dont see the point in this argument because all my adult life, I’ve paid to watch sport, F1 and MotoGP included…for me its the norm so I dont complain.

  7. Full free-to-air coverage of F1 in Australia is now finished. Those who commented about wanting to come to Australia to get good free-to-air coverage of F1, I’m afraid you should cancel your tickets.

    The broadcast sharing deal that was expected for 2016 between Ten and Fox has just been announced as beginning in 2015. Yes, in 4 weeks time. So any fan who wants to watch all races now has to ensure they have pay tv or a good quality download speeds.

    Dropping a bombshell like this with no warning on viewers is just pathetic and a disgraceful act. Not one report I saw mentioned any change in F1 broadcast for this year. Free-to-air viewers will now get selected races live (schedule looks like it alternates on a one on, one off basis) with the remainder to be shown as 1 hour highlights packages at 2130 on a Monday evening – 23.5 hours after the regular European race start time.

    Ten had a contract for exclusive broadcast that expires at the conclusion of this season. It was well known that Fox were in negotiations and that ten would be left the scraps of the deal. Ten’s financial concerns are also well known and haven’t turned a profit since Lachlan Murdoch was appointed to the board.

    Essentially, ten have traded away this year’s broadcast rights to Fox for a reduced fee for the next contract period with minimal prior warning to the public who were expecting all races to be shown on their network.

    1. I’m so mad. 4 weeks out! I just made enquiries and I can’t even get proper Foxtel where I live. A highly-priced, less than SD quality digital service (Foxtel Play) is now my only option.

      I’m trying to be a hardcore fan, but they sure make it so difficult.

      1. I feel like crying. Thanks for the link. I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

    2. The rumours over the last few months indicated that the foxtel deal would go through in 2016, so like you I was shocked and disappointed when I saw it was this year. Should have seen the writing on the wall, given the BBC did the same.

      What really gets me ticked off though, is that excluding the Australian race the three races that don’t ruin your productivity at work on Monday morning (Sepang, Shanghai and Suzuka) are ALL on fox. Presumably that’s because 10 couldn’t run a profit by running it alongside Marcia Brady eating bugs. I started watching formula 1 as a kid because of the 1994 Japanese & Australian races, and that happened only because they were on at a reasonable time (not live I don’t think, but as close as we got in the 90s).

      I’ll watch Australia, then I think I will look at other methods of acquiring coverage for the rest of the year, or more likely my interest will just start to wane. I’d be tempted to buy it if foxtel offered a sports-only deal at $25-30 a month HD (I also watch v8 supercars and NRL), but to bundle it with endless repeats of 2 and a half men, then charge $60 a month (+ installation) to watch it in 21st century definition, I’ll pass.

  8. I have a feeling Williams are not going threat Mercedes.

    1. +1
      I also think that they might be battling more with Ferrari, rather than at the pointy end.

    2. They wanted Marussia to come back – maybe it’s even worse than that…

  9. How about showing replay of the races on FTA? I know there will not be the surprise element of watching a race live but most times I end up watching it again, if the race was exciting.

    The viewers can get a glimpse of what they are missing and maybe if they like it, will subscribe to the event next year.

    Onus is on the sport to make it exciting though. In India it has never been FTA. Always paid for it and not subscribed for HD as well.

    1. The main problem with delayed broadcast in Australia is timezones. We are 10 hours ahead of GMT (UK time) not factoring in DST fluctuations.
      Most races on the calendar (everything in Europe and the Middle East) start roughly at 10pm Australian Eastern time (where roughly 80% of the population lives) on a Sunday evening. Delaying the race (like what used to happen up until only a few years ago) pushes the start time and the finish time into the wee hours of the morning. Of the races in 2015, the Australian timezone gives 4 afternoon/early evening races, 12 late evening races and 4 at an ungodly hour (3am).

      People have to be at work in the morning, so the only alternative is recording the race and watching it on Monday night. This never used to be a problem before internet news was ubiquitous. The papers went to press before the result was known, so there might be a small article in the back of Tuesday’s paper, so it was very easy to put yourself in blackout mode.

      Since Webber started doing well, and now that Ricciardo is on the scene, you’ll often see the result spoiled by an article at the top of most newspaper websites, usually with a big picture. It’s simply not enough to not go to F1 news sites, when mainstream news now considers it a top news story (especially if the Aussie does well, which are the races you really don’t want spoiled).

      Delayed broadcast in the age of the internet in Australia would simply not be an option for even dedicated fans, let alone the person getting into the sport.

      1. My feelings exactly.

  10. The sport is, pretty much, doomed. I agree with COD. People start as casual viewers, and that’s what leads into deep obsession. Without the chance for casual introduction, there will not be a replacement fan base. Whatever IS being shown free to air will pick up on popularity. No one is going to dish out a small fortune to find out if they like something. races should be free to air. All of them. Let the practice and qualifying go to pay TV so that FOM make money from obsession.

    1. +1. Agree 100%. The practice and qualifying idea is a nice compromise.

      Of course the sport’s viewership numbers are going to decrease if you remove the medium for new fans to get hooked. People hearing about F1 from their friends and deciding to check out a race on TV to see if they like it, or just people randomly flicking through the channels and stumbling upon an F1 race… that won’t happen unless it can be accessed for free.

      It doesn’t matter if F1 is going to have spectacular 1000hp cars if potential new fans can’t see them without having to shell out a big subscription fee. Currently the sport is just relying on the fans it attracted 5+ years ago not abandoning the sport.

    2. Yes. This half-the-races-free idea is getting rolled out one unfortunate country at a time, and it may be making Bernie richer, but it’s rubbish.
      I’d happily watch from the formation lap to the podium and nothing else (as it used to be on Grandstand!) – but that’ll never happen until they fire the person in charge of BBC Sport who hates sport, and just wants to show their presenters and thousands of lame slow-motion montages.

  11. For ones i can agree with Ron Dennis on something. It is up to every team to keep there spending in check. Any team who spends more money then they have will get in to trouble, that is just commonsense. I like to use Williams as a example a lot because i think they are the best team when it comes to how much they spend and there results. Williams has always kept to good financial practices and that is why they are still here to day. Think how many teams has fallen sins they started, why are they still here but the fallen teams are not. True Williams do not do great year after year but one thing is for sure they will be there the next year and will be there to compete with the budget they have. The question i have is why can Williams be competitive with a midfield budget and still stay out of financial trouble wail other teams can’t. The answer is simple because they keep to good financial practices.They now if you have no money in the bank then you will have no changes of being competitive in the sport and end up going out of the sport.

  12. Hm, when you put in this contrast:

    “If we’re going to change Formula 1, we should change it dramatically and therefore we should change it dramatically for 2017. Then it will be affordable,” the McLaren chairman said.

    “If we dramatically try and change Formula 1 for 2016 the cost implications will be huge.”

    then yes, I agree that big change for 2017 is a lot better and makes incredibly more sense than trying to get it in 2016 or even this year already.

    But honestly, apart from the empty grid, Horner whining that Renault built them a bad engine and now Newey and Seb left him, Bernie not hearing any eninge noise and Lauda who would like to see back “big tyres and 1000 phb engines” did they really even look at the NEED for change?

    Because I think the format works. We got good racing last year because Mercedes let their team race each other. This year its clear that the other manufacturers will be closer and then next year they will be even closer. At the same time, it seems power is up by about 8-12% from last year, surely next year will see another step of about 5-8% and that already brings us close to the stated limit.

    At the same time, there is still so much potential in the current packages they can optimize. And if the rules are finally left to stick for a while, smaller teams will gradually also be able to get the tools to come closer again and manufacturing cost will go down.

    In other words, I would just stop tinkering and making up things no one asked for and let the racing do the talking for those dedicated fans who table 500-1000 EUR to watch F1 instead of talking it down at every opportunity and scaring away any potential investors and many sponsors.

    1. Well said @bascb, thanks.

      For viewing options, I now live in Germany, where we have RTL, and that’s okay. I do tend to get a stream with UK comments running because they tend to be more focused on the racing, and are better infomed (well, mostly), and to see what F1fanatic live is talking about :p That choice I don’t see with legal options right now.

    2. You know, there really should be a “like” button here!

  13. Those car numbers on the IndyCar cars are quite nice and can be recognized from a distance. F1 cars should do something like that. I couldn’t recognize the numbers of many cars last year (especially the Red Bull). Now that every driver has a unique number for his entire F1 career, teams should do something to make the numbers large and place them somewhere on the sides of the car.

    1. @brianfrank302 Those are specified in the IndyCar rule book:

      4.5.2.6. Each Car must provide the following minimum size rectangular “blank space” areas in specific locations for the display of required Car numbers of specific minimum sizes.
      4.5.2.6.1. Left and Right Rear End Fences – The minimum height of the numeric digit must be 7 inches, and the minimum height of the alphabetic letter must be 4 inches.
      4.5.2.6.2. Nose – The numeric digit must be 8 inches tall, and the alphabetic letter must be 4 inches tall. The Car number must be located in an IndyCar-approved location.
      4.5.2.6.3. Headrest – The Car number must be a minimum dimension of 1 inch by 1 inch. The Car number must be located on top of the headrest behind the Driver‟s helmet in a contrasting color
      4.5.2.6.4. Tub – The Car number and Driver‟s first and last name must be 1 inch tall each. They must be located directly behind the headrest and on the tub and appear in white lettering

      The equivalent F1 rule is as follows:

      21.2 Each car will carry the race number of its driver as published by the FIA at the beginning of the season or the race number that has been allocated to his replacement under Article 19.1(b)(iii). This number must be clearly visible from the front of the car and on the driver’s crash helmet.

      1. indy has always made more emphasis on the driver rather than the team, and that’s the difference with F1. in Nascar, it’s stipulated how the sponsors should be applied on the car!

      2. Thanks for the info @keithcollantine Ferrari and Mercedes were good last year with the numbers. But even from the front, it was hard to tell the numbers on the Red Bull.

    2. Noooo, that is perfectly good Sponsor Space there for sale…..Unless you are McLaren ;)

    3. The giant number 1 on Will Power’s car looks great.
      Someone should show that to Lewis – there’s still time for him to change his mind…

  14. On COTD I watch unlicensed streams when there is no other way to watch F1 is free to air in my country but due to scheduling issues some races are not broadcast live.

  15. We don’t need to change F1 cars massively in 2017. We need to change where we go, who is in control, the distribution of wealth, how it is broadcast and how much it costs to buy a ticket.

    1. COTD right there.

  16. I must say I like the look of the Indy Cars this year, they look elegant.

    1. @alec-glen They won’t all look like that this year as the aero-kits are been introduced which allows each manufacturer to develop there own aero packages so the Honda/Chevrolet & Dallara kits will all look different.

      As far as I can tell the cars in the images are all the stock 2012-2014 Dallara.

  17. Imagine a young guy is on the market for a house.
    He has two options.

    1-a nice 2 bedroom house with 2 parking spaces, a small garden area.
    He had a look at it and it is in great shape, with new floors throughout and just a frw minor signs of wear and tear.

    2- a five bedroom house, fecently built. With four parking spaces, fully airconditioned, huge back yard and a reasonable pool.
    The only issue is that he can’t see it until he puts a deposit down.

    Option 1 is F1 on free to air TV – not great, but with potential to acrually get new people interested.

    Option 2 is F1 on paid TV – possibly the best coverage with loads of fearures, but only someone with great knowledge of the sport would want to sign up for that.

    1. I’d much prefer option 2 as I want the best coverage with the best features & as much additional content for every session as I can get.

      I was growing tired of the free to air broadcasters like ITV & the BBC dumbing down the coverage for mass appeal & treating long standing/knowledgeable fans like idiots & giving us bare bones coverage with no extras.

      I think the sky coverage has been great, every session live with lots of additional video feeds on tv, mobile & online which allows me to watch the main feed, the in-car camera feed, the pit lane/team radio feeds on my laptop/ipad & switch between the other in-car stuff on my tv red button. i love having classic races every day, i love having the other programming some of which features never before seen stuff from the fom archive & i love all that extra stuff live testing coverage & the sort of real in-depth analysis that i’ve dreamed of been a part of f1 coverage for years.

      the free to air stuff is great just to see the race, but for anyone after something more in-depth it was always rubbish, especially the itv coverage we had here in the uk which was just horrid from day 1 & full of ad-breaks (they even tried to mis-lead us by replaying stuff they missed while on breaks & playing it in when they came back as if it was just happening live).

      i’d much rather continue to pay & get the sort of coverage i want than get it for free & get the bare bones experience i was forced to sit through & getting frustrated & annoyed with before.

    2. Imagine an older lady feels lonely and wants a cat.
      She has two options.

      1-a young shorthair cat available in the local pet shop with full immunisation.
      The only problem is that she has to pick it up using public transport.

      2-an old Persian from a friend who recently passed away, and the cat has never left the house.
      The only issue is that the cat has flees.

      Oh sorry, lost my train of thought.

      1. Hahahaha!

        Analogies lol.

  18. Can anyone help explain why Ron Dennis’ logic on title sponsorship is flawed when comparing it to Manchester United? I thought the point being made was that a significant proportion of the budget cannot be brought in through one source. This is consistent with the knowledge that the top teams are spending around a quarter of a billion each season to go racing. However, the tweet listed in the round-up suggests Man Utd have a good source of revenue in their $47m deal with Chevrolet. But the title sponsorship money is a very small part of a clubs finance. They are also sponsored by Adidas from next year yielding £75m per annum and if they win the premier league get £156m in prize money. Team that to a Champions League winning pot of £43m and the figure is £314m.This is before any money is considered from ticket gates and importantly, shirt sales. They currently sell 1.5m shirts per season and average attendance of 75,000. This is £60m in attendances and another £60m in shirts. This comes to a total of £430m each year.

    Now, obviously, McLaren engineers are not on a Rooney style £250,000 per week but they are well paid. McLaren cannot even choose the colours to run for this season so I’d highly doubt they can achieve even 1% of a top football team’s merchandise revenue. Ultimately, once again this boils down to Formula 1 having far greater costs than necessary, especially if an F1 team should be holding out for 3 times greater a sponsorship deal than Man Utd and can only be seen a fraction of the time. Bernie seems to enjoy keeping F1 in an exclusive market but as we have seen from the pay-per-view TV deals this is proving to be a bit too exclusive to make any money or, even less likely, sense.

  19. Obviously big companies prefer sponsoring a sport that “plays” every week, like football, rugby etc.

    Why would you spend as much and get a fraction of the exposure? Like seriously, F1 only has around 20 races, and with 9ish teams, all the air time is shared by all those teams. (Not that we have too many teams)

    The point is, Formula is way too expensive for the current generation of business models.
    Corporations no longer want to throw away money just to get exposure, they also want to test their products, use the athletes for adds and really be more than just a sticker on a car.

    Formula 1 is, and has always been very exclusive. But is it so exclusive now that nobody can joing the “party”?

  20. I am a US fan hoping to drop my dish. Does anyone know a safe way to stream and/or record F1 races in the US via computer, with no account with a cable/dish company?

  21. I think the F1 rules will be more wrong, they can’t improve on them.

  22. To be honest, and this is coming from a person pursuing a career in F1/motorsport, of the sports on the survey I find Rugby Union by far more more enticing to watch than F1

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