In the round-up: CVC, one of the major stakeholders of Formula 1, are actively looking to sell their share in the sport’s ownership.
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Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more from hundreds of sites across the web:
Big Formula One Bet Vaults a Buyout Firm to the Top (Bloomberg)
"The most likely suitors are media companies hunting for programming content, rather than another buyout firm. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Plc, the Qatar Investment Authority and RSE Ventures, chaired by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, are interested in investing."
Ferrari F1 team has 'clear' plan for post-Allison reorganisation (Autosport)
"We are reorganising the team, first of all without panicking, because taking that decision means we are clear in mind about what to do with the organisation."
F1 and me - an exclusive interview with Fernando Alonso (Formula1.com)
"I do have my free time! When working my routine is very exact - but then there is Fernando Alonso in private, when I do completely the opposite…"
Ericsson believes new owners will put Sauber back on track (F1i)
"I think as it is now everything is quite new and I don’t think many people in the team know much about what they want. All that I know is that it seems like they are very serious about it and what to make this team good and profitable as well, with the whole business."
Nikita Mazepin hopes for more F1 chances after 'awesome' first test (JAonF1)
"It’s a great opportunity, first of all, and second it’s my job to help the team as much as I can. In racing you are always trying to help yourself and help the team because with driving more you get more laptime, and with driving you also help the team by giving them your knowledge and your feedback"
How Formula 1 could join the Olympics (Autosport - subscription only)
"Formula 1 should be included in the Olympic Games. That opinion will not go down well with the purists, not least former International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who ruled out the notion in 2012 just before his tenure came to an end. But there is no reason why it shouldn't be."
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Comment of the day
Daniil Kvyat has received a vote of confidence from Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost and @william-brierty is also backing the young Russian to bounce back…
I actually think Kvyat is a case for change in the Red Bull doctrine. We have seen so much promise from him in such a short space of time, whether it be regular Q3 appearances in the unfancied STR9 in 2014, or an attacking final stint at Spa last year to earn P4, or an opportune podium and an aggressive opening lap in Shanghai this year. Previously, any dip in form for Red Bull drivers has always meant curtains because of the awesome array of talent waiting in line, but currently, probably reflecting the awesome array of talent Red Bull already have, the only man that could take Kvyat’s place is Pierre Gasly.
Gasly may well win this year’s GP2 title, and has shown simply awesome raw pace on occasion, but it hasn’t been a smooth ride. This is his third season of higher powered formula racing, and whilst he has always had the raw pace, mistakes and tyre struggles saw him fail to win a race until Silverstone this year. Helmut Marko tends not to like slow learners. Perhaps it is better then to nurture the obvious abilities Kvyat has and take a view on his future once his performances begin to stabilize.
@william-brierty
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On this day in F1
Nelson Piquet won the inaugural Hungarian Grand Prix 30 years ago today after a stunning pass on Ayrton Senna around the outside of turn one.
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
10th August 2016, 0:04
YEEESSSS! Goodbye CVC! The parasite of Formula 1! You won’t be missed!
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
10th August 2016, 0:07
Hopefully a company which is competent enough and is willing to improve the sport will take over. Unfortunately, Bernie Ecclestone is not a competent human being.
Boomerang
10th August 2016, 10:18
I strenuosly disagree with you. Mr. Ecclestone is a very competent man! However, it depends from which viewpont you judge his competence. As a F1 fan I can understand your opinion because most of the time his interests are on colision course with the intersest of F1 audience. He’s not very competent in that area but when it comes to making money his competence surpasses ours by zilion times… That’s the fact mate!
Strontium (@strontium)
10th August 2016, 0:14
@ultimateuzair If sky and the likes are taking over, then I wouldn’t rule out it being much worse. You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
petebaldwin (@)
10th August 2016, 0:24
@strontium – Thing is, if Sky took over, they would look to make F1 the best sport in the world and would ensure that it is covered in the media in every way possible. To do this, some money has to go towards the teams. People hate CVC but why does it matter? Sky can’t take the same bad publicity that CVC can take because it will hurt their sales – CVC can do what they want.
I agree with you though to a point but as things stand, I really can’t see how it can get much worse than CVC.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
10th August 2016, 0:49
@petebaldwin
Sorry, covered in *their* media in every possible way. The problems with sport being owned by a broadcaster basically means it’s permanently paywalled, right up until the point it’s killed. Yes, they have money, but Sky are the broadcasting equivalent of FOM – a dinosaur, chasing it’s own money making over access to the product.
F1, like most sport, needs to be owned by a more altruistic owner who is willing to look at multiple revenue streams and (more importantly) avenues of access for fans.
pcxmac (@xsavior)
10th August 2016, 2:39
actually it needs to not be owned by any majority shareholder. There are no altruistic billionaires on the planet, you can’t amass a huge fortune and be naive or ‘benevolent’, thats just not how the world works, trust me. What you need is competition, that is really the only thing that can keep things more honest. With out any real system of checks and balance (special emphasis on real), you won’t really see anything change, but maybe it will look better for the spectators, the peeps running the cameras know what it takes to keep peoples attention. To be honest, the only way F1 gets really better is if it gets poorer and the major manufacturers leave F1, big sponsors leave, and the sport is forced to find prestige in actual innovation and technical brilliance, not putting on a fake parade with iffy tires and rules promoting major manufacturer’s marketing aims.
@HoHum (@hohum)
10th August 2016, 0:27
@ultimateuzair, unfortunately any buyer will be paying a price based on earnings and the hope that they can increase those earnings, so there will be no “more equitable” distribution of revenue to the teams to solve the problems they face.
mog
10th August 2016, 1:38
Its likely F1 is already dead, it just doesn’t know it yet. Like every empire in history, it is now collapsing under its own weight. It’s current form isn’t sustainable and it has probably passed the point of no return for redemption.
Once the emperor goes, who will succeed him?
Tristan (@skipgamer)
10th August 2016, 8:34
I really doubt F1 is dead – or even dying – in the slightest. It has been discussed regularly on this site what is the “DNA” of Formula 1 and I really don’t think it’s the name, or the owners, or the tracks, or the cars. The DNA of F1 (or at least why I watch) is being in and of itself the “Pinnacle of Motorsport”. Where the best racers and engineers in the world are combined with the best machinery to compete against each other.
I really don’t think there will ever be a lack of an audience willing to “tune in” to that, for as long as we’re driving cars, with motors as our primary mode of transport anyway.
The only real competition I think F1 faces in the very long run, is with eSports continuing to grow, capturing the imagination and attention of coming generations is only going to become more difficult. Staying glued to TV is definitely not the way to go about that, but many involved with F1’s management have said they understand that. So I’m hopeful the product will continue to evolve.
mog
10th August 2016, 10:53
There is always hope, and I hope your right.
There is an argument for and against in my view.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
10th August 2016, 15:01
Yeah, I’m not quite right in my opinion too. There is a lot more to it than that. The heritage of the teams and people counts.
Tata
10th August 2016, 2:26
@ultimateuzair
I don’t think it is really a great news that CVC are leaving. Fans’ displeasure with CVC was mostly about their not wanting to review the revenue allocation formula in such a way that all F1 teams remain healthy and competitive.
Let us hope that Sky or any other media company NEVER acquires F1. If that happens then we should kiss the sport goodbye as Sky and whoever will run the sport with the same fervor as CVC but this time on steroids and behind a massive all round paywall of exclusivity. If they decide to sell some of the license to any other broadcaster it is most likely going to come with stringent conditions and high costs that will be passed on to the consumers.
F1 after CVC should be acquired by a group of investors same way as CVC was but with a better business model which aims at helping all teams remain solvent and competitive.
Robbie (@robbie)
10th August 2016, 12:44
I don’t know why Sky is so evil to you but I don’t profess to know anything about any potential buyers’ thinking or intentions. But I think anybody interested will undoubtedly have already examined F1 and it’s performance over the last decade, will have seen falling viewership and will be relating that to how much of that is F1’s fault for the directions it has taken and how much is just a natural side effect of a weak global economy, particularly since 08. I would think it would be safe to assume that any buyer will have F1’s health and sustainability in mind, especially given what they will be paying. I also don’t believe they will price F1 out of the consumers’ hands. Ultimately the consumer is the boss. We can ‘fire’ BE and CVC or the new buyer(s) in a heartbeat, simply by not watching. If they’re smart, and I know they are, they’ll always have that in mind.
petebaldwin (@)
10th August 2016, 0:08
Great news but I’ll wait to celebrate until I know whether they are planning to keep Bernie or not.
Strontium (@strontium)
10th August 2016, 0:18
@petebaldwi Also (as I said in a comment above), wait to celebrate until you know whether or not the new company is actually better than CVC. Sky certainly isn’t, who knows. At the end of the day, whoever takes over will most likely want to suck money out of it too.
Forrest
10th August 2016, 0:47
How many stories have BE and CVC planted in the press over the last two years that F1 was about to be sold? This is just another attempt at getting potential buyers to make CVC a serious offer, which means they don’t have one now. I seriously doubt F1 is going to be sold in the next 2 or 3 years, never mind the next few weeks.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
10th August 2016, 0:50
Funnily enough, when I saw this article, the first thing I did was check if Christian Sylt was the author. It wasn’t him, so the article suddenly had legs!
andae23 (@andae23)
10th August 2016, 0:57
andae23 (@andae23)
10th August 2016, 0:58
/blockquote didn’t work? :(
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
10th August 2016, 1:34
@andae23 I always wonder how yatching (or sailing, i believe it’s the proper name) is an olympic sports and motorsport (specially bike racing) isn’t. I assume it’s difficult to host such an event because you need a top of the shelf racing track, and that’d be inherently expensive in countries without any proper facility.
But still… A bunch of dudes commanding a ship that was (probably) designed by F1 engineers deserves a medal but racing around a racetrack doesn’t. Not saying racing drivers should participate but I don’t see how yatching should :P Never understood that.
ColdFly F1 (@)
10th August 2016, 6:12
Actually the only sailing in the olympics is in simple standardised classes (Laser etc.), no ‘designed by F1 engineers’ there.
They used to have more complex open class yachts before, but that was a looooong time ago.
@fer-no65
Juan Fanger
12th August 2016, 9:56
Cycling is probably the closest thing in the Olympics to F1. Super-lightweight carbon fibre bicycles and helmets that have been designed and re-designed over and over again by teams of engineers, including wind-tunnel testing.
Should just give them all Malvern Stars and tell ’em to get on with it.
TangoFiesta
10th August 2016, 1:08
F1 in the Olympics? F1 is my favorite sport. But…. isn’t the spirit of F1 the complete opposite of the intent of the Olympics? Sorry to say, but F1 is sleazy. Most of its fans and pundits laugh at the idea of a level playing field, and think that sportsmanship naïve. The Olympics do their best to keep things level (even if they can’t always), and see the value in promoting integrity. It’s like…. I love hanging out with my buddy Craig. We get drunk and do stupid things. But there’s no way I’m going to let him corrupt my sister.
TangoFiesta
10th August 2016, 1:09
* sportsmanship IS naïve….
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
10th August 2016, 2:37
Every time an article about “reorganisation” comes up I cringe.
Ferrari have clearly rung out of ideas for 2016 and are going backwards fast again. The fact that they are now talking reorganisation again (how many time now) doesn’t look good for 2017 either.
Reorganisation in F1 and in business – the buzz word for “we’re completely out of ideas but want to show that we’re doing something”, doesn’t work in business, doesn’t work in F1.
Robbie (@robbie)
10th August 2016, 12:32
I don’t know…what are they supposed to do? Not reorganize? Not examine how they can improve their situation? Why do you think they’re ‘completely out of ideas?’ I think they have ideas and you don’t just snap your fingers and make them happen. And next year is a new chapter which could provide some surprises. This is racing.
Chris (@tophercheese21)
10th August 2016, 2:42
No F1 should not be in the Olympics.
But then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ever did make an appearance considering 95% of the sports currently in the Olympics shouldn’t be in there. Who knows, Tokyo 2020 could see Suzuka as the race track for the ‘F1 Olympic Race’.
What a total joke it’s become. We don’t need things like rugby, table tennis, actual tennis, rowing, kayaking, horse riding, basketball, football, cycling, badminton, volleyball, hockey… The list goes on. Point is, it should just be about athletics (track & field). I hear they’re planning on introducing surfing and rock climbing for Tokyo 2020. What a laugh.
While I’m on a roll, let’s just keep the damn Olympics in Athens for gods sake. Every country that hosts the Olympics makes a massive loss and is more about money-spending exercises than actually hosting the games. Just leave it in it’s birthplace and let the tradition build. Moving it from place to place each year is stupid.
/rant.
Selbbin (@selbbin)
10th August 2016, 7:26
No horse riding? It’s been part of the Olympics since the start. And I don’t even mean the ‘modern’ Olympics. Ancient Olympics had various types of horse racing.
HK (@me4me)
10th August 2016, 4:46
Regarding the Cotd, @william-brierty, I agree that there is a chance for Kvyat to race at Toro Rosso next year, but there is no way he’ll be promoted back to Red Bull even if he finds his mojo back. At no point was he actually better than Ricciardo, especially in those specific examples, SPA 2015 and China 2016, Ricciardo was always ahead but hit trouble. Even in 2015, Kvyat had bad races throughout the season. Even at the end, he had massive crashes in Suzuka and Austin. His current lack of confidence and inability to bounce back have only confirmed he is not WDC material.
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
10th August 2016, 11:27
@me4me – Different drivers, different destinies. I agree he doesn’t deserve to return to Red Bull, and that he isn’t going to be champion any time soon, but I still think he has demonstrated enough not to be replaced by a driver who, in my opinion, would be no improvement. The problem with Marko’s “excellence or nothing” mentality is he still needs to fill four seats with the four best drivers he can lay his hands on. The fourth best, Kvyat, will inherently not be as excellent as the others, but I don’t think that’s cause to automatically dispose of a driver. Sure, when a brighter young prospect comes along, make the switch, but to do so before would look like an act of spite.
But this speech will likely prove irrelevant, because knowing Marko, Kvyat will be out of STR next year. Hopefully he will get picked up by another team, because despite not being championship material, like Magnussen, Perez and Bottas, has more than justified his place on the grid.
p.s. Thanks for the COTD @willwood
HK (@me4me)
11th August 2016, 4:57
@william-brierty, I can’t say i’m convinced that he has shown enough to justify his place on the grid beyond 2016. But however we rate his performance over the past 2 years, surely the 2nd half of this season will be what defines his career. If he can pull himself together, there is hope yet. If not, then his past isn’t going to save him.
ColdFly F1 (@)
10th August 2016, 6:22
Ericsson: “It’s a Swiss investment company as much as I understand. They seem pretty serious about it but I don’t know much more than that.”
I’m still very pessimistic; it sounds too much like a GENII 2, but less well known (and funded).
Neil (@neilosjames)
10th August 2016, 15:08
There’s a lot of real money behind it, according to many sources. All connected to Ericsson, so I can only imagine he’s been told to pretend he has no idea what’s going on.
Stan (@blakk76)
10th August 2016, 11:37
I think regular F1 championship will not fit Olympic rules anyway, because of olympic “national teams” basis, and most of the F1 teams are English based. However, Brexit and some minor rules tweaking could bring more nations to the F1 teams…
Evil Homer (@)
10th August 2016, 13:03
No F1 in the Olympics, the idea is absurd! Yet if it was introduce the ‘Halo’ then it may qualify under IOC regulations :)
Jonathan (@jonny705)
10th August 2016, 19:17
Imagine a driver winning Olympic gold because he used DRS for his race-winning overtake on the last lap, or because another driver’s Pirelli tyres suffered a blow out, or because he nursed his tyres better than others etc.
F1 does not belong in the Olympics whatsoever and whoever suggested it in that article is crazy.
Phil-F1-21
10th August 2016, 20:16
F1 being in the Olympics is a ridiculous idea. It relies too much on the car anyway for the champion to be decided by who drives the best. Unless of course they put everyone in identical cars. This might cause issues for the F1 championship.
However, really I think the idea is daft. There are already several sports I don’t think should be included. They should be trying to keep the cost of the event down without adding other expensive sports.
zimkazimka (@zimkazimka)
11th August 2016, 6:28
F1 in Olympics doesn’t make sense for several reasons. F1 is a team sport and almost all F1 teams are international, thus how they’d compete? Create brand new teams fully staffed with mechanics, designers, engineers and drivers from the same nation?
That’s like creating a totally new formula just for the sake of Olympics. But in such case the whole point of Olympics is lost, since they can have an annual championship and not wait for a competition every four years, losing money in the meantime.
That’s if we are considering the base concept of F1 – designing the best car and getting the best driver for competition. If we remove the best car approach and give everyone the same machinery, than it’s no longer F1.
So, if it’s simply a motorsport competition – everyone gets the same car and everyone can participate (not neccessarily F1 drivers – separate national motorsport authorities can decide on that), than that can work.
But not with F1 concept. It’s just way too different from the Olympics idea.
gregwrld
13th August 2016, 2:27
Keep in mind that the Olympics are about nations competing, not companies. Each team would have to complete under a national flag with drivers from that nation…
pcxmac (@xsavior)
17th August 2016, 1:05
There is obscene levels of corruption in the Olympics too. It’s not just Russian athletes doping either. Who can challenge an entity that has no competition ? With out checks and balances it’s just bribes, payoffs, revolving doors, and closed door sessions.
pcxmac (@xsavior)
17th August 2016, 1:07
Lets be honest, CVC are doing a better job than Merc+FIA. If Merc stopped racing today the racing would be a lot better, and guess what, all that needed to happen was not going to this formula, and it would have happened had Merc followed through on their threat.