McLaren ‘could sell minority stake in F1 team’

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Il est prêt (he was born prêt).
🔘 143 laps
🛣 614km

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🏎 R.S.18
📍 Red Bull Ring#RSspirit @OconEsteban pic.twitter.com/JoR6pCb5F8

— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) June 17, 2020

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Links

More motor racing links of interest:

McLaren weighs sale of stake in Formula 1 team (Sky)

"Any transaction is likely to involve selling between 20% and 30% of McLaren's F1 business - a deal that would generate tens of millions of pounds."

Mercedes-AMG using F1 know-how in new road car technology (Mercedes)

"The new innovation benefits from knowledge and technology developed with the Energy Recovery System in the Mercedes Formula 1 power unit and in particular, the Motor Generator Unit - Heat (MGU-H)."

Calendar and back to racing notebook (Daily Sportscar)

"The Formula E events will take place on August 5/6, August 8/9 and August 12/13, the latter event clashing with the first day of track action for the FIA WEC back to racing event at Spa Francorchamps."

NHS approves aerosol shield co-designed by Renault F1 (Motorsport Week)

"A new type of aerosol shield, co-designed by Renault’s CFD department, has been approved for use by NHS trusts, in order to improve treatment of Covid-19 patients."

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Comment of the day

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I think F1’s ‘diversity problem’ is rather more difficult to address than that of mass-participation sports, due to the very broad-based pyramid it sits on top of and the dearth of non-white-majority countries with serious grassroots racing scenes.

A kid starts off in casual karting, moves to semi-serious, then serious karting, then Formula Ford or Renault, a National F3, International F3, maybe F2, and F1. To get to the end of that road you need talent for driving, high fitness, the right mental character, emotional and logistical support from family, focus, willingness to sacrifice other things… and massive financial backing, way beyond the means of all but the most wealthy, or those able to secure sponsors.

If (number out of thin air but it sounds about right) 2,000 British kids get as far as semi-serious karting, one or two of them might end up in F1. And semi-serious karting is probably the stage you’d need to kick off a programme to increase participation diversity at.

So using UK demographics (the UK being one of the few countries with a serious grassroots racing scene, which kids would need to progress through) for those 2,000… assuming perfect equality of opportunity (not currently present), 1,740 would be white, 160 would be Asian, 60 would be black, 40 would be mixed race. Even if you make a huge investment and address discrimination issues to create that perfect equality of opportunity, the kids from that cohort who make it to F1 are still overwhelmingly likely to be white.

Same if you did it in the other countries with big grassroots scenes – France, Germany, Italy, USA.

I like to think it would work, and such an approach would certainly increase the probability of a more diverse grid, but there’d be no guarantees.
Neil (@neilosjames)

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On this day in F1

• 70 years ago today Juan Manuel Fangio won the Belgian Grand Prix, covering 35 laps of the old Spa-Francorchamps circuit in two hours and 47 minutes.