In the round-up: Formula E will not be on free-to-air TV in the UK for the first time next year.
In brief
Formula E falls under paywall for first time
British Formula E fans will not be able to watch live coverage of the all-electric series on free-to-air options for the first time in 2024 after the championship announced a new broadcast deal with pay TV channel TNT Sports.
The world championship series will air exclusively on the TNT Sports channel in the UK and Republic of Ireland while also providing digital streaming coverage on TNT Sports through Discovery+ for paid subscribers.
Coverage will be hosted by former Premier League footballer and BBC One Show presenter Jermaine Jenas with commentators Tom Brooks, Karun Chandhok, Dario Franchitti and reporter Nicki Shields.
F1 teams with FIA, Extreme E on hydrogen
A re-branded Extreme E racing series will transition to hydrogen power for 2025 in collaboration with F1 and the FIA, it has been announced.The electric rally raid series will convert to hydrogen power from 2025, becoming an official FIA championship re-branded as ‘Extreme H’. The series will join with F1 and the FIA to create a ‘Hydrogen Technical Working Group’ of F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds, Extreme E technical director Mark Grain and FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis to explore the development of hydrogen as a fuel source within motorsport and its applications.
“Our sport has a tradition of bringing new technologies to the forefront of public perception in incredibly short timescales,” said F1’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds.
“With climate change mitigation at the forefront of everyone’s mind we are committed to promoting sustainability and therefore need to explore all areas of de-carbonisation of the mobility sector. This must include sustainable liquid hydrocarbon fuels, electrification and hydrogen.”
Fittipaldi moves to VAR for 2024
Enzo Fittipaldi will race with the Van Amersfoort team in next year’s Formula 2 championship, the team has confirmed.
The 22-year-old – grandson of multiple F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and brother of IndyCar racer Pietro – will move from the Charouz team, who he has raced with the last two years in the second-tier championship.
Former Red Bull junior driver Fittipaldi improved one place in the series to seventh in the drivers’ standings. He secured five podium finishes over the season, including his first win in the Spa-Francorchamps sprint race.
Williams junior Browning gets second F3 season
Williams junior driver Luke Browning will compete in a second season in Formula 3 next year, remaining at the Hitech team.
Browning, who won the F3 World Cup at the Macau Grand Prix last month, ranked 15th in his first season in the category, securing a single podium finish in the sprint race at the Circuit de Catalunya.
“This championship will never be easy with the standard of drivers but also with just the nature of the championship,” Browning said. “However, having visited all of the tracks we’re going to next year once before, I believe puts us in a great position to score points in every race weekend going forward.”
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Button 'much closer' to full-time WEC Hypercar drive (Sportscar365)
"In the next few weeks it shall either be a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. I just have to make sure it’s the right thing first for me to do."
Red Bull boss Horner denies submitting complaint to FIA (Sky)
"We have a big rivalry (with Mercedes) on track but we haven't raised any official complaint either about Susie or Toto (Wolff) or Mercedes to the FIA."
Döllner gibt grünes Licht: Audi-Vorstand hält an Formel 1 fest (AMuS - German)
'With the green light from the top, the speculation about possible exit scenarios should now hopefully come to an end. An exit wouldn't have made much sense at this point. The damage to the company's image would have been very high. In addition, at least the start-up investments would have been wasted.'
Lewis celebrates STEM academy success at Mulberry Schools Trust (Mercedes)
'Lewis visited the school to see first-hand how the Mulberry Schools Trust and Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix’s Accelerate 25 partnership is helping to empower students from under-represented backgrounds towards careers in (science, technology, engineering and maths). It gave Lewis the opportunity to get involved with several hands-on STEM activities, including a STEM fair, learning about coding in a Robotics lesson, and enjoying an immersive arts experience which showcased the students’ technical skills in digital and production arts.'
'Arrive & Drive will tap into the popularity of the leisure karting market, facilitating competitions at local tracks using rental equipment. National Sporting Associations (ASNs) who take part in the programme will collaborate with tracks or rental providers to organise these competitions, ensure competitor safety, and promote pathways to other national or international championships.'
New Formula E host Jermaine Jenas explains why he's perfect fit despite being ''no expert'' (Mirror)
'Essentially, it came from what I've done, I think. Today, with my career, the crossovers I've had from working in football to working on The One Show. Naturally, the powers-that-be looked at me as a nice mix in terms of my mindset and background in terms of football and from the entertainment world, and my ability to carry a show that's as amazing as this one. I'm thankful for the opportunity - it's such a different space for me to operate in, but one that I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into.'
FIA UAOA survey unveils alarming insights (FIA)
'Whilst ‘online abuse’ covers a plethora of mechanisms such as cyber-bullying, doxing and trolling, the survey highlighted that the most common form of online abuse suffered by competitors and others engaged in sport is ‘flaming’ – the sending of threatening, abusive or rude messages to an identified target. In fact, 90% of respondents ‘strongly’ or ‘rather’ agreed that online abuse directed at competitors had the potential to result in them withdrawing from participating altogether if not addressed. This is not an uncommon practice given several high-profile case studies in online media.'
Rodin Cars Fzero prototype lights up the track for its first circuit outing (Rodin Cars via YouTube)
'The stunningly tranquil South Island of New Zealand recently reverberated to the evocative motorsport engine note of the Rodin Cars Fzero hypercar. The concept of the Fzero was first revealed to the world last year, and now the New Zealand-designed-and-manufactured hypercar has entered the test and development phase.'
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Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
i cannot pay £30 a month just to watch formula e next year, i will try my best to find someway to and to keep up with what is happening but im very disappointed to hear i can no longer watch my favourite sport
— jodie (@formulawah) December 7, 2023
✍️🇧🇷💙 pic.twitter.com/2hs0pkPc1r
— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) December 7, 2023
The first of many 🥂
Race for Diversity will enable those with a passion for motorsport to gain the knowledge and experience to fulfill their potential.
A huge thank you to @haasf1team for showing us around, and providing insight into all the roles in F1.#motorsportuk pic.twitter.com/O34Id3p0MI
— Motorsport UK (@ourmotorsportuk) December 7, 2023
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
With the FIA giving the F2 and F3 sporting regulations an overdue update to include gender-neutral language when referring to drivers, reader Hotbottoms reckons it’s about time…
1. Do these minor changes use a lot of FIA’s resources? Probably not.
2. Is there any good argument in favor of keeping the rules as they are written? Not really.
3. Is it possible that some team could try to benefit from these loopholes in the rules in the future? While I think it’s very unlikely they would be successful, it is entirely possible that some team could try to raise the argument that “he” refers to only some of the drivers, which could cause the stewards some extra work (remember the “any does not mean all” argument a while back).
All in all, I think it’s a no-brainer decision for FIA to do these changes and be done with it.
Hotbottoms
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Gfasulo, James_Mc, Joey-Poey, Koper, Rick Denatale and Webbercanwin94!
SteveR (@stever)
8th December 2023, 1:06
Seems like Formula E might be shooting themselves in the foot. Pay to watch it? Nah, I don’t even watch it for free.
Jay
8th December 2023, 1:26
Indeed. They actually come to a nearby city so I tried to watch a race. Not my cup of tea, at all. And I watch F1, WRC , MotoGP, Indy 500, Dakar, Irish Road Racing. Formula E, just not that interesting for some reason. I’m not sure I’d even go with free tickets.
SteveP
8th December 2023, 9:52
Watched the earlier seasons, decided that the Mario Kart gimmick features killed it.
I’ve built TV games computers in the past, never played a game except to test the system.
Hide something I don’t like behind a paywall? Would I have noticed without this article? Solid no.
theRealMax (@millionus)
8th December 2023, 22:41
And hosted by Jermaine Jenas….which Motorsport did he used to take part in again….! :)
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
9th December 2023, 11:50
I’m sure there are a few million good reasons, chief among them TNT losing some of its Champions Gravy Train League football to Amazon, and finding something else for him to do.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
8th December 2023, 2:10
It’s been behind a paywall in most of the world for years, the UK might be shocked to learn.
It’s one of the major reasons it’s been such a failure.
notagrumpyfan
8th December 2023, 7:56
It’s a pity that after all these years this site is still too focused on what’s happening in the UK, rather than having a more global perspective.
SteveP
8th December 2023, 9:55
It could have been behind a paywall in the UK for several years and I wouldn’t know. (Or care really)
Elvira
8th December 2023, 2:19
Extreme H. MBS acts as per HMV. Next they’ll be pushing CCS.
SteveR (@stever)
8th December 2023, 6:26
Umm, call me stupid but what???
Electroball76
8th December 2023, 8:41
I would hazard a guess that the missing words are “horse-shout”, “the honourable president of the FIA”, “His Master’s Voice”, and “Carbon Capture Storage”
Jere (@jerejj)
8th December 2023, 6:32
Replying to the COTD-nominated post once more, I of course didn’t think changing the wording a bit would take anything away from elsewhere, but still weird they care about such trivialities.
Dan Rooke (@geekzilla9000)
8th December 2023, 8:31
I don’t think it’s a triviality, it’s a much needed update. I also think it probably required very little effort – it literally just needs a find and replace for certain terms (find “he”, replace with “the driver” – that sort of thing). To make specific changes like that in an electronic document would only take a few minutes of someone’s time. It’s important that the main rulebook is relevant to all participants both now and potential.
Coventry Climax
8th December 2023, 10:05
Given the way the FiA conducts their post race scrutiny, the rule book too may well still be a person, paper and ink affair for the most part. But maybe they just learned about the technology of digitizing?
And then there’s the not so trivial task of finding someone within the FiA to do the proof reading without falling asleep at the wheel and -more importantly- identify the bits that slipped through and still aren’t worded according to this century’s beliefs.
S
8th December 2023, 7:52
And that’s exactly what a lot of people think about F1.
Alan Dove
8th December 2023, 8:58
Being on FTA isn’t an automatic formula for success in sport. Formula E had probably the best FTA coverage of any motorsport in the UK and has not gained traction. The idea that it’s shooting itself in the foot belies the truth, and that is that FTA broadcasters probably don’t see it worthwhile. FTA isn’t a magic bullet and Formula E isn’t captivating for a general audience. It’s perennially stuck in early adopter mode.
The digital landscape is vastly different than it used to be. I see a few comments that Formula E should broadcast on Youtube more and Twitch, but the problem there is everyone can see how many actual viewers there are, which isn’t many. It certainly doesn’t correlate with the published figure of 344m viewers.
Formula E have to keep the lights on, so bemoaning them for taking the money of whatever TNT is offering is short sighted. I suspect they really don’t have a choice.
SteveP
8th December 2023, 10:02
Maybe the 344 million is the extrapolated figure from the normal monitored sample (like standard FTA viewer numbers).
A proper/fully monitored number might have the advertisers/sponsors running for the exit.
Nothing major against electric racing, the gimmicks are too much though.
Coventry Climax
8th December 2023, 10:18
That’s a lot of unrelated concepts and assumptions (using the word ‘probably’, e.g.) put together behind the single word of ‘truth’.
If FTA isn’t getting them any more viewers, Youtube and the likes isn’t going to do it for them either, and a paychannel certainly won’t bring them any new viewers. It might bring them a bit of money, initially, but that will dry up pretty quickly when the paychannel comes to the conclusion it’s not worth it.
My idea is that Formula E, if it wants to survive, has to take a good look at itself in order to to make itself more attractive to either a larger general audience, or a smaller but very dedicated one.
Currently, they’re doing neither.
SteveR (@stever)
8th December 2023, 14:06
Good comment, rationally and clearly stated.
AlanD
8th December 2023, 12:49
Remember that FTA companies are still paying for the privelege of showing the event. Yes, TNT must be offering more, but I don’t think it is that cut and dried. You also have to ask why companies sponsor motorsport, and it is of course to get eyeballs on their product. If FE fails to get the viewers worldwide, sponsirs will be less willing to sponsor, and teams will be less willing to enter the series. Teams like Mercedes are entering because they want to be seen as leaders in electric vehicles on the global markets, but that will not happen if the man in the street is blissfully unaware of FE and thinks electric cars are just glorified powered wheelchairs that truncle round tracks.
Alan Dove
8th December 2023, 13:30
Sponsorship isn’t always about pure numbers. Give me 10 people who might by my product over 100 that definitely won’t. Sometimes it’s about other things too.
Formula E can’t give away it’s product for free in perpetuity, which one suspects it’d have to do to maintain FTA broadcast. The FTA companies have to generate viewers so they can sell sponsorship too. Formula E doesn’t seem to generate enough viewers over whatever else ITV, C4 or C5 can put out on a Sunday or Saturday afternoon.
Tesla (maybe BYD too) proves somewhat definitively that racing is not the prime drivers of interest in electric vehicles. While Formula E isn’t devoid of some brand improvement for the companies in it, it’s far from certain it does much to promote electric road vehicles.
Formula E is a weird product. I don’t begrudge them taking a deal that’s on offer from TNT.
Coventry Climax
8th December 2023, 15:22
Excuse me? There’s nothing wrong with doing things just for the love of it. I actually think that that keeps the world spinning better than all the coins of any currency can, despite the saying and despite people’s behavior these days.
If you want to sell a lot of your product(s), you’d better make sure it’s the best people can get for their money. And that includes aspects of durability and sustainability.
If FE is too concerned with promoting electric mobility only, then maybe that explains why their audience isn’t growing. Most people have learned to handle a commercial being repeated twice, but all season long?
Alan Dove
8th December 2023, 16:18
Of course not, but Formula E isn’t going to want to lose millions of dollars for ‘the love of it’.
AlanD
8th December 2023, 16:46
They were NOT giving it away for free. Channel 4 was paying around 10 million per season for the rights to show the races. It claimed an audience of around 300,000 whilst globally FE is claiming an audience of 5 million, so about one fifteenth of its viewers were coming from Channel 4. However, looking at FE’s accounts for 2022, its total revenue from all sources, TV licensing, merchandising, fees paid by race organisers, entry fees from the teams totals only 181 million for the year. So on paper, it looks like the 10 million C4 was paying a very fair price for its coverage and a significant chunk of FE’s revenue.
Paulsf1fix
8th December 2023, 14:20
Mercedes have pulled out of Formula e. McLaren took their spot and team over (sort of)
AlanD
8th December 2023, 16:13
Paul, shows how much I keep up with FE doesn’t it!
Frans
8th December 2023, 10:02
IIRC, FE was already like 3 years behind paywall in my country. What I ended up doing is…. not watching FE anymore. For me, they haven’t create enough attachment to the viewers, thus while some probably willing to pay for it, probably most won’t, including me. It is still far from something like F1 or MotoGP that I doubt enough people would subscribe to a service because of FE. FYI, I did watch FE from season 1!
Alan Dove
8th December 2023, 10:12
In terms of attachment to drivers. The reality is that nothing makes a championship harder to promote than knowing the drivers would jump at a chance to race in another race series, in FE’s case that’s Formula 1. It takes a sledgehammer to the credibility and percieved value of the racing. It’s very hard to sell something as worth watching when you know almost the entire grid would prefer to be somewhere else.
MichaelN
8th December 2023, 10:29
It’s one of the reason the F1-only fans get so worked up about American Indycar drivers saying they don’t care to race in F1. The idea that F1 is not the ultimate goal of every driver lessens the status of the series.
For FE it was probably a bonus that they got some recognizable names early on, but if they can’t build their own heroes then it does indeed start to be a drag. It’s not a good look to be seen as a series for rejects, part-timers and semi-retired racers.
Alan Dove
8th December 2023, 10:39
I don’t believe those drivers. There isn’t a young IndyCar driver who wouldn’t jump at a chance to race in F1. The older ones naturally are settled and have families they won’t want to disrupt, but the desire would still be there if not actionable given the choice. They won’t publicly devalue their own career either.
F1 fans don’t have some inherent insecurity about IndyCar, it’s a reality. I have a lot of problems with F1, but there’s no doubt it is the #1 goal for almost all single-seater drivers, and it’s not close.
MichaelN
8th December 2023, 16:02
That kinda makes it hard for them to say anything, I guess. At some point you have to take their word for it.
Even if F1 cars are cool to drive, and something just about all professional race car drivers would like to give a go, for some it just doesn’t outweigh having to travel around from early March to late November and, more importantly, going into each and every season knowing that 18/20 drivers are guaranteed to have no chance whatsoever to be in title or even race win contention. Even in F1 itself, some drivers are content to languish for years at the back of the field to get their F1 kick, while others call it quits when they feel their peak is behind them and top teams are no longer interested. Different people like and do different things, and to some, a full-time F1 seat just isn’t a goal they’re after.
Alan Dove
8th December 2023, 16:23
F1 is so far ahead in the ‘prestige’ ranks that almost everyone driver in the world would jump at the chance to languish at the back. The older drivers who might say no certainly would’ve said yes at the start of their career. It’s not a close run thing. Formula E lost their World Champion to a back marker F1 team. Alex Palou has spent the last couple years trying to figure out how to get into an F1 car.
It’s not a close run thing. Like I said a few older drivers have settled families and in the end wouldn’t ruin that at that late stage of their career at some miracle offer if it arose, but that doesn’t mean the desire wasn’t there.
This is the fundamental marketing issue almost all motorsport faces, especially single-seater. It’s hard to get people to invest in a series when you know the entire grid really didn’t want to end up there.
S
9th December 2023, 6:11
Let’s just call that ‘your personal opinion, which doesn’t apply to every individual on Earth’ shall we?
By not actually joining the series ladder that leads to F1….
Why is that? Is it because he’s already satisfied where he is…? Sufficiently so, at least, that he feels it isn’t worth taking the risk to end up in a dud F1 car and team without any chance of success? Or not to make it at all?
And even if he made it – then to be booted out after a year or two, henceforth being known as a failure and compared directly with others who have also had dismal ‘careers’ in F1?
Just what is that ‘prestige’ (an entirely personally subjective element) actually worth?
Coventry Climax
8th December 2023, 10:37
Now here’s a company called Rodin, which immediately brings associations with the statue of ‘The Thinker’.
They call their product F zero, as if it’s even faster, down the line of F3, F2, F1, F0. Clever.
But what on earth were they thinking when they made this footage of their car going 20 kmph only, with absolutely zero sensation of speed? Did they put all of their technology in the camera only or what?
Alesici
8th December 2023, 14:51
I’m not so sure FZero is that clever a name, as for over 30 years, Nintendo have run futuristic racing game series already called F-Zero. And it’s not wise to mess with Nintendo in court. I guess that’s why Mclaren smartly named their flagship car the P1 and not the F0.
Coventry Climax
8th December 2023, 15:28
OK, replace the/my word ‘Clever.’ with ‘They must have put some thinking into that one.’, to do the flow and gist of my comment better justice?
Do I need to explain my ‘zero sensation of speed’ as well?
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
8th December 2023, 10:54
As much as I enjoyed not watching Formula E for free, don’t think I will pay to not watch it. I’m just not that passionate about not watching it.
Ciaran (@ciaran)
8th December 2023, 15:10
Guess we’ll disagree to agree then!
Coventry Climax
8th December 2023, 15:29
This one had me laugh. A lot!
Brilliant!
Broke1984 (@broke1984)
8th December 2023, 12:00
The whole point of FE is that it is supposed to be about accessibility and doing things differently. These cars are actually fast, if they want to stop people seeing it they might as well make the cars better and actually put them on proper circuits where their top speed can be shown and people may actually then join the pay party
AlanD
8th December 2023, 12:40
I agree, the circuits are terrible. Every race seems to be the same track with fencing panels, the same overhead shots, etc. So dull.
AlanD
8th December 2023, 12:36
Like any on here, I’ve watched a few FE races on free-to-air, but it just doesn’t grab me. So much of it seems to be about managing the battery level remaining, not using more power than allowed, and those dreadful gimmicks of having to drive through the trick lane, and do they still have the “fan boost” to give one or two drivers an unfair advantage? And the sound, the sound is just terrible. The circuits are soulless and I have no idea which part of the curcuit I am looking at, it is just artificial walls everywhere. Even the comentators are irritating, and rather like F1, half the programme seems to be a tourist promotion for whatever city they are in. Pay for it? They must be having a laugh.
A few years back I considered going to the London FE event. Despite my reservations, I thought I might feel different if I was trackside in Battersea and could see the cars shooting past. But the tickets were stupidly expensive, and when I read the small print, that was for a seat in a marquee where you watched the race on a big screen. It would be like sitting at home watching it on TV, but without the home comforts, and paying over the odds for refreshments. Needless to say, I didn’t go.
SteveR (@stever)
8th December 2023, 16:51
You’re lucky you didn’t go; car park circuits with barriers make awful viewing, as the cars are pretty much hidden with only a roll hoop visible. I attended a street race like that with a photo pass; I had great views, but anyone in the stands couldn’t see squat. Never went again.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
8th December 2023, 12:47
A problem with Formula E for me is that while there does tend to be quite a lot of action, wheel to wheel battling & overtaking it somehow never really feels all that exciting or memorable primarily because it often seems like it’s more about where everyone is in terms of energy management rather than because it’s a genuine competitive fight.
You’ll have driver’s yo-yoing up/down the field going quite a bit slower or faster depending on what energy mode they are in (Which can make you seconds faster or slower a lap) & then on top of that you have the attack mode which tends to see drivers lose places as they go through it only to quickly regain them due to having more power available for a period or when those who past them activate it themselves.
It just ends up making races feel very difficult to follow as there’s no real natural flow to them in terms of everyone’s pace which makes the races hard to read. So many times you’ll get to the end of a race & look at the finishing order and have no idea how everyone ended up where they are.
It just all ends up feeling rather contrived.
AlanD
8th December 2023, 12:55
Totally agree Roger. I would add that there is no identity with the cars. When you watch F1, you know the cars are different, albeit only by fractions. With FE, they look like all the cars come out of the same factory and are just painted in the sponsor’s colours. I think perhaps people gravitate a little towards names like Jaguar because they associate it with the road marque but still it is hard to say how that is different in any way to a Tag Heuer or whatever.
S
9th December 2023, 6:16
Let’s not talk about Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Audi simply slapping their logos on cars produced by a pre-existing race team in F1, then, shall we?
Alesici
8th December 2023, 14:57
I think I’m a enough of a Formula E fan to grudgingly pay up. I had a look at the calendar, and if I miss round 5, and turn my subscription off and on a couple of times, I’d be able to see all the other 15 rounds with just 4 months’ worth of subscription. So it’d cost me £100 for the season. So £6.67 per race. Bad, but not as bad as I initially thought.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th December 2023, 17:03
Formula E is an interesting idea, but the series began before the technology was there to make it exciting to watch compared to other open wheel categories. Now the technology is catching up to the concept, but many motorsport fans have been turned off already. Even if they got rid of the gimmickry that was used to mask their initial performance problems, it is too late for broad commercial success. I imagine that FE will transition into some form of drone racing with 500 kph top speeds and inhuman g-loads, which will certainly be a spectacle and showcase the technologies involved, but that’s not what they were aiming for. I hope that I’m wrong, and that FE can endure its growing pains, but I won’t be paying to find out.
Chris Horton
8th December 2023, 20:03
Formula E behind a paywall….
…you’re kidding me, right?
Asd
9th December 2023, 10:51
The FZero looks like one of those home made mods of ordinary cars like, say, Volkswagen Golf made to look like a Ferrari F40. The wheel covers bulge up 25cm above the tyres, which just looks stupid – as if those indeed were VW Golf’s wheels and tyres.
And the whole rear portion of the car looks like taken from the Wacky Races cartoon or Le Mans prototypes from the 1970s. The cartoon was made in 1968, so yeah.
And the video is just silly.
“FZERO” …. car going 30kph….. “NO LIMITS” …. car going 30kph….