Round-up: F1 ‘moved goalposts’ for Cadillac, Las Vegas Grand Prix plaza opens and more

12 comments on “Round-up: F1 ‘moved goalposts’ for Cadillac, Las Vegas Grand Prix plaza opens and more”

1. 

   US_Peter (@us_peter)
   7th May 2025, 4:00

   “…while David Coulthard rebounded after a fatal plan crash” makes it sound like there was a Zombie F1 driver on the grid in in the 2000 Spanish GP.

   Also, Ben Sulayem could maybe learn a thing or two from Paul DiResta about the purpose of the budget cap. The fact that there are no serious challengers to Ben Sulayem’s FIA reelection emerging so far is worrisome with his recent budget cap comments. I don’t look forward to a return of the days DiResta describes where some teams couldn’t pay their hotel bills and we had at least a third of the grid occupied by nepobaby pay drivers. With the budget cap that’s been reduced to a single driver. I hope it doesn’t slide backwards, but if the budget cap is scrapped it most certainly will be. Just because it’s a headache for him to manage doesn’t mean it hasn’t be hugely beneficial to the sport as a whole, and even to the bigger teams.

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   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      7th May 2025, 7:11

      I guess as @Red-Andy noted yesterday, a rich guy who used his wealth to be elected to a position of power wouldn’t see the advantage of putting a limit on how much success can be bought with money.

      Maybe the real issue for him is that now teams aren’t scraping barrel bottom for funds and being actually healthy operations makes it harder to play them and divide them.

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      1. 

         MichaelN
         7th May 2025, 14:46

         They are healthy to the extent that they collectively get 1,2 billion USD a year, and can make do with relatively small time sponsors.

         Remember that the media attacks on Ben Sulayem started when he dared voice concern over rumours that Liberty was considering a sale of FOM for a truly enormous amount. Ben Sulayem warned that the buyer would have to recoup those costs, and that this posed a risk to F1, the teams and the hosts. Suddenly there was a target on his back.

         Ben Sulayem is a small player in the world of global megacorporations and sovereign wealth funds. These people have friends in the media. And while the FIA has certainly done some goofy things, it’s worth considering if that’s enough to justify the casual and constant villification of the president.

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         1. 

            Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
            7th May 2025, 18:27

            MichaelN, the objections by knowledgeable fans on Ben Sulayem began well before January 2023. They started back in mid-2022, with two failures:

            1) failing to admit to the FIA review that the wrongdoing it admitted legally required it to change the result of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (and then do so), instead falsely claiming that its own regulations protected it against that duty

            2) spending the summer negotiating with Red Bull on how much overspend it was comfortable with Red Bull admitting, before choosing to impose a penalty that didn’t compensate for the advantage already gained, let alone the compound advantage built up because it was able to continue to benefit from spending extra money at the start of a new set of regulations.

            The “media attacks” came across as extremely slow to wake up to what was going on and, even now, tepid.

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2. 

   Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
   7th May 2025, 6:59

   20 years ago today Kimi Raikkonen put his McLaren on pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix

   Wrrong. In 2005 we had that strange system with two qualifying sessions: one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Trulli was the fastest on Saturday (OTD 20 years ago). Räikkönen snatched the pole (and the win) the day after.

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3. 

   SteveP
   7th May 2025, 7:55

   Just because it’s a headache for him to manage doesn’t mean it hasn’t be hugely beneficial to the sport as a whole, and even to the bigger teams.

   MBS doesn’t have to manage it, just distantly manage the people that manage it.
   Managing the PR aspects of proper penalties for those who transgress – that’s his problem.
   If he has difficulties with that, then he should move on and let someone who knows what they are doing get on with it.
   He would be sadly missed, or not.

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   1. 

      S
      7th May 2025, 8:33

      ‘His’ organisation has to manage it – he knows how complex it is and how hard the teams try to circumvent it.
      Given the FIA’s responsibility to F1 is largely technical/sporting and not financial, I can totally understand his point of view.

      It’s simply a fact of human behaviour that not many people that close to F1 are capable of producing a well-rounded holistic opinion about it.
      But then, not many people watching it from the outside are either…

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4. 

   Ferdi
   7th May 2025, 9:20

   Moving goalpost is their middle name for quite a while now, so no surprises. People have to understand Liberty and FIA have no interest whatsoever in anything other than control and revenue. They couldn’t care less whether the content is a sport or a baking competition or whatever. They will run this sport into the ground.

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   1. 

      Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
      7th May 2025, 17:19

      I sincerely hope none of the people who work ridiculous hours at their offices dont read your throw away comment. I dont think they are all petrolheads, in fact i know they are not but they do care about the sport and do not want to run it into the ground. AND, they haven’t.

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5. 

   Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
   7th May 2025, 11:53

   Re the missing comments.
   I was starting to think I had said something naughty whilst posting drunk (a bad habit of mine) and had been given a ban.

   Thankfully not, and now I am back I can enlighten you all with my perfect knowledge and expert opinions again …. you lucky people :)

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   1. 

      SteveP
      7th May 2025, 18:00

      I was starting to think I had said something naughty whilst posting drunk (a bad habit of mine)

      That old slogan: Don’t Drink and Drivel (or something like that)

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      1. 

         Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
         7th May 2025, 18:19

         Oh I drivel all the time – but it becomes offensive when I am drinking as well ;P

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