F1

Which other team got the ”Force India treatment”?

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  • #131311

    One of the stranger events in the decidedly odd weekend we’ve just had was the non-appearance of the Force Indias on TV in qualifying.

    This was rumoured to be a punishment from Bernie Ecclestone for them missing FP2 and thereby giving ammunition to critics of the race.

    There were alternative explanations. For example, it may have been entirely innocent – although it seems every other driver was shown during the session.

    Alternatively, there were claims the cars weren’t seen as they carried alcohol advertisements – but that didn’t stop them appearing during the race coverage on Sunday.

    Lending credence to the claims that Force India were “blacklisted” were these tweets from F1 journalist Adam Hay-Nicholls:

    Not the 1st time they’ve been instructed not to film a certain team

    https://twitter.com/#!/AdamHayNicholls/statuses/193664790760132608

    Sworn to secrecy. Would open a can of worms.

    https://twitter.com/#!/AdamHayNicholls/status/193665921968111617

    All I’ll reveal is that the name of the team no longer exists

    https://twitter.com/#!/AdamHayNicholls/statuses/193689362750390273

    This leads us to an obvious question – assuming this is all true, which team got the same treatment as Force India in the past, and for what transgression?

    One possibility that came to my mind (as I’m preparing an article on it at present) is Tyrrell breaking ranks over the FOCA boycott of the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix.

    Ecclestone, many will recall, was in charge of the teams’ organisation FOCA (forerunner of today’s FOTA) who agreed not to race at Imola that year. FOCA-aligned Tyrrell went ahead and raced anyway as they’d recently landed sponsorship deals with two Italian companies. This was around the same time Ecclestone set up FOCA TV to handle race broadcasts – did he take advantage of his new-found powers to get them back? In light of Tyrrell’s treatment in 1984, it seems plausible.

    Interested to hear any other theories readers might have on this one.

    #200126
    TommyB
    Participant

    Didn’t Alonso get ignored at Monza after he said that F1 wasn’t a sport any more in regards to the stupid Massa penalty.

    #200127
    Pawel Wroniecki
    Participant

    Kubica last season was blacklisted and didnt apear in any race ;-(

    #200128
    raymondu999
    Participant

    @TommyB89 that was a long time back – 06 I believe.

    I remember I think it was Abu Dhabi last year – Force India added a very small bit of fine print on their “Whyte & MacKay” sticker. It read, “Whyte & MacKay” and below it, in microscopic font, “Music CDs.”

    But I don’t remember any such coverage “boycott” by Bernie before. The recent exitees of course are BMW, Toyota and Honda. Could it be one of those folks? Maybe Tommy’s right and it could be “Renault” as in Alonso 2006 Monza.

    #200129

    @tommyb89 He said it was aimed at a team, though.

    #200130
    Prisoner Monkeys
    Participant

    What about Renault in the aftermath of the Singapore investigations? I seem to recall seeing very little of them once Briatore was found guilty and kicked out of the sport. Briatore was excommunicated and Renault were given a suspended sentence on September 21st, the Monday before the Singapore Grand Prix. I don’t recall seeing them at all after that. There might have been the odd shot of Grosjean spinning around, but as far as I can remember, there were no R29s for the rest of the season if it could be helped.

    #200131
    goofy
    Participant

    @keithcollantine But which races actually were produced by FOCA TV? As far as I know they owend the commercial rights for broadcasts but the races were produced by broadcasting corporations from the hosting nations. So it’s hard to believe Bernie had such a big influence on this.

    The opening credits of the 1982 season review from Duke Video say:

    “FOCA wishes to thank the following

    South African Broadcasting Corporation
    The Globo Network of Brazil
    Radio Televizione Italia
    Belgian TV Service
    American Broadcasting Co
    CTV of Canada
    Dutch Television Service
    ZDF of Germany
    Austrian Television Service
    National Broadcasting Co”

    That covers all GPs from 1982 if we assume the Monaco and the Swiss GP were produced by French Television and the San Marino GP by RAI

    #200132
    Kingshark
    Participant

    September 21st, the Monday before the Singapore Grand Prix. I don’t recall seeing them at all after that. There might have been the odd shot of Grosjean spinning around, but as far as I can remember, there were no R29s for the rest of the season if it could be helped.

    Hmm, good point. I don’t remember seeing any R29 in a race after Singapore until Abu Dhabi other than Alonso being taken out by Sutil at Brazil.

    #200133

    @goofy Good point.

    #200134
    Kingshark
    Participant

    Didn’t Alonso get ignored at Monza after he said that F1 wasn’t a sport any more in regards to the stupid Massa penalty.

    I don’t remember, but it would’ve been hard to ignore him considering that he was the championship leader.

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