VetteDrmr

Hmm. Well, all professional sports are also businesses, their product being as competitive as they can afford, especially in racing.

IMO, Haas will be in F1 as long as he feels he can get a decent ROI on advertising for his primary business, high end automation machnery. He's a businessman with a penchant towards racing, but a businessman first.

Have a good one,
Mike

sunsalem

Yes, all major sports owners are business owners, but in F1 especially so.

Take a look at Pro Basketball, Baseball, and Football...
Compare the competiveness in those sports to F1.
A big difference isn't it?
In those sports, it's not unusual for little guys to win championships.
There is something called "salary caps" (aka "budgets") to keep teams from tilting the supply of top talent available to just one team.
And it works.
This is what I am referring to regarding the well-funded (MB, Ferrari, RB) being able to dominate F1 and strangle the competitiveness at the sporting end.

Only Liberty can do something about this (in theory FIA could too, but they always punt).
Right now, there are only 6 seats available to win from.
Is this a good thing?
Who DOESN'T want to see Alonso fighting for podiums?
Or young guns like Ocon, or Sainz, or Vandoorne going head-to-head with the Big Guys?
Or see if those 2 guys, who seem to forever battling for 7th (Perez and the Hulk), can really hang with the top 6?

F1 is at a crossroads...it must change or change will happen to it (and not the good kind).
Kids these days don't give a rat's *** about "legacy, history, or tradition."
Yet, kids are the future...like it or not.

It's easy to see why selling F1 in America is a difficult task.
I wouldn't want the job...

VetteDrmr

That's a great analysis!

I agree that Liberty needs to do something money wise. I think their plans on re-balancing the award payouts is a good first step.

I'd love to see them put some kind of money cap in place, but I fear the home governments will play games with the money the teams spend so they're "below" the cap. That fear may be totally unfounded, but I see how soccer is handled around the world, and I don't see why F1 wouldn't be handled similarly.

TOLD you this would get a conversation started!!!

Have a good one,
Mike

sunsalem

It's a bitter pill the Old Guard in F1 has to swallow, but swallow it has to be.
Or just altogether stop pretending this is a "sport" and call it for what it is: a business not any different than selling smartphones or sneakers.

I question whether Liberty and/or the FIA has the GUTS to stand up to these huge corporations and stare them down.
IMO, it's just a waiting game to see who blinks first.
In the past, Bernie and the FIA did all the blinking.
They buckled during these kinds of discussions.
Bernie and crew couldn't imagine F1 without Ferrari or MB or Williams.
Yet, they could imagine it without Porsche, Audi, Ford, Aston Martin, Nissan, etc.
This is one of the failings of the previous management.

If entry into the sport was EASY (meaning relatively inexpensive) and should the Old Guard really wish to leave...let 'em.
Bring some manufacturers in to take their spots on the grid.
The "Porsche, Audi, Ford, Aston Martin, Nissan, etc." of the world know how to field a professional racing team...they do it all the time.
Invite the big teams in for their input into a new formula (duly warn them it's going to happen regardless), then lay down a NEW Formula well in advance...to give other manufacturers time to come aboard should there be some spots opening up on the grid.

Speaking of that subject, the new formula must make entry into the sport easy, without an enormous outlays of cash upfront as we have now.
Secondly, dividing the winnings must not make permanent ghetto residents of some teams.
If other sports can do this, so can F1.
I don't buy the argument that F1 is a special case that can't function as normal sports do.

sunsalem

WARNING: The above was written before the writer drank his required morning amount of Hawaiian Coffee and, therefore, bears no responsibility for its clarity, lucidity, or sanity.

sunsalem

Williams delays driver announcement until January:
http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/6...nt_to_January/

Zak Brown believes Ron Dennis would have dropped Honda too:
http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/6...it_from_Honda/

2018 cars will be 2 seconds faster:
http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/6...leap_in_2018_/

VetteDrmr

Doesn't bode well for more passing. Terminal velocities are probably very similar to the last couple of years, so that says the time will be made up in the corners. That plus shorter braking zones (which are already mind-blowing) makes for less opportunities.

So, more carnage from banzai attempts at passing, or more processionals?

Have a good one,
Mike

sunsalem

No, it doesn't.
A couple of years of ago, the FIA was bragging about how much faster the 2017 cars would be around the tracks and that would translate into more exciting races.
As it turned out, the opposite happened (in terms of passing).
IIRC, there was around half the amount of passing in 2017 as there was in 2016.
So much for that....
I'm thinking the former.
There doesn't appear to be anything in the 2018 formula that indicates the field will close up competitively.
Same ol' driver desperation, same ol' results.

sunsalem

Marko is mystified by Kvyat's decline:
http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/6...vyats_decline/
I think Marko needs to look in the mirror for an answer to that one.

sunsalem

BKorsaire

The fact that Williams' management has decided to give itself additional time for reflection proves that the choice is not yet completely determined, between sports criteria and economic parameters concerning Kubica and Sirotkin. Williams, who has been losing speed for the past 3 years ago, will need a lot of resources in order to counter FI but also Renault Team, RSF1, and McLaren. I wonder if Williams isn't just raising the bids between the two contenders for the bucket. The loser will cry as a baby !

sunsalem

It does sound to me it's all about extracting the most amount of $$$ for their empty seat.
It's sad the once mighty Williams has been reduced to nearly begging for cash, but that's what happens with a prize structure like the current one.
Maybe it is time for the family to sell out to VW and move to the Caribbean.

sunsalem

The RB Boys having fun again:

sunsalem

F1 Stocking Stuffers:

https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2017/...your-stocking/

VetteDrmr

First article *I've* seen discussing how teams are going to work the halo aero for '18.

http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/6...ent_explained/

Have a good one,
Mike

sunsalem

We are almost 2,000 years removed from the Romans...no sport is worth dying over.
Although it is one ugly sucka, I hope it works.

sunsalem

Vote for who gets Williams' seat:
http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/6...Williams_seat/
I went with Sirotkin...they have already made it clear it goes to the highest bidder.


Not impressed:

Bernie Ecclestone has aimed fire at both F1 owner Liberty Media and the sport’s most famous team Ferrari.
2017 was the 87-year-old’s first full season without an operational role in the sport, having been ousted by Liberty Media after the American company’s takeover.
Liberty is currently consulting with manufacturers about the engine rules for 2021, but Ecclestone said the only way to run the sport is as a dictator.
“Democracy has no place in formula one,” he said, as veteran F1 correspondent Roger Benoit visited Ecclestone at his coffee plantation in Brazil.
“The new owners will soon realize this, because so far they have achieved nothing,” Ecclestone told Sonntagsblick newspaper.

BKorsaire

Clearly, Sirotkin : Rotenberg gives the cash and a lot of people sait that Sergey was at same level than young Canadian Stroll but ahead Kubi in last testings of Abu Dahbi

3rd pilot Kvyatt

VetteDrmr

All I can think of is an old dog howling at the moon. He's at the point that, regardless of his money, it must hurt being toothless (no pun intended).

Have a good one,
Mike

VetteDrmr

It will probably help in a couple of accidents, but I don't think it would have helped Bianchi. Perhaps Massa, but that spring could have flown through the halo just as easily.

And while I agree that sports entertainment is never worth dying for, it does happen, even with everything that's been done. I'd say we're probably more at risk at a DE in our street cars than professional racers are, just due to the lack of safety gear and the performance our cars are capable of.

Have a good one,
Mike