Motorsport Off Topic Thread

[Flibster]

I'm liking the sound of him wanting to scrap Ferrari's $100 million a year 'Hell, you're Ferrari, have some money' bonus. Split it evenly between all the teams. Possibly even just those outside the top 3 teams of the previous year.

He does seem to have his head screwed on properly, which will make a change for F1. Now, to deal with Toad....

 

[englishpremier]

When reports first surfaced about Liberty taking it over I think it was EJ again that said Bernie would be out pretty much immediately. So it it's no surprise, but long overdue.

It's going to be an interesting few years in F1 from the time the next agreements come up.

 

[dannyjo22]

So Bernie has gone, I for one think it's 20 years too late

Yep the cars are even reverting to a size near to 1997 specs

Bernies interviews these days are embarrassing for a man who used to be so sharp. He looks permanently confused like my dad did as dementia started to take hold I think they know this and are trying not to highlight his mental slip and ease him out with as much dignity as possible.

 

[Lunatic Dreyfus]

Long overdue removal of that odious man. As long as he actually stays gone, of course.

Still think it's too late for me and F1 however.

 

[UTmaniac]

Has Ross Brawn replaced crazy old Bernie?

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Has Ross Brawn replaced crazy old Bernie?

No. Chase Carey has assumed the role.

Bernie has been offered a token role of "honourary president" although I have no idea what that entails. Sitting next to Putin at the Russian GP?

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Really encouraging to see brawn running the technical side of the sport!

 

[this_is_gav]

I always said "better the devil you know" when it came to someone superseding Bernie, as I assumed it would be someone with even less interest in the sport (Bernie was a driver himself remember).

I suppose only time will tell whether those fears were unfounded, but it's all sounding rather positive at the moment.

I guess "cautiously optimistic" best describes my feelings.

 

[FrankJH]

I always said "better the devil you know" when it came to someone superseding Bernie, as I assumed it would be someone with even less interest in the sport (Bernie was a driver himself remember)..

Not a very good one by all accounts

I suppose only time will tell whether those fears were unfounded, but it's all sounding rather positive at the moment.

I guess "cautiously optimistic" best describes my feelings.

Its sounding very positive at the moment, and with Brawn sorting out the engineering side it will hopefully get back to what it should be - the pinacle of motorsport.

 

[Glaucus]

waaahoo but the new team doesn't fill me with confidence about imposing budgets etc. only time will tell.

 

[Ceryndrion]

Has Ross Brawn replaced crazy old Bernie?

So far as I can tell, Ross Brawn is taking over as "Managing Director, Motorsport" whereas Sean Bratches (ESPN) will be taking over as "Managing Director, Commercial"

 

[The_Abyss]

All hugely positive moves and saying the right things so far.

 

[deuse]

Carey has been publicly quiet since Liberty bought the first tranche of its shareholding in September, but he has spent the time getting to know what the company that employed him has bought.

His findings were:

The revenue system is skewed in favour of the already rich and powerful, to the extent that the smallest teams are struggling to survive and money is tight for about half the grid
There is a lack of competition on track
Television audience figures are dropping in many markets - although this is largely because of a switch to pay television, to make more money from TV rights deals
The longest-standing races are struggling to fund themselves and risk dropping off the calendar
The decision-making process is not working properly
Some significant business and sporting decisions have been made for solely financial reasons, disregarding other important factors, such as their effects on the sporting side
An acceptance that F1 has lost some of its appeal, particularly a sense of edge and drama and as an extreme driver challenge

Great, now fix the issues you've already identified and it'll be awesome

Looks to me to be all talk no action. They know F1 has lost millions of fans and free view fans.
But they still want to go via pay per view? But they can't do anything big till 2020 and I won't be watching it after 2018 season.

EDIT

Charging hosting fees to circuits are a key revenue stream for F1 and, notably, Carey stopped short of suggesting races could be made more affordable for tracks. Instead, he suggested Liberty would be aiming to make meetings more financially successful – which is not the news circuits or fans may have been hoping for.

He wants to make the sport “bigger, broader and better”. Carey said: “We have 21 races – we should have 21 Super Bowls. They should be week-long extravaganzas with entertainment and music, events that capture a whole city.”

The guy is out of his mind. Week long events! F1 can't fill most of the tracks now because it cost to much.

 

[dannyjo22]

The guy is out of his mind. Week long events! F1 can't fill most of the tracks now because it cost to much.

No surely he doesn't mean you buy a ticket for the whole week, he means a whole week of entertainment at a venue when the circus is in town. A week party, you wouldn't need to go to the race at all but head down on the wednesday for live music a few drinks, stalls, entertainment etc. Celebrating the culture of the circuit you are at.

I hope they make wholesale changes but when they see the money coming in they will probably continue as before!

 

[Armageus]

The guy is out of his mind. Week long events! F1 can't fill most of the tracks now because it cost to much.

But surely making it an even bigger week long event boosts the tourism aspect, and generates more revenue for the local economy?

No surely he doesn't mean you buy a ticket for the whole week, he means a whole week of entertainment at a venue when the circus is in town. A week party, you wouldn't need to go to the race at all but head down on the wednesday for live music a few drinks, stalls, entertainment etc. Celebrating the culture of the circuit you are at.

That is how I would picture it - from the circuit's point of view it probably doesn't cost much more to "open" for a few more days, rather than just a race weekend, and allows a longer period to sell merchandise, food, drink and partner deals e.g. for accommodation etc.

 

[dannyjo22]

The main thing I am hoping is they embrace the digital era now. All races available to stream, if you want to watch the 1996 Portuguese GP you should be able to.

 

[deuse]

No surely he doesn't mean you buy a ticket for the whole week, he means a whole week of entertainment at a venue when the circus is in town. A week party, you wouldn't need to go to the race at all but head down on the wednesday for live music a few drinks, stalls, entertainment etc. Celebrating the culture of the circuit you are at.

I hope they make wholesale changes but when they see the money coming in they will probably continue as before!

But surely making it an even bigger week long event boosts the tourism aspect, and generates more revenue for the local economy?



That is how I would picture it - from the circuit's point of view it probably doesn't cost much more to "open" for a few more days, rather than just a race weekend, and allows a longer period to sell merchandise, food, drink and partner deals e.g. for accommodation etc.

How many extra people would go to Silverstone? Unless they do it in the Holiday time I can't see it working.
There are no hotels to stay at and the traffic would put people off.
It may work in places like las vegas. But most tracks are in the country side. Well the best tracks are there.

I used to live an hour from Daytona track but I never went\seen this week long thing. I did go to the race.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

No, what the original quote said was that when you go to a country hosting the GP you often aren't aware there's a GP happening.

He wants to promote the GP for "a week" so that if you go to Barcelona for a 2 day trip, you'll see posters up, events in the city... something that will make the casual fan think "oh cool, I'll go to that".

 

[deuse]

No, what the original quote said was that when you go to a country hosting the GP you often aren't aware there's a GP happening.

He wants to promote the GP for "a week" so that if you go to Barcelona for a 2 day trip, you'll see posters up, events in the city... something that will make the casual fan think "oh cool, I'll go to that".

He wants to make the sport “bigger, broader and better”. Carey said: “We have 21 races – we should have 21 Super Bowls. They should be week-long extravaganzas with entertainment and music, events that capture a whole city.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-bowls-events-capture-city-british-grand-prix

As I said it may work for a race held in a city but not the normal\great tracks.
And I can see them putting the charge of advertising on the tracks.

But they want cheaper engines with sound, so it looks like back to V10\V8 in 2020. Which I like.
To get costs down they should get rid of most of the cars aero.

 

[Shimmy]

Thought I would never see the day. Terminated.