F1 2009 Season discussion/development thread

steve45 said:
its Branson we are talking about here if he dosnt think he'll make money out of it some way either directly or indirectly then he wont do it.
but he's got to be tempted after seeing the progress and i'd say success that redbull have made out of it.
but if he does go for it then i hope he sticks around long enough and dosnt give it a half assed effort, because i highly doubt that honda will go very far this year at least, i would imagine it'll take time for them to catch up to the pack with the lack of testing and such.

would be intersting to see the car liveries, and virgin would bring some spice to the F1 paddock much like redbull have.
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RedBull? You reckon they make a profit out of F1? Or is the team propped up by drink sales profit? I think I know which it is.

Branson cannot afford to use the airline or other businesses to prop up F1.

Branson is the master of getting linked to stuff, making headlines and then nothing coming of it. He has far more important deals to think about such as stakes in airlines and airports than losing money on a F1 team.

His airline is looking shaky ATM with hundreds of staff worried about jobs and no doubt a lot of lay off's are coming. I can't see them buying an F1 team until the airline is stable again. Buying a team while laying off staff won't go down to well.

Plus I don't care who he is he won't make money out of F1 without a huge investment and a 10 year plan to become successfull.

If renault consider F1 a money pit that hasn't paid off in car sales I don't see what Virgin would have to gain.
 
Richard Branson (I would guess) has a lot more fingers in more pies than Renault (who without doubt are a decent car maker, are really only known for that) - RB has got airlines, trains, credit cards, plus who knows how many personal investments and other things besides

While any car manufacturer can invest in technology which can directly assist road cards (in a reasonable time frame) and obviously Mercedes and Ferrari especially probably get a decent increase in sales when they win races / championships - Branson can do his own advertising which could plausibly help no matter what ......IF the team are a reasonable success, and to a lesser extent in subliminal advertising also, for whatever singular or multiple projects he wishes

If anyone can make it pay its the Virgin brand / RB imo

(also I wonder if there is any chance Virgin could get the cargo deal for F1 flights out of this?)
 
FrankJH said:
(also I wonder if there is any chance Virgin could get the cargo deal for F1 flights out of this?)
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lol, i think its a safe bet that "horgin" (Virda perhaps :p) staff and equipment would be using virgin for flying. Perhaps thats part of the deal, might help him save some airline jobs, get some decent advertising and perhaps get involved in motorsport (which might be one of his dreams? who knows)
 
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dannyjo22 said:
RedBull? You reckon they make a profit out of F1? Or is the team propped up by drink sales profit? I think I know which it is.

Branson cannot afford to use the airline or other businesses to prop up F1.

Branson is the master of getting linked to stuff, making headlines and then nothing coming of it. He has far more important deals to think about such as stakes in airlines and airports than losing money on a F1 team.

His airline is looking shaky ATM with hundreds of staff worried about jobs and no doubt a lot of lay off's are coming. I can't see them buying an F1 team until the airline is stable again. Buying a team while laying off staff won't go down to well.

Plus I don't care who he is he won't make money out of F1 without a huge investment and a 10 year plan to become successfull.

If renault consider F1 a money pit that hasn't paid off in car sales I don't see what Virgin would have to gain.
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You really dont understand Venture Capital Firms do you....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Group#Virgin_brands_.28under_various_ownership.29

Virgin Atlantic is just one of many many many many many many many pies. and you can hardly say RB should only invest in proven profitable businesses seen as he started Virgin Galactic... the costs involved in stuff like that make F1 look like pennies.

He would be a multi millionaire buying a car set to play with, exactly like Dietrich Mateschitz and Vijay Mallya, who are exactly the kind of people needed to keep F1 going.
 
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Skeeter said:
This chanel was only around for a couple of years. They sold all the timing software and graphics to ITV. The Camera mode stuff was cool, but it failed because of crap commentary and the fact nobody watched it for any more than 18 weekends a year!
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ITV have only ever used the world feed graphics, nothing was sold to anyone. It just so happens that since F1 digital failed in the UK they got the better FOM graphics/timing on ITV. You still get multi view F1 in Germany, the only difference now is that they have the same World feed graphics as everyone else gets now. ITV has never had it's own timing or graphics.
 
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Wicksta said:
ITV have only ever used the world feed graphics, nothing was sold to anyone. It just so happens that since F1 digital failed in the UK they got the better FOM graphics/timing on ITV. You still get multi view F1 in Germany, the only difference now is that they have the same World feed graphics as everyone else gets now. ITV has never had it's own timing or graphics.
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Makes sence, kinda...

[pedantic mode]

if the F1 channel was showing the world feed and ITV was not using the same graphics, then for that time atleast it was using its own graphics

[/ pedantic mode]

But either way, the channel is dead and F1 is not in HD.
 
Anyone else see Branson on Breakfast TV today?

He didn't exactly confirm anything, but he did waffle a lot about NDAs and how if he was in talks he wouldn't be able to say anything.

He seemed to say that if he was offered the idea he'd be interested, particularly if Bernie could make the sport greener.
 
I'm not surprised by Branson's comments. F1 is a moneypit that even he doesnt want to throw into. Although, I would be very interested to see how the Ferrari team is financed. Being in F1 since forever must have a certain leverage with Bernie etc.
 
I'm amazed anyone actually thought he really wanted in. The changes needed to have the financial environment Branson talks about will take years and will hardly be that supported by teams like mclaren who are already at the top and making money.

f1 needs to be run on 30m a year to be of interest to people who like to make money.

Nothing but a publicity stunt for the virgin name, more headlines. As I said he's the master of it.
 
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