Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Been a few years but looks like we're back on the old British GP being in trouble thing again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...itish-Grand-Prix-at-risk-says-track-boss.html

The contracts that Bernie gets these circuits to sign are totally unsustainable and the British GP one is better than most of the others! Silverstone has to wring more and more money out of punters every year just to cover the 5% escalation fee and frankly with F1s popularity plateauing or on the decline how long can they keep getting enough people to pay? Silverstone are making no money out of the event so what's it gaining them apart from the prestige?

The government shouldn't have to bail the event out with public money (not that they will anyway!)
 
Psycho Ned said:
Been a few years but looks like we're back on the old British GP being in trouble thing again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...itish-Grand-Prix-at-risk-says-track-boss.html

The contracts that Bernie gets these circuits to sign are totally unsustainable and the British GP one is better than most of the others! Silverstone has to wring more and more money out of punters every year just to cover the 5% escalation fee and frankly with F1s popularity plateauing or on the decline how long can they keep getting enough people to pay? Silverstone are making no money out of the event so what's it gaining them apart from the prestige?

The government shouldn't have to bail the event out with public money (not that they will anyway!)
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Due to the increasing costs and contractual agreements between the circuits and Bernie. If Silverstone goes under it will affect a lot more than just F1, Remember that MotoGP and BSB races are held there as well.
 
All a bit of a 'that just life' story really. The British GP is privately funded, so they need private investors to invest for it to happen. If they don't it doesn't happen. Simple as.

The only way to compete against a market that is being increasingly served through public funded races is to become public funded. That will never happen in Europe so its not a case of if the British GP and others get dropped, its simply a case of when.

It sucks, but that's just the way it is. Britain (and Western Europe) isn't a market anyone with a commercial interest in F1 is really concerned about.
 
mctiny said:
Due to the increasing costs and contractual agreements between the circuits and Bernie. If Silverstone goes under it will affect a lot more than just F1, Remember that MotoGP and BSB races are held there as well.
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And the WEC and the Classic .... and lets not forget the other 30 weekends a year they run various National and Club level events like TOCA (BTCC), BARC, BRSCC and 750MC.

Silverstone is so much more than a couple of tentpole events.
 
JRS said:
Might be the making of it.
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Certainly...

If you take F1 one away they'll lose a huge amount of money, as that's the most recognised motorsport... the rest won't be able to fund the circuit, it'll decay like the rest...

Donnington park is no longer the same circuit now as it once was...
 
mctiny said:
Certainly...

If you take F1 one away they'll lose a huge amount of money, as that's the most recognised motorsport... the rest won't be able to fund the circuit, it'll decay like the rest...

Donnington park is no longer the same circuit now as it once was...
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Donington Park too. ;)

It's getting there ... slowly.
 
mctiny said:
Certainly...

If you take F1 one away they'll lose a huge amount of money, as that's the most recognised motorsport... the rest won't be able to fund the circuit, it'll decay like the rest...

Donnington park is no longer the same circuit now as it once was...
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F1 doesn't fund the circuit. F1 funds the F1.

The rest of the circuit can fund itself fine as they don't pay millions to host other series.
 
The_Abyss said:
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24...is-winning-mclaren-poker-game-with-ron-dennis

Sums it up well. If it is resolved then undoubtedly it will be another 1 +1 of some form or another, so we can at least revisit this in 10 months' time.
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Hope Jenson get's the result he wants, I think he would be a great loss to F1. If he can get a 1 +1 and stay on until the end of 2017 he may be in with a shot of going out with style. Honda should by then have corrected their design errors and be highly competitive.

Jay
 
So add Force India and Sauber to the list of teams who won't be shown on TV in the upcoming races.

So far this season we've had races with no Mercedes and Manor on the TV, and now Force India and Sauber... Bernievision will be running out of teams they will be allowed to show!
 
Psi Jay said:
I'm well out of touch with the politics of F1, exactly how much clout does the EU carry on such a global sport?

Jay
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They got tabacco advertising completely removed from global motorsport... so a lot.

I'm with Sauber and FI on the rules issue. Its not right that 6 of the 10/11 teams have a say in the rules and the rest don't. However my solution would be to have none of the teams having a say. The FIA/FOM should make the rules and the teams should decide if they want to compete.

I have zero sympathy about the money though. Firstly, prize money should be structured so the winners earn more, otherwise whats the point in competing? And secondly, the bizarre distribution of funds for Historic Teams or 'being Ferrari' is their own fault. The teams completely failed to agree on a single Concorde agreement to distribute funds, and so have all entered individual contracts with FOM themselves. If FI/Sauber were to stupid to negotiate themselves good deals that's their own fault.
 
Considering most sports worldwide reward winners more than losers it's going to be hard to argue winners getting more money than the losers. There is the equal payment of around 40mil and anything from about 15 -60mil extra depending on constructors championship finishing position. Extra payments to certain teams will be described as essential to have kept those teams and engines inside the sport. Payments that if not made would have seen big teams leave and F1 die as a consequence.

The tobacco banning I can't say I remember exactly why/how it happened but I would guess off the top of my head it had little to do with banning the sponsorship and everything to do with banning smoking advertising on tv in general. A result of advertising bans on tobacco related products meant there was no reason for a tobacco company to sponsor a F1 car if due to advertising regulations meant they couldn't put the logo/name on the cars, uniforms or anywhere visible on camera.

Same way alcohol sponsors have to be removed for certain races. The EU has huge scope for saying they want to ban adverts in their own countries, they have incredibly little remit to change how a business works and F1 is a business. The Spanish league is drastically less competitive due to the monumentally unfair tv rights that Barca/Real get over the rest of the league. They might get 100mil a year while the smallest teams are getting 5mil if that meaning Real/Barca have a budget 200-300mil higher than most other teams. Clubs have complained to the government, tried to sort out deals, nothing happened in the end.

On the subject of not agreeing to a deal between all the teams... it's most likely the biggest teams who had the most problem with signing a deal together, the small teams stood to gain massively but the big teams stood to lose out massively. Ferrari afaik were the first team to go make a individual deal and everyone else followed.
 
Skeeter said:
F1 doesn't fund the circuit. F1 funds the F1.

The rest of the circuit can fund itself fine as they don't pay millions to host other series.
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F1 funds F1... but, if you take away the profit from F1 related activities the circuit will suffer, just like other circuits around the world, they've forked out millions to upgrade the circuit just for F1 and Bernie and I'm sure they'll have to pay off that debt over a feew years.
 
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