Motorsport Off Topic Thread

[drunkenmaster]

The report is basically complete and utter ****. First, they almost certainly don't have the real costs of every team. Second the income for one season is often reflected in the cost the previous season. If a team spent 10mil more and won 10mil more, they get that 10mil extra the next year so that muddies the picture.

Quite aside from the fact costs increase in every sport and industry over time anyway, 2015 had 10 teams, 2016 had 11 teams. They mention Haas are on the low side budget wise but they must be up around the 80mil mark at least if not more, so that is half the cost increase instantly. Then 2015 had Lotus having spent next to nothing on 2016 and fired half or more of their staff as they basically went bankrupt. They probably only spent 60-70mil in 2015 while Renault rehired a shedload of people. Renault are building up in the same way Merc did, so I'd expect Renault to have spent 130-150mil last year. So just the increase from Haas and Renault building up a little would account for the massive majority of the increase in spending.

You also have the basics, every team plans for regulations changes, so FI might spend 110mil for two years and spend 140mil in a regulation change year, making a 10mil loss last year but aiming for a 5-10mil profit in the other two years, doesn't always work out like that at all, but every team knows and plans for increased spending.

basically the article is dumb, attributes almost the whole lot to the regulation changes as if the changes were choices that increased costs more than other regulation changes might have.

Regardless, combined 2mil net loss is pretty healthy, most sports have massive losses across an entire league as people chase success with several teams ending in financial ruin every season.

 

[The_Abyss]

I don't know if anyone else listened to Radio 5's interview with Button yesterday, as part of him promoting his new book: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05k98hq

Quite an interesting listen. He's pretty balanced, and gives his perspective on Hamilton as well as paying the appropriate respect to him too, and how he is not as driven as the likes of Hamilton and Vettel to go on and achieve multiple WDCs. But I was most interested in him describing the relationship with his Dad - how his Dad supported him and, inadvertently on one occasion, really drove him to success and ultimately his WDC. He was also really honest about the impact of his death, and how his love of F1 ended at that moment as it was a journey and career they were sharing.

Worth 30 minutes of your time to listen.

 

[Shimmy]

^ Cheers for the heads up, was a good listen. May well read his book over Christmas.

 

[Big Spender]

I don't know if anyone else listened to Radio 5's interview with Button yesterday, as part of him promoting his new book: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05k98hq

Quite an interesting listen. He's pretty balanced, and gives his perspective on Hamilton as well as paying the appropriate respect to him too, and how he is not as driven as the likes of Hamilton and Vettel to go on and achieve multiple WDCs. But I was most interested in him describing the relationship with his Dad - how his Dad supported him and, inadvertently on one occasion, really drove him to success and ultimately his WDC. He was also really honest about the impact of his death, and how his love of F1 ended at that moment as it was a journey and career they were sharing.

Worth 30 minutes of your time to listen.

Listened to it last night, very good listening. A couple of parts really hit home with me RE his dad. I've asked Santa for his book for christmas

 

[deuse]

I don't know if anyone else listened to Radio 5's interview with Button yesterday, as part of him promoting his new book: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05k98hq

Quite an interesting listen. He's pretty balanced, and gives his perspective on Hamilton as well as paying the appropriate respect to him too, and how he is not as driven as the likes of Hamilton and Vettel to go on and achieve multiple WDCs. But I was most interested in him describing the relationship with his Dad - how his Dad supported him and, inadvertently on one occasion, really drove him to success and ultimately his WDC. He was also really honest about the impact of his death, and how his love of F1 ended at that moment as it was a journey and career they were sharing.

Worth 30 minutes of your time to listen.

Thanks.
I will be buying the book.

 

[Glaucus]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/132542/f1-plans-to-launch-live-streaming-service

Wahoo I see a VPN in my future.
Hopefully once current deals end this will extend to UK as well.

 

[this_is_gav]

Inevitable really, but I'm only cautiously optimistic. It would be such a big change that there is plenty of scope for it to be overly-commercialised or otherwise compromised - don't go all American on us, and especially don't interrupt key sessions.

I also don't like this aspect at all:

Plans include tailoring the images that are available in each market so they are better focused on local interest, through focusing on a driver or team that is of most interest, or via specific graphics and commentary.

I've already said I'm not a patriotic fan when it comes to F1 - over the years there have been plenty of non-British drivers who have interested me more than most British drivers. If this were to happen tomorrow I really wouldn't appreciate 75% of the footage to focus on Hamilton - 25% yes, he's one of the biggest drivers in the sport - but I would want the other top drivers to be covered just as much.

Commentary would be expected to be localised of course, but why not have a choice of commentary? If you're on holiday there's no reason at all not to have a choice of the available commentary streams.

 

[The_Abyss]

I imagine that the majority of the dynamic content will be advertising, which is already highly targeted according to the local (and regional) audiences.

 

[timmeh]

Hopefully it'll be like the MotoGP streaming service where you can customize the layout, show 4 feeds at once, pick which cameras you want to view, etc.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. No doubt it'll be obscenely expensive. The MotoGP service is $150/year so I can see F1 easily being double that.

 

[MooMoo444]

Kvyat gone for good now, it's official. A shame really, he showed good pace at times. I feel he was made a complete scapegoat just to get Max an empty seat.

 

[UTmaniac]

There's the chance he might be in the running for the currently vacant 2018 Williams seat, alongside Stroll.

 

[Dave M]

https://www.facebook.com/MercedesAMGF1/videos/10155001763727411

First marketing commitment I've seen Hamilton do since Bottas joined!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

https://www.facebook.com/MercedesAMGF1/videos/10155001763727411

First marketing commitment I've seen Hamilton do since Bottas joined!

What about the Usiain Bolt videos that Mercedes released following the US GP? Then there’s the adverts that I’ve seen him in...

 

[Shimmy]

FIA have put forward proposed 2021 Engine plans, seems a sensible direction and hopefully they will sound significantly better too:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/formula-1-reveals-details-of-2021-engine-plan-973420/

 

[Glaucus]

really, it sounds pretty rubbish to me. even more deisgn choices locked down, no technology advances. no money saving as teams will spend even more on aero which really is a waste of money.
Still better than getting rid of the hybrids.

 

[Dup]

With standardising a lot of it, most importantly the fitment, they run the risk of the engines losing their identity which could deter manufacturers wanting to join IMO.

What we all hope as fans is that the PUs sound good, don't blow up and there is little disparity in power between them. But if someone isn't dominating the PU manufacturers could become fickle and leave the sport becasue they're not getting their own way.

I'd sooner the development went back into the chassis for now though, for the spectacle, as that process is a fast development cycle. Although 2009 Brawn were running away with it, they were quickly caught up by Red Bull based on chassis despite the Merc engine being the top dog. We aren't seeing the same with engine development over the last 3 seasons let alone one, so we can pretty much predict the generic order of things before we watch.

We can live in hope. F1 needs to be the pinnacle of racing, not just technology. So long as they're fast, loud and reliable we shouldn't worry about it getting too much like the feeder series'.

 

[Shimmy]

It's difficult, we know they won't go back to V8/V10/V12's.

Manufacturer's want to develop hybrid tech, but FIA feel they need to restrict many areas to prevent spiralling costs and one engine manufacturer dominating.

Not sure what the solution is? Aero regs can easily be improved on however.

 

[Glaucus]

It's difficult, we know they won't go back to V8/V10/V12's.

Manufacturer's want to develop hybrid tech, but FIA feel they need to restrict many areas to prevent spiralling costs and one engine manufacturer dominating.

Not sure what the solution is? Aero regs can easily be improved on however.

the two biggest things that top manufacturers catching is lack of testing and lack of new parts without incurring penalties and have a rule they have to supply the latest engines and all the software.
as for costs just set a max price they can sell the PU for, if the manufacturer wants to invest more so be it, the smaller teams still know what they cost.
cost cutting never really works though, as teams will spend every penny they can and well they cant on anything useful so its all pumped to aero.

 

[MissChief]

the two biggest things that top manufacturers catching is lack of testing and lack of new parts without incurring penalties and have a rule they have to supply the latest engines and all the software.
as for costs just set a max price they can sell the PU for, if the manufacturer wants to invest more so be it, the smaller teams still know what they cost.
cost cutting never really works though, as teams will spend every penny they can and well they cant on anything useful so its all pumped to aero.

The issue with testing is that the top teams, the richest teams, can still test as well so this could potentially mean Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull getting even further away from the other teams.

Testing should be phased by how successful you've been in the previous season. 500km with non race drivers for any team that's won or been on the podium in the dry more than once in the last season. Then 500km with race drivers or 1,000 km with non race drivers for everyone else.

 

[Flibster]

Would be nice if they finalised the details of the Halo...
The teams are still missing information about it. Chassis should be in the process of being built now but is being held up.

Oh and increasing the rev limit by 3k to 18k... well they tend to top out at 12-13k now as the fuel flow limit is the real rev limiter. So it'll be 5-6k revs they're not using instead of just 2-3k. GENIUS!

I'm fully expecting some interesting development parts to appear on cars that have secured their places in the championship now, preparing for 2018.