F1 on the ropes... and I don't even care.

[GitanesBlondes]

Michael Andretti was/is a Penna peasant, the story about him and wife Sandy ordering burgers in Paris just tells it all.

But on topic, F1 has totally lost the plot, those silly engines was the last straw.

I agree, he was not his old man in any sense.

But yes back on topic, the engines are what accelerated the problems of F1 faster than I could ever have imagined.

It makes more sense as to why Bernie was so adamantly opposed to the engines last off-season. He only focused on the sound aspect, but what was left unsaid was the cost involved, and how that would bankrupt teams outside of the top 4. Had he gotten his way, they'd still be running the 2.4L V8's because of the economics involved.

[Sulman]

It's a difficult topic, because I'm not sure Caterham or Marussia are victims of anything other than their own mismanagement. Caterham have done precisely nothing since coming to F1, and Marussia haven't carried any meaningful commercial deals for a couple of years. Ironically, like so many others Manor (reminded me of Simtek, ironically), they were getting their engineering and ops well sorted just as they ran out of money.

In other words, those teams were always going to go bust.

As for the crisis, meh. It'll sort itself out. Either the market will crush F1 as we know it, or they will come to their senses.

For me - as a fan - the biggest problem is shock and awe. Sure, the engine Formula is impressive and it's very cool they're doing all this with 100kg of petrol, but as Patrick Head said a couple of years ago, F1 needs to shock and awe. It needs to be loud and fast. I was a fan of the engine formula because it represented a big engineering challenge, but as the year has gone on I started craving the red blooded pulse of the old V8's.

I see no point in teams spending 200-300 mil just to be a little faster than Sportscars and GP2, it's madness. At that point, nobody gives a toss how economical they are. If they want to see economy, they can go and watch Whole Foods car park from a nearby Starbucks. All the hybrid action you could want.

[emaren]

... I decided that I was not going to spend $140+ a month to watch F1.

Here in the UK at least the races that are not broadcast on the good old BBC are carried by Sky and all it takes is a $15 'Now TV ' box and a £6.99 sports day pass ($12) to watch the race...

If Bernie wants to make his next $Quintillion, he needs to embrace live streaming...

...

If F1 is to survive, it needs to embrace the digital age and relegate TV, just like TV relegated Radio back in the 1970's...

Well, I'm not that sure what digital age means. Please, follow me for a moment, if you wish.

First, as you clearly understand, the prices you mention are simply not good for Internet, even if we do not take in account JustinTV or PirateBay.

I pay U$25 for a month of cable TV, including F1.

For this price, the number of ads is very small.

Perhaps they stop the race twice, for a couple of minutes, and they do it at 'strategical' moments, when there is not much action (that is, between laps 1 and 52, when you're dozing watching Hamilton running two minutes ahead of Ricciardo).

[SNIP]

I think it's all in the ability to distribute not to a country, not to a market segment, but to the World... and the world is not rich.

I agree - it is the ability to distribute to the world at a price that the local market is willing to pay.

In the US, I watched NASCAR a great deal, the races are mostly live on 'Over the Air' TV - i.e. you do not need a cable subscription to watch a decent percentage of the races. The coverage is interrupted for 18 minutes / hour while they try to to sell you stuff. Some of the races have adverts in one box and the race continues in another box, proudly brought to you by a second advertiser.

This was crappy, but what was not at all crappy was 'trackpass' for an annual $65, you get access to a rather large number of streams that you can watch on your computer, your tablet or your phone, or all of them at once. You choose the cameras you want to watch (in-car) and how to spilt the screen if you want to watch 4 at a time and it ties together with a live chat among fans. Oh and you get live timing too.

Often I would watch a race with the broadcast edit on my TV and my iPad showing 4 in-cars and my laptop showing live timing and participating in the chat.

Given that F1 is supposed to be the technical pinnacle of racing, NASCAR outsmarted them three years ago with trackpass.....

[Sulman]

... I decided that I was not going to spend $140+ a month to watch F1.

Here in the UK at least the races that are not broadcast on the good old BBC are carried by Sky and all it takes is a $15 'Now TV ' box and a £6.99 sports day pass ($12) to watch the race...

If Bernie wants to make his next $Quintillion, he needs to embrace live streaming...

...

If F1 is to survive, it needs to embrace the digital age and relegate TV, just like TV relegated Radio back in the 1970's...

Well, I'm not that sure what digital age means. Please, follow me for a moment, if you wish.

First, as you clearly understand, the prices you mention are simply not good for Internet, even if we do not take in account JustinTV or PirateBay.

I pay U$25 for a month of cable TV, including F1.

For this price, the number of ads is very small.

Perhaps they stop the race twice, for a couple of minutes, and they do it at 'strategical' moments, when there is not much action (that is, between laps 1 and 52, when you're dozing watching Hamilton running two minutes ahead of Ricciardo).

[SNIP]

I think it's all in the ability to distribute not to a country, not to a market segment, but to the World... and the world is not rich.

Given that F1 is supposed to be the technical pinnacle of racing, NASCAR outsmarted them three years ago with trackpass.....

Despite some dubious practices, NASCAR & MotoGP have been two series that I really think have got it right. F1 is too busy either sitting on money or desperately trying to find it.

I'd be interested to see what happens commerciallly next year. I believe some ticket holders from 2014 probably won't go again. Most people were not wildly enthused about the live events, considering the costs.

[strad]

For one thing they could ditch NBC. Once again my coverage is being delayed for Premiere League.

[Hail22]

Eddie Jordan talking with Bernie Ecclestone on Formula 1' finances:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gmy80CaYIY[/youtube]

[Vettel Maggot]

After watching that interview I am very concerned for the welfare of F1 with Bernard running things.

[Andres125sx]

Bernie´s face should be included into wikipedia´s definitions of avarice and out of date

[ergenomic]

Unfortunately it is time for Bernie to retire, he is hanging on too long. He is like an F1 driver which does not want to call it quits and wants to race forever, perhaps like a Rubens, if he was 50.

Bernie has obviously done a lot for the sport, but he has lost touch.

Examples:
1. F1 website has not been updated for about 5 years
2. Not enough presence on social media - where is online content other than a pole lap?
3. Insufficient promotion - empty stands all over the world
4 Others...

Bernie needs to realise that the teams are the sport, they are what makes it go around. Many of them were big brands and would continue to be big brands with big sales without F1. The minority have made themselves big brands through F1.

From a personal experience, I sail a 16ft Skiff. The club funds the boats with start and finish money equally distributed. The winners receive cash prizes. We have a handicap format. Even without the funds are equitably split. Costs are controlled through having tight rules. There is room for innovation, but only in some areas. There is healthy competition AND there are still teams which come and go... that is nature of sport.

Bernie thinks that things are right, and there are no challenges with teams leaving. What a shambles the management of this sport is becoming, when they can have the last 3 teams they wanted and supported leave the sport and there is no problem with that.

I am getting tired of the way this sport is managed. I think there is much more opportunity, there is an ability to make more money but more importantly give the fans what they want. There is a greatness in having a field with many levels of competition.

I am convinced this needs to be Bernie's last year. The sport would be much better off with Dieter Mateschitz running the promotion.. there would be more for fans, more for competitors and more for all.

[Sulman]

I am convinced this needs to be Bernie's last year. The sport would be much better off with Dieter Mateschitz running the promotion.. there would be more for fans, more for competitors and more for all.

On the basis of what happened to rallying I would think, very, very carefully about that.

[emaren]

In another world, I have been embroiled in a discussion regarding Television and how antiquated the idea is.

Imagine that in 2014, the only way to watch certain types of entertainment is to sit around a dump display that is receives a non-interactive stream of data from a remote source.

I child, in a local TV store asked his daddy 'Why are you buying a big tablet that we cannot touch ?'

TV is a one-way thing. I think it will change in times to come.

You are limited to watching the directors cut, heck I have several Blue-ray movies that allow me to choose between the directors cut and the cinematographic release , some also have audio commentaries and extra scenes and deleted scenes. This is not new, but TV has none of this.

In my ideal world, when watching F1, I want split screens and content spread over many devices.
- Main feed on the TV, two windows showing in-car from a couple of drivers.
- iPad (?) Live timing data
- Laptop - chat(Twitter) and more feeds - several in-cars maybe and a pit-lane view.
- Choose your commentators - in the he UK, I watch the Sky coverage with Radio 5 commentary, in the US, I would do similar - but the sync between the pictures and the commentary would drift over the course of a race. Heck, choose your language too - I sure that many people would appreciate that.

This is technically pretty easy, the stream provisioning is not that hard, pulling the infrastructure together is not too tough.

The problem is that the TV companies would utterly freak out.

They would lose precious advertising revenue or lucrative subscription deals almost overnight.

This my friends is why F1 is not embracing the digital age, because doing so will cause all sorts of contracts to be considered null and void and F1. Inc. would be in court for years.

I am certain that at some point there will be a time where pressure to stream and the potential revenue from streaming will be such that the breaking of contracts will be worthwhile, but i am not sure we are there yet and I am not sure we will be there for a few more years.

[Hail22]

Red Bull Formula 1 budget recently released:

http://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/ ... ailsignout

$360 million is quite a bit of cash to throw into a team, or am I missing something?

[strad]

emaren:
Just how much are you willing to pay for that?

[SidSidney]

emaren:Just how much are you willing to pay for that?

I understand why you ask that but I feel that packaging is not the problem.

I pay to watch the NLHE WSOP, because I am fundamentally interested in the way they play, the interaction between players, the skill, the swings of fortune, and the drama.

I am absolutely not willing to pay for an F1 series that is completely lacking all of that without several artificial devices like DRS, double points, ugly cars, schoolyard radio tattletale and stupid, stupid, stupid rules - and have not been for several years.

Honestly nowadays I don't even admit I am interested, it is semi-embarassing - I can sense other people think you have to be retarded to follow current F1.

F1 shows all the hallmarks of a business that has matured to the point that it cannot innovate and creatively destruct. The only thing saving F1 from total failure is that there is no viable competitor.

[scottracing]

The fact that Bernie says he against democracy and democracies sums it up for me, even the parent company CVC don't seem to be able to control him and unless there is some movement to get shot of him, I cant see any changes to the way F1 is run.
I thought there has been some good racing this season but its changed completely to when i started watching as a kid in the 80s, Im more into one make lower series now and bikes as the battles through the field is always entertaining, but I hope F1 doesn't ever go to a 1 make series.