There are lots of stories today about the F1 Strategy Group voting to block the return of the ex-Marussia team, unless it can build 2015- spec cars. The rules are however not at all clear as the sport is governed by bilateral agreements between the various parties and these are private. This means that the rules are unclear. Daft though that may seem that is modern F1. How many of the F1 reporters really know how the Strategy Group operates and who has voted for what?The stories talk of the teams refusing but they are not the only ones with a say. Yes, one or two of the teams might want to kill the team to divide up the prize money between them. The people in F1 are cannibals… but, it would require more than that. My understanding is that most decisions are by a majority vote. The FIA and the Formula One group each have six votes and there are six teams, each with one vote. Thus if the bid to use 2014 cars has really been rejected it would have required one of the two block votes to sink the idea. It is hard to imagine what either has to lose from having some old cars trolling around at the back for a while. Even if the Formula One group voted to kill 2014 cars, that vote could be negated by the FIA agreeing to allow them and so the decision would then be based on whether the majority of the teams went one way or the other.
If it is deemed to be a rule change because of the lead times involved it might require 100 percent support for a change, if that is true it is scuppered. But why would this then require the involvement of the F1 Commission?
The F1 commission only rubber-stamps Strategy Group decisions. It can only accept or reject new ideas.
We will have to see.
Having said that, most of the stories floating about seem erroneous as they all seem to think that the team must be in Melbourne in March. This is definitely not true. There is no requirement for this because each team is allowed to miss three races a year if they have to (as we saw at the end of last year) which means that the team does not have to appear before April 18 in Bahrain, the fourth race of the year.
It is fair to say that given the state of the team, even that deadline is tight given the things that will need to be done, with a team that has few people and much equipment missing. It is possible that work might have been going on if someone bought the computers and IP but even if this is the case, one must not forget that the Marissia debts are huge and they would need to be dealt with if the team is to survive, and one has to ask if it is not more logical to a new investor to buy Force India.
Lotus is also up to its neck in debt, while there seems no hope now for Caterham, as the assets are to be sold.
joeblogsf1 
Cant help thinking the other teams would be better off allowing Marussia to die gracefully and concentrate on saving the other teams. At best Marussia would be mildly embarrassing this year struggling to stay within the 107% time – at worst they’d again struggle to pay their bills and leave the their suppliers (Ferrari, McLaren & Pirelli being high on that list) with yet more debt to write off.
F1 will be fine in the short term without Marussia, however it needs Lotus / Force India / Sauber to survive in some form.
Valid points
When Ross Brawn was trying to allow his team to race in 2009, I remember that Martin Whitmarsh played a key role in handing them an engine supply.
Today, all Booth and the team’s rescuers were asking for is a sporting chance of making the grid, and they’ve had that thrown back into their faces.
Whatever happened to racers’ camaraderie and sportsmanship?
I certainly agree with your sentiments but with my tongue in the cheek I have to quip that Whitmarsh’s help didn’t exactly work out that great for McLaren.
I guess many tribute the success of Mercedes at Brawn’s feet but perhaps it is Martin they should thank 😉
Dear Joe, all
One team gone, one team doing a zombie imitation, 3 teams with the arse out of their pants, 2 teams owned by one sponsor, one team well into the process of clawing its way back from oblivion, one team without a naming rights sponsor, two teams owned by premium brand manufacturers.
‘House of cards’ seems apt.
And, CVC raking in the profits, as it does.
As far as trying to off-load their investment in f1, surely it is of less value as it stands at the beginning of 2015 than this time last year.
‘As ye sow, so shall ye reap!!’
A case of starting with a juicy bunch of grapes, and ending up with sultanas.
Ah, but what would people outside ‘the bubble’ know?
Cheers
MarkR
Dear Mark,
That is a great analysis of the morass that is F1 today! And Joe’s Post sets out all that is wrong with the running of the series, however, the key point is this, F1 is just ridiculously expensive and not in anyway financially sustainable now.
It is gradually slipping into the deep. The rule change to Hybrids was totally the wrong thing to do at this moment and the usual costs of F1 have become outlandish and frankly immoral, and cannot be justified at all. It is Not the case that one has to spend £billions to provide good engineering, technical interest and good sport. That is just utter rubbish and everyone in F1 is guilty of promoting this absurd concept, which is now bringing the whole edifice to its knees.
What price a point later this year where there is no Force India, no Lotus and no Sauber?? Will anyone be watching F1 at all by the end of 2015?
Will anyone actually do something more than place sticking plasters all over the situation and pretend it is all fine? Ron Dennis is busy fooling himself that things haven’t changed and his view of the rate card for Mac is the correct one, which it plainly isn’t! And Ron is more pragmatic than most team leaders seem to be….so that doesn’t say much for the rest….
As others have noted here, it is now hard to raise interest in F1 from a personal point, and that, after following it for near 50 years man and boy.
I read an article the other day, by a so called Editor of what used to be probably the premier motorsport weekly, and it was just drivel about how exciting it would be if TV showed the Season Testing as it happened, and how F1 Fans cannot contain themselves after 2 months or so without racing being on the box! I used to be happy to read of F1, go to F1 races and sometimes see it on TV, and that was when the series usually began in March and ended in early October….wall to wall F1 is one reason why it is diminishing in value…one can have too much of anything. The single other big reason for it dropping fans is that it is too exclusive and too ” celeb ” focused, with little or no interest in, or respect for, the Fanbase….as can be seen by the Marussia debacle now, and by the situation with the German GP, and the shameful exclusion of the French GP for several years now. When Bernie clears off the British GP ( which I guess he will do at some point ), then F1 will really wake up to a Fan backlash!
Bernie is making a cake — and eating it, so the sultanas are fine. 🙂
Bernie must feel very proud at the prospect of leaving the business in this shape
Well at least he “has done something good to the sport” ;-)…
Fan fatigue here. Increasingly difficult to give a &$#%€x about F1. And I have been an enthusiastic follower for most of my 71 years.
You mean to say Sonny, that although you are in the ” Rolex target zone ” for Bernard, you ain’t gonna watch his show??
Technically speaking, most old brand watch makers are still catching up time their movements lost in the seventies, way I see it. Rolex etc.al. may owe more to Nicolas Hayek, for making Swatch what it became, than any hughfalutin claims and fancy sponsorship. That injection of cheap reliable quartz movements probably saved the entire industry… Of course then the conceit fits perfectly with the new F1 for the self crowned time piece jewelers.
I’m with you there Sonny. We all know that F1 was never an operation
that glowed with honesty, decency, and comradeship. But it’s so dirty
now that it’s hard to look at anybody in the business who’s over the age of
fifty who you would trust with granny’s savings at the post office.
And you do get the feeling that, as with other sports. the chickens will
eventually come home to roost…… and they’ll all lay some very dirty,
very explosive eggs.
I think it’s unfair to say that anyone over the age of 50 are untrustworthy, particularly for the likes of Williams, Sauber, McLaren etc. One may not approve of the methods employed by, say, BE and CVC but to denigrate the efforts of everyone in any age group at whatever level is stretching a point too far perhaps?
You may well be right about F1 post – 1980, however, GP racing of the days of Brabham, McLaren, Matra, Tyrrell, Clark, Stewart, Hill, Hulme, Cooper, Eagle, pre 1980 Ferrari, BRM, Lotus etc was a very different creature, and had honour and decency as well as comradeship. The drivers earned the sort of money that a Professional in most areas of life, would make, the teams seemed stable and one assumes they made money…..but money making was not the core reason for racing…..F1 has had good times in the 80’s and 90’s, but has started to sink into an abyss of self interest and greed since then. There seems no sign that it can rise above the current morass of self imposed decline and rancour, that leaves fans with not much to enjoy really. Here’s hoping the whole circus subsides soon and something new and exciting can appear from the wreckage, which can put motor racing at the forefront of the show and not as an afterthought as it is now.
Yes I hear you 100%, despite no where near your 71 years ( a meager 28 years)
I think people underestimate how many fans would follow a rival series based purely on principle now.
Absolutely, yarn, I bet we all make more time for other motorsports already. This year I have WEC pencilled in, and despite it’s a small thing, if compared to the F1 budgets and television, still, it’s growing so darned fast, I’m certain that’s making people with budgets think. Who doesn’t want to be in on a growth story? I’ve never heard Bathhouse mentioned so frequently sought widely in so many places, either. And there’s really free to air motorsports growth happening. Much is afoot that cannot be ignored, not whilst F1 bumbles along like it does. Nah, F1 is so sick, even Jeremy (autocorrect is jerez!) Clarkson can call it names and not sound a fool. That’s… I mean on that bombshell ….
There is reason to be hopeful though. Testing shows a possible fight at the top with Ferrari at least looking better than last year. Ditto Ferrari engined-cars, perhaps. Red Bull are going to improve, bound to. Be optimistic my friend, we’ve all seen worse!
“over the age of fifty who you would trust with granny’s savings at the post office” or indeed those under the age of 50…
I’m with Sonny on this. At the risk of repeating myself, IT, “Green” laws, and the influences of vacuous celebrity culture have ripped to pieces all the raw elements of what used to be an amazing and emotion-charged spectacle. There was always plenty of BS in F1, but the only part that’s not BS now… is Joe.
Green taxes are even ripping German heavy industry apart. I forget now which firm, but one big energy user is moving 5000 manufacturing jobs to the USA. That was last year and planned well before if I recall those bits right. Skilled blue collar jobs. I’m other words the most needed.
I can also buy really fast 8 core engineering workstation computers running at nice high clock speeds for under 200 quid. Which benchmark like four thousand quid new ones. Because the older models draw juice thirstily enough any company buying a stack will suffer the bills. But for my short run render and simulation jobs this is a godsend bargain.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for, I am in love with the super energy efficient designs. Efficency is beauty in every way. But financial efficiency matters, still. And some externality costs come back to bite quicker than vote buyers like to believe.
No way are we counting all the consequences and costs consequently.
Same here. Sadly in hindsight I think the rot started years ago with the over the top favoritism to Ferrari.
I used to be in awe of their road cars but how they’ve acted in F1 has soured my enthusiasm for them.
So much for F1 being called a ‘sport’. Soon there will be no-one left to compete.
Well said Sonny.
According to the BBC it was Force India alone that blocked it.
As obvious as his weird-assed comb down, this just gives Bernie a 40M pound raise.
Do the FIA and FOG votes have to cast as a block?
Thank you for the insight.
Yes buying Force India might seem easier. But you don’t know what their secured debts including unpaid wages and tax obligations are. Marussia/Manor might be cheaper once you take all that into account. Problem is timing. By the time Force India folds – assuming it does – and you get a chance to check out their accounts, Marussia’s 3 race grace period might have finished. So basically you have until early April. Very tight deadline unless you’re crazy brave!
Another valid point
What a mess… It used to be with all of Bernie’s shenanigans you could always say ‘but at least he’s done great things for the sport’.. Not the case now, great things for himself no doubt. Time to pull the pin, I’m just going to watch the darts from now on..
‘he’s done great things for the sport’ – the problem is that the rejoinder ‘but they were a long time ago’ grows more and more appropriate with the passage of time.
Unbelievable. I am so angry, frustrated and sad that I can’t find any words. Besides the following:
The miracle that F1 needed of a white knight to rescue the Manor team has been found and now they are being blocked from competing by fellow teams! WTF?!
Can’t the FIA find some sort of force majeure clause to let the team continue with a 2014 chassis for one season while they prepare a new car for 2016?
Im angry with Bernie. I’m angry with CVC. I’m angry with the FIA. I’m angry with Force India and anyone else who said no. But at the end of the day the root issue is that revenue is skewed so unevenly that half the grid is feeling the pinch financially. With a billion dollar sport, how did it come to this? And more importantly, how is this debacle corrected?
Now, who was in charge when the decision was made that Toro Rosso could enter its maiden season in 2006 using the V10 of Minardi of 2005?
Crikey I forgot that one. There should be a rule that all exceptions can be made again.
Well, that’s simply extremely dissapointing. Not particularly surprising but still very dissapointing.
It was my (perhaps rather naive) understanding that it had already been agreed that Caterham would be granted dispensation to race the 2014 car. So why not Manor?
Oh yes, some other team seem to think they have a greater claim on the prize money earned by another team. At best that’s rather unsporting, at worst it’s simply disgraceful.
It’s yet another symptom of the rather preposterous revenue distribution within F1.
The sheer tenacity displayed by John Booth and Grame Lowedon to keep the fight to rescue the team going this long has been extremely impressive. To see it fall at the very last hurdle through the greed and unsportingnes of others is just horrible.
There seems to be little info as to what Manor / Marussia ‘s intentions were/are. Is it to use the 2014 chassis till they build up the 15 chassis or is it to run the 2014 car all season and pocket some FOM money.
Whereas administration might work for commercial companies with existing order books the structure of F1 teams does not favour this. Their assets are the licence and a conforming car. To achieve the latter require expenditure. The line on the team stops the Administrators from advancing further credit.
The FIA is a shambles at present but even I would be loathe to allow a non compliant car with all the issues of differing frontal bulkhead height . All this with the Bianchi accident still fresh in most people’s mind.
Apt turn of phrase –
‘. . . trolling around at the back . . .’
Professional journalist’s irritant as much as F1’s.
Well it may not be finished but there was a pic of the supposed Marussia 2015 car called the Manor MNR1 in another online mag a couple of weeks ago. The same article claimed radical front suspension for the vehicle.
With every passing day I feel more convinced that I’m not going to bother with F1 this year. The blinkered thinking of the teams and Bernie/CVC is utterly destroying the sport. Force India are seriously shooting themselves in the foot, especially as they don’t seem to be looking in particularly good shape for the coming season. I’m not sure if a possible Ferrari resurgence and the McLaren-Honda renewal are going to be enough to make F1 worthwhile. It’s so sad.
I would point out that the leeway to miss up to three races is purely part of the secret commercial agreement. The actual regulations include an undertaking to attend every race.
13.2 f) An undertaking by the applicant to participate in every Event with the number of cars and drivers entered.
But since the rule books have effectively been torn up in favour of those with the most money and influence it hardly seems worth referring to the official Regs any more.
I am bemused that Todt with his fiercely effective internal discipline, does not display the same zeal in re-establishing the absolute authority of the FIA over F1.
If he has no interest in F1 why does he not just appoint a vice president to look after it? He could elevate himself further, if he had a vice president in charge of each formula group.
An oft squashed subject here is how well WEC is doing in contrast to F1 and how it fits the manufacturer’s technology specs so well. A field of 35 cars is entered for this season!
Ok as Joe always points out, nobody watches it, but if F1 declines, the potential to make WEC the tv favourite will be there. Remember how F1 was made the tv dominant racing formula, it didn’t just happen, it was carefully engineered. Failing that, there are many good, exciting to watch formulae, some that us old gits still miss on tv from the old days.
People do watch WEC, I think we all know that. I don’t know what the viewing figures are, but I don’t doubt they lag well behind F1 – I really don’t know how big the gap is, but I get the point of Joe’s point. I think the point itself is fair.
I also think your point, rpaco, is spot on as well. For me, to dismiss WEC, or any other form of motor racing simply because it’s current or historical viewing figures are less than F1 is potentially shortsighted.
There are issues, and a context. WEC for example has been broadening it’s telecast base, it has had to. Even saying that, I can’t get it on free to air tv, I would have to subscribe to Fox, which I’m never going to do. F1 is free to air, but if my broadcaster loses the rights to Sky, as has happenend at least partially in the UK (surely the nexus of the F1 viewing world), then I won’t be watching F1. That holds for all the people I know personally who watch F1, not many, maybe a dozen of us. My budget does not extend far enough, which is why I don’t follow WEC, if both were free to air, I would have an occasional scheduling confllict to resolve. Although with an F1 race and a WEC race broadcast at the same time I could still watch a full 2hours of F1 and a chunk of WEC as well.
Broadcast accessibility is a real yet variable factor depending upon the marketing strategies employed by the groups involved. Over the last two decades of F1 I’ve seen moves toward restriction of broadcast, and the beginning of pay to watch. Is it fair of me to suggest this had led to, or at least been partially responsible for falls in viewer stats?
WEC, again I don’t know what the official viewer stats are. I have read about expanding accessibility, had a quick look at an early version fo the WEC app last year, and this year I’m investigating internet broadcast options. Based on what I’ve seen re efforts to increase accessiblity I would expect/hope to see an upward trend in WEC viewing numbers. Maybe there isn’t. Maybe this year or the next, there will be, maybe never. IF there is a trend upwards, and IF F1 continues to trend downwards, then at some stage, those two lines will intersect.
If F1 continues to eat itself up, and travels further down the pay to view path there will come a time when “nobody watches WEC” becomes “nobody watches F1”. When these things happen, they almost appear overnight, even if we’ve been rolling toward them for a while. Anyway if things get bad enough in F1, it won’t matter whether WEC increases it’s viewing or not, it might still rank higher than a discredited or dull F1.
A lot of if’s there, but none of them unreasonable given the trajectory Formula One appears to be on. I, like many others hope it changes, that F1 gets it’s house in order, and maintains it’s worldwide following. Also though, I doubt I’m not the only one who would watch WEC, as well as F1, if they had simpler access to it.
Joe is right. Compared to F1 nobody watches WEC. My comments above don’t change the validity or truth of the statement. I respect the comments Joe makes, his access to the world of motorsport. I am not arguing against his WEC comments, and I don’t think I am being rude to Joe. Apologies if I am wrong. F1 needs to maintain an awareness of how the competition are faring, especially at times whern F1 itself stumbles from self created crisis to self created crisis.
Tomorrow I will be watching the Bathurst 12 Hour race, live broadcast, free to air, 5.30am-6pm. It’s not a WEC event, but it is an International Endurance race. We have an Audi R8 on pole, beside it a Lamborghini Gallardo. The rest of the top 10 include two Ferrari 458’s, Bentley, McLaren, Nissan, Aston Martin, Mercedes, and another R8. In Class A, 26 cars, overall nearly 50 cars, thundering up, across and down an amazing racetrack. The racing line is a fine line between glory or disaster, rockwall or mountan edge.
I can’t wait.
Whare are you to get the Bathurst 12 on FTA tv? We had it or actuallly a touring car race from Bathurst on UK tv once, as you yas a n incredible challenging track.
As far as I know WEC is not on UK tv at all. Certainly not FTA. With just over 50% of F1 races only available via Sky in the UK, the adudience for thos is a fraction of that for the rest, which are on the BBC.
The climate created by the teams infighting and frankly appalling manners, bears little realation to what used to be called sportsmanship, but more to a bunch of thugs figthing over a pensioner’s purse. Heving given him or her a good kicking he is now left hald dead in the gutter. Lets hope Manor survives and lives to exact some payback.
I made the point about WEC because of the contrast between the struggle of hamstrung destitute sponsorless teams, barely able to put a quorum of cars on the grid and the 35 WEC entries in a sport unhampered by the F1 financial structure.
The viewing figures for the WEC will be notably lower than those for F1 simply because of a lack of coverage. I have no idea where I can watch any of the WEC races in the UK, and find that disappointing. I have become interested in the WEC (again) because of the quality of the entry (a 35 car field?) and the technical diversity in the LMP1 class. Is there another class of motor racing with such a range of approaches as shown by Audi/Porsche/Toyota and now Nissan? It’s a breath of fresh air. f1 should indeed sit up and take notice.
I would be very interested to see what has happened to the viewing figures for MotoGP since (in the UK at least) it disappeared behind BT’s paywall. The converage on the BBC in the last few years was excellent but I would guess that the figures for last year are woeful compared to those. The only light has been the highlights on ITV4 but I find myself caring less and less whether I actually see them now, whereas previously I made a point of watching every race. It does make me wonder what my viewing habits would be if F1 disappeared from the Beeb. Like all the posters here, I have long been a fan (since the 1960’s), attending some races and watching qualy as well as races, but if it gets too much hard work to follow …
It is ‘ironic’ that WEC, with comparatively minimal ‘exposure’, is doing so well.
It will surely replace F1 as motorsport’s focus and benchmark.
The latter has only itself to blame –
In-fighting, mismanagement and no ‘Garage 56’.
Bit of a shame isn’t it? I really don’t see what all the fuss is about running a 2014 car. Heck, if the rules remained fundamentally the same with only a massive revision every 5 years I would imagine the the grid would be a lot larger if the same car could be used for the whole duration. If the bigger teams want to blow ridiculous amounts on a revised car, well then good on them.
Over how many years was the Lotus 72 successful again?
I don’t think it’s the fact the car is a year old that’s the problem. If I was a team owner would I want a couple of cars running around the back of the race at about 5 seconds off the pace (probably getting more TV exposure than my midfield runner everytime they get lapped)? And that’s if they got in the race; would Marussia / Manor have to go round begging the other teams to be let in as they could be slower than the 107% time limit.
Other media outlets are quoting Force India as be the blockage but surely it’s more likely all six teams vetoed the idea; the news should be with which team backed the proposal.
Everyone and his dog confidently predicted that Caterham would miss the 107% cut in Abu Dhabi. They didn’t. Not even close.
Manor have done nothing wrong within the rules of the sport. The administrator believes he’s found a credible buyer, which implies one with the money to run the team at least for the time being (the 10th place prize money no doubt being factored into that), and presumably to give it a future beyond that. Let them race. If he’s wrong and they fail, the company will go bust, and you’ll be rid of them. If not, there’s at least a chance we’ll have 20 reasonably competitive cars on the grid next season.
Ah Force India moaning, yet have only by all accounts just paid for their survival cells to be delivered and plan on running a 2014 car at the next test.
I did think that might let them off the hook for a while given that so far they have failed to produce a 2015 car themselves.
All very opaque to outsiders such as myself. It would seem that if the Marussia team’s obligations to major suppliers might be met (even partially) by their attaining their share of last season’s prize fund that those suppliers would strongly support their efforts to do so and would have an influence on the whole murky process.
This is the problem with letting teams decide. It’s been vetoed by a team who will likely go out of business themselves in the next couple of months. In the past, if you convinced Bernie it was viable plan, he would make the decision, which is how it should be. To run a sport successfully you need to have, within reason, a dictator, who does the best for the sport.
A sad day today ( 2/6/15 ) as all of Caterham’s assets are placed on the auction block . Sad especially because unlike Marussia … with an serious cash infusion Caterham might of survived and even thrived . My only consolation being now many of the the websites and news agencies across the US are calling for the very thing I’ve suggested since the beginning of Caterham’s financial downfall . The being Haas buying out the team lock , stock , barrel and [ especially the ] talent from floor to ceiling rather than starting a team from scratch
So I’m no longer alone in that opinion . Too bad Mr Haas haasn’t [ misspelling intentional ] got the common sense to see the gift horse staring him straight in the face
Hardly a gift horse. Any purchase would involve a debt settlement discussion with the administrators. Perhaps Mr. Haas prefers to run up his own debts as opposed to starting a new team by having to settle up someone else’s bills first?
Still, the liquidator had a nice time playing team principal for a time didn’t he? I wonder what the former employees think about that now?
When Stoddart bought Minardi they left it so late that the car for the season was still being put together while at the Australian GP, Stoddart pulled it off and the rest is history, if Marussia can miss 3 races there is still hope, go for it Marussia
Paul Stoddart owned an airline and most of the old Tyrrell gear when he took over Minardi, too, don’t forget 😉
It’s not just Bernie’s fault, though. The teams have been careless with their finances; Mallya is soaked in debt wherever he operates, and FI really at this point should be sold.
The tendency to borrow and over-extend has been exarcebated by the engine changes; the FIA could have at least attempted some parity rules to make it easier for teams that didn’t want to face engine bills an order of magnitude higher than the year before. Even Ron Dennis is sounding the alarm of the prospect of changes for 2016, stating that it will be prohibitive.
Combined with the increasing reliance of pay-TV deals (and the smaller number of eyes for sponsors) you could see how the smaller teams got squeezed in the middle.
I’d have thought teams such as Force India would welcome Marussia back to guarantee that they themselves are not dead last on the grid….
I had wondered something similar, not just Force India, I see why you named them though – your point is well made.
Adam Cooper’s blog suggests FI are blaming Caterham and Marussia for their own problems i.e. can’t get sufficient credit. Well, pay up front then. Get VJ to put his hand in his pocket. Oh, wait…. What a load of rubbish from FI.
Aside from grid-filling, why do we want this team in F1? Or, is that its raison d’etre? To toddle in the back in a year-old car and make nice pictures for TV?
There are no doubt many perspectives on this, for, and against.
One perspective that I quite like is that it’s a team of employees. Designers, mechanics, tooling specialists, engineers, transport drivers, machinists, etc who are gaining increasing experience in an F1 team, even if said team is likely to be off pace and trailing. Some of the guys or gals in that team could go on to work for Mercedes, or Williams, or Red Bull. The next Adrian Newey, or James Allison may have started at Marussia last year and this year gets a break to design something he wouldn’t get the chance to look at in a bigger team.
I understand it’s 2015, and no-one can claim to be owed or to own a job. Like any industry though, there are good people, with useful skills, and it would be good to retain them in the F1 industry. Some of the best drivers of F1 got their start in teams like Marussia, and I believe the same would hold true for a range of professions within F1.
If we had teams lining up to get into F1 I’d take your point, write Marussia off to competition, and cheer on whichever teams come in to fill their space. We don’t though. We have a grid of teams, many of who have questionable financial viability. Maybe I’m mad, but I’d include McLaren in that category as well. They might have money behind them, but it has looked like they have struggled, or Ron has struggled, to bring in money as they used to. I get the awful feeling that Team Macca have slipped from being too big to fail, to being vulnerable. There are teams that would definetely fail before McLaren would, many teams in obviously worse condition, but I no longer think McLaren are bulletproof.
If the Caterham/Marussia trend continues unabated we could be down to six, five teams, perhaps four in a few years. A grid of 12, or 10, or 8 cars.
Joe, stories about McLaren helping Manor seem to refuse to go away. It would seem to make sense if that gave Magnussen a seat, though I cant see it doing that much for his career unless Manor get more than a little help. Any truth in this at all?
McLaren do seem to have more worthy drivers than they are able to handle, and with the rather protracted decision time of their final lineup for 2015 it did strike me that a rather tidy if extravagant solution would have been for McLaren and Honda to simply buy out Manor and retrofit a couple of MP4/29 chassis with the Honda powertrain (afterall at least one MP4/29 had already been modified for the purpose of testing the powertrain) to be driven by Magussen and Vandoorne.
However, this is simply fantasy.
Why would Honda take over Manor, when a few years previously they effectively let Super Aguri (who were a excellent little team) collapse?
And we know that is no way the strategy group would ever agree to it anyway.
That would make sense, it was McLaren that reputedly persuaded Mercedes to supply engines to Brawn GP.
Surely Bernie and everyone can see how F1’s entire problem can be distilled to the story of the way new entrants were enticed and then chewed up and spat out, as they have been in recent years?
It appears to me as if every last base human vicissitude, and worse, has been displayed throughout this narrative arc played out from the moment efforts were made to bring in fest teams. The worse must include how low down trickery has been elevated to the highest concepts of sporting law, embedded in the groups and arrangements of the FIA.
I see F1 as a morally bankrupt sport, in the nature of its formation, and I bele e it has to be regarded as such even despite the undoubted innocence of so many good men and women for whom this racing is their true blood; sadly for some, this racing is merely blood that can be shed, in pursuit of their purportedly lofty aims. It’s all bunk, and we can only hope now that catastrophe forces out the incumbent malaise and corrupt canals, before all are tainted beyond salvation. Because it is true that good men can be ruined by exposure to bastardisation of life’s worth. And that will inevitably happen. We only have to catch it before too much more damage is done. But, sadly, I believe severe damage must yet be done, for the likes of Marussia were only ever brought in to be expendable. Unfortunately, I personally believe severe damage has already been done, which has not yet become fully visible.
The salesman in me keeps saying that there must be a very strong brand of wet paper bag used in F1 circles (maybe Tesa brand?) and that there is certain lameness in the sales outfits responsible. I say that there’s two things at work: first that its become a hard sell, but that would not deter any talented saleable for a moment, second that clearing prices have stayed too high, and that second thing I reckon is preventing any deals. Because I don’t think every last soul selling F1 sponsorship is lame, just they damn well look that way, so it’s problems plus prices and any salesman can close if one of those can be shifted.
And despite my direct prognosis for this sport, and contempt for the authorities that run it, which does extend to those involving themselves in kangaroo courts and funny business in the name of sport but for misguided real reasons, I absolutely will continue to watch the racing. I’m not going to vote with my feet, cause that only punishes what care for the most, no matter that what I care for seems obscured by altogether too much smut. The kinds of damage done by all these shenanigans will have its effect regardless of this viewing statistic, but I will not take my interest elsewhere on principle, as I do not see it as being a effective protest. If anything, it condemns the more, if there are viewers and yet still advertisers don’t want to use the medium. I don’t see it as a act of love to take away whatever income I represent from a sport that simply needs money to breathe.
Aside, I wish people used the word advertiser more often than sponsor, just as a reminder of the purpose. Sponsorship may work in many ways, but the big tickets are written for effective advertising, not for technical partnerships. If you want massive global television coverage, F1 is really not ineffective. Its simply making itself unattractive to thinking buyers, somehow very effectively. What’s worse, is that I am certain that it only gets worse if you have a F1 fan in the boardroom. Whereas once that might be the ultimate ally; now the rare luck that that is, is more likely to result in hindrance to a deal, not furtherance, for reasons we all know far too well. Frankly, as a salesman, that makes me sick in the pit of my stomach.
Having thought over my last few comments for a good while, I know I am going to go on some long long walks, to contemplate what it is I see in F1, in terms of how the sport stands now, and if not seeking to rekindle love lost, then seeking to find where in this barren wasteland is there a place for my love of this sport, all because it has come so that so much reflects too badly now on too many, and I am convinced this is all at a crossroads, even as I write this, I am convinced even that en masse, public image will change wholesale, maybe long overdue, maybe quickly, maybe not so quickly, but inevitably, and I hear no rumble of a cavalry to the rescue, in the slight quiver of the ground beneath my ear, and I certainly see nothing and hear not a word, that is of itself convincing, let alone convincing of hope… these are cold days indeed.
Take care Joe. It’s sad that I only fear for things in this sport right now, but you know it better than I, and so I hark to you, when you are back, beg hopefully you will have some better news for us, when you are ready. But there are more important things, always, in life. The petty minds of F1, as they duke out their stands in kangaroo courts of nonsense, is no atmosphere for private restoration or soul’s solace, so be rid of them for a while, they would not wish themselves be saved anyhow, if you were still there.