It seems like there are never enough hours in the day at the moment, but as the F1 teams get into the packing up stage and prepare to head out to Melbourne, the talk in F1 circles remains that of money – or rather the lack of it.
To be fair, motor racing has always been about money. From the very start of the sport the field was made up of barons and industrialists, either because racing cars were “good sport” or because it gave them the chance to show off their wealth. It did not take long for the automobile companies to realise that the sport was good for their business and so began to search for the fastest drivers, often mechanics who were in the right place at the right time, or bicycle racers who had proved they could handle speed. From then on speed remained the key, unless money was in short supply. That is still true today and while I am appalled by the appointment of Carmen Jorda as the development driver at Lotus F1 Team, I fully understand how and why it has happened. Jorda had cash, the team needed cash. End of story.
What is sad about the whole business is that it really is a step backwards for the cause of female racing drivers, which is bad news for the sport. F1 would love to have a competitive woman racer, but just as nations new to the sport yearn for their own F1 driver, but struggle to find the right person, the female world must wait for the right woman to come along. I think we came close last year with Simona de Silvestro. She has a very decent pedigree in IndyCar and did some useful F1 tests and I believe would have made a perfectly decent F1 driver – although perhaps not a winner. That would have made her the Danica Patrick of F1 and would have served the sport well. Sadly, Simona did not have the money behind her and now she has given up and is aiming to re-establish herself in IndyCar. She is struggling to find the cash to do even that but one must hope that money can be found and she will get a fourth Andretti car. If I believed that Jorda would develop into a useful driver then there would be some hope, but I just don’t see how that is going to happen. She will be useful for the team to wow its VIP guests and she might attract some more money, but she is never going to sit in the top 10 of the F1 grid. Thus to see her so promoted is galling and to see poor Simona having to stay in the limelight by driving a Formula E around the streets of Geneva feels wrong.
The sport, as we know, never invests in anything, but if the people at CVC Capital Partners had any imagination (or a hint of strategic ability) they would pay some cash and get de Silvestro into an F1 drive. That would create some buzz and bring some new fans to the table. A little demographic engineering would be smart. Formula 1 is currently suffering from a nasty case of Fifty Shades of Grey as its audience grows ever older and older.
It looks from testing that the season will be silver/grey again, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg leading the pack in their Mercedes. You can say that is no good, but it is something we have often seen in the past. New rules lead to one dominant force and then the rest catch up. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…
When one looks closely at the pre-season testing one sees that Mercedes is comfortably ahead of the game. Perhaps the others are a little closer but the lap times in Barcelona make it fairly clear that we should not expect too many miracles.
Nico Rosberg’s 1m22.792s was set on the second day of the final test, using soft tyres. Lewis Hamilton set the second best time overall on the third day was a 1m23.022s, using soft tyres. Valtteri Bottas’s best in his Williams-Mercedes was a 1m23.063s, but that was achieved on supersoft tyres on the final day of running. This was slightly better than Felipe Massa’s 1m23.262s (also on supersofts the previous day) and ahead of the Ferraris. Kimi Raikkonen set a best of 1m23.276s (supersofts), while Sebastian Vettel’s best was a 1m23.469s also on supersofts. So the Mercs are ahead and have a bit in hand as well. We still have to get a better picture about the Red Bull-Renaults.
It is good to hear that Bernie has advanced some prize money to the smaller teams to keep their cash-flow going. One cannot blame the suppliers to be asking for cash, given that they have been rogered senseless in recent years with teams going out of business and being slow in paying.
Elsewhere Manor seem like they are going to make it this year (more good news) although we have to see if they can do it in time for Australia. Will Stevens has been named as one driver and the other drive will probably go to a Giedo Van der Garde, or someone like that. He will do a decent job. The fact that Max Chilton has given up and signed to race for the Nissan LMP1 team is pretty significant in that respect. He has been priced out of the market. It is also noticeable that Alexander Rossi has signed to race once more in GP2 because there are no options open in F1.
Now is the time of anticipation and muted excitement. A new season is always like that. It will be good to see some sunshine down in Australia (hopefully), but for a lot of us the first few weeks of the year are going to be tough, flying backwards and forwards to Europe, rather than lolling around on beaches between events.
One positive element, I think, is that American healthcare magnate Brad Hollinger has upped his stake in Williams F1 by exercising his option to buy more of Toto Wolff’s shares.
Hollinger now owns 10 percent of the team. This makes him the second largest shareholder in the business, ahead of Patrick Head (9.3 percent), Wolff with 4.2 percent, with the staff holding one percent and the remaining 24.10 percent being held by the public, through trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Sir Frank still has control. Hollinger says he is involved to make money in F1 and believes that the sport is on the verge of a big leap forward.
One presumes that this is a five-year plan and he seems some changes taking place in that period… Actually I think that is pretty sound thinking.
We are now busy getting the preview edition of GP+ ready for publication at the weekend so those of you who have not renewed your subscriptions would be wise to do so in order not to miss the first magazine. Click here to do so. And if you are going to Melbourne and would like to attend the Audience with Joe, you can sign up here.
joeblogsf1 
You don’t think Frijns could be in the frame Joe? He has said on Twitter he has some news coming very soon.
You can hope, but do they have the money
Joe, is this designation of “Development Driver” created by the teams purely for some cash influx?
Business Development Driver.
Good one Mr Ed
Do you think Max Chilton’s seat in the Nissan Le Mans team is a pay drive?
I don’t know anything about these teams so not sure how they are structured.
I ask because I always thought of Chilton as being a driver half way between being there because he could and being there because he had the speed. That said I don’t think he had a particularly great record against his team mates at Marussia – his biggest claim to fame being he finished almost all of the races. But maybe that’s the ideal skill set for a Le Mans driver where consistency and endurance must be as important as raw speed?
I doubt any of the paying drivers at Manor this year are going to enjoy much racing!
No, I think he wants paying drives to leave that tag behind.
No way does the way Chilton speak about the Nismo drive suggest he’s in any way paying for it. He’s definitely talking like a man who landed a juicy job in a rotten market. I hope it turns out to be a fruitful side step for him.
I know the Merc’s are 1 second faster than the others but I thought the MOST disturbing thing to come out of their 6120 km testing was that it was all done on one engine…… Oh Merde !
No, but I believe is delivering some cash with his American jaunt.
Chilton had it tough I think, being put up against Bianchi. He did some testing for Carlin in Indy Lights a few weeks ago, and set the time to beat. I think he may do ok. If anything, he will get exposure simply by being in the only FWD LMP1 car which is surely going to be a big talking point.
I wonder if this deal with Nissan will change his plans for IndyCar in 2016 at all? Also, if he does well in WEC, would he want to even go to IndyCar?
“We are now busy getting the preview edition of GP+ ready for publication at the weekend” – Great news!
+1
A fine summary of current issues, Joe, with finances and related driver selections dominating. Formula 1 has never been a level playing field, but the spending gulf between Mercedes and the back of the grid teams is regrettably massive. The thought of Mercedes crushing again to both championships is just what F1 doesn’t need with falling TV audiences and ticket sales at some GPs. Hardcore fans, such as rad your blog, are likely to stick with the sport come what may, but many casual virwers may sadly walk away. Let’s just hope the rest can do a better job at catching up and make the season more interesting. Enjoy your trip down under.
Apologies about the three typos. Blame it on my iPad and me not re-reading text before sending.
The thing is though. Mercedes don’t have the biggest budget in F1. Ferrari and Red Bull spend a lot more based on what has been made public.
Unfortunately the people who could make the playing field more level have no interest in doing so. After all who’s got the balls to tell Ferrari and Red Bull they’re not getting their extra cream in future years?
In all fairness Red Bull and Ferrari should realise by giving up those payments, uniting all teams and standing together to get better terms from cvc could actually make F1 profitable. The teams seemed determined to ignore the long term though in favour of a quick buck.
According to Autosport’s detailed analysis of F1 budgets late last year Mercedes spent £335m in 2014 compared to £275m by Ferrari and £240m by Red Bull. All crazy figures and of course Mecedes certainly got the biggest bang for their bucks.
It depends who wrote the story…
Serious question but are Red Bull and Ferrari the only teams getting extra cream? I believed Ferrari were getting the most extra cream, but thought that McLaren and Mercedes were also getting extra? I may be completely wrong, expecting to be corrected if I am.
I genuinely believe that Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren are ALL getting a sign on/historical recognition/participation bonus under the current Bernie deal. I believe the amount varies between the 4 players, and believed it to be in order of priority – Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull.
I might be completely wrong about that as well.
I mention this as I see references to how bad it is that Ferrari get a sign on bonues and they should give it up, but rarely see anyone say the same of the other teams getting extra cream. In terms of criticism for these arrangements, I think 1-in, All-in. I thank you for including Red Bull in your comments, and offer my apologies if you didn’t mean the sign on bonus or whatever it is that Ferrari (and others?) get simply for being who they are when you said “extra cream”.
I think that bonus should go entirely. I also think there should be effective cost capping for what it’s worth, which could make the impact of these sorts of payments potentially neglible. I understand their are arguments as to the effectiveness of such arrangements, but I hold my view on this anyway – easy to do as I have no stake in the business.
If I am right about who gets extra cream, we have to include Merc and McLaren as accountable as Ferrari and Red Bull, and we should.
Mercedes gets extra McLaren I believe not, but these things change from year to year
I blame it on my dyslexic fingers! But at least Merc let their drivers race one another. Not like the Red Bull dominant years or the Ferrari years where one driver was favoured and always the leader.
Fully agree about Mercedes letting its drivers race each other. Certainly unlike the MS Ferrari years and partly like the SV Red Bull years, although MW often struggled to match his team-mate’s pace.
Faraway be it I’m getting overly optimistic, but if i was to try a bit of the wild, I reckon the pick-up of Manor, and a few other bits of sort outs, might suggest the idea of the value of the tail teams has possibly just sunk in, a bit, farther up the sharp end of the management grid.
What is interesting, in the detail, is that – to my mind at least – hardly a team has had a easy off season, and a few have had some lessons to learn. There was a lot of low level simmering posturing for a while, before someone poured cold water over a few heads, before, one imagines, anyone picked up on anything worth making a story out of the dross. I’m happy however to just rest up now, until the first weekend starts, but it will be interesting to look about at what stances are taken up and down the paddock, in mind of the various possibilities of concerns. Not in my wildest dreams, though, do I imagine I shall be using the word “chastened” about anyone’s demeanor, unless maybe i look very quickly out of the corner of my eye.
It’s such a shame Simona really does deserve a chance , she is the real deal. It’s extremely sad to see how short sighted F1 can be at times .. Carmen Jorda, give me a break (groan)
Carmen Jorda gets a real bad press. Maybe rightly so. I guess if she were driving for Ferrari these last four or five years she would not have won them a single title.
Hang on a minute …..
Judging by her history that would have been a lot of DNF’s and last places for Ferrari. Think that would have been ‘slightly’ worse than not getting a title.
Joe, any thoughts on Maurizio watching testing from the stands as protest against reduced paddock passes?
Hi Joe, always enjoy your blogs.
F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport. With all the talk of finances, budgets and pay drivers, are the best drivers making it to Formula 1?
Yes, the best rise to the top
Yes, the best rise to the top.
The best, and the brown-nosers (polite version)
I think you put your finger on one issue in that we’ll never see an F1 race in Geneva, reserved for Formula E alone. Whatever the merits or otherwise of Formula E, F1 is now shunned by so many ‘old Europe’ countries (no news yet on Germany?) we’ll soon be permanently watching races in another time zone altogether, on Micky Mouse circuits, if the current management stay in place.
Given the shameful circumstance of Ms Silvestro being welcomed into the Sauber(?) family till her money ran out; it may be too soon to view Ms Jorda’s presence at Lotus as a bad thing, as her experience will probably follow the same route, eg. three articles on an F1 site – 1) she’s here; 2) this is how she did at the Young Drivers Test; 3) ooh, she’s gone.
As Chilton is priced out, along comes Will Stevens. I’d suggest Stevens is a step higher in terms of ability than Chilton, but he’s sort of emerged from nowhere himself with presumably with a bag of cash – and idea, Joe, what he’ll be paying Manor to get a seat?
If I may Joe … being amongst their numbers … it is us ” 50 Shades of Grey ” that are walking away from F1 in droves as the racing becomes more …. homogenized and inauthentic ! Fact is Joe … of all my similarly aged mates and family that used to follow F1 with almost a religious fervor even ten years ago both in the EU/UK and US .. none of us watch it regularly anymore . Including a couple who were directly involved with the sport and who’s names if I mentioned them you’d know very well
The real problem with F1 is first and foremost …. the ‘sport ‘ ( disease ) itself . Not the demographics (symptom) of those involved . Fix one … the disease … and the other will in time fix itself . Try and fix the overall problem by only addressing the symptoms though will result in the likes of a Ms Wolff and Ms Jorda . As far as Ms Silvestri …. give it a rest .. she’s barely a notch above Danica Patrick . Barely . Placing her in an F1 car would be a blatant travesty and an insult to every genuinely talented woman driver that ever came before her
To be a bit contrarian on some of the other bits in the post as well .
Exactly how is the return of the ‘ Mobile Chicane ‘ team [ Manor/Marussia ] in any way shape or form to be considered … a good thing ?
And as far as American Health Care magnates .. well Joe … being under their thumb as I/we are … I wouldn’t be holding out much hope when it comes to one of their kind being involved in anything [ outside lining their own back pockets ] … never mind F1
And finally … and I do mean … finally … F1 is actually publicly admitting that the cash flow problem is reaching desperate and epic proportions … Finally ! … Reality smacking the powers that be right in the face . More than likely because that reality is smacking them even harder in their back pockets .. which in the long run is their sole concern
So in conclusion . Either F1 starts addressing the multiple fatal diseases that are afflicting the sport .. or the ‘ sport ‘ … as I’ve said before … degrades into the ‘ Polo ‘ of automotive racing [ a totally irrelevant rich mans hobby that nobody else cares about ] … assuming that is …. that F1 …. survives at all
F1 ! At its current rate of degradation …. Fly Fishing is becoming more appealing [ and exciting ] by the minute !
Hey Joe ! I know . Assuming F1 does tank … lets you and I team up with a mutual friend/acquaintance and re-do the site as a fly fishing blog [ humor and satire definitely intended ]
Good to see Williams still showing the improvement from last year is continuing and also supporting the Manor return to the grid. Would love to see them as the main challenger to the domination of Mercedes this year.
I suppose Alexander Rossi not getting into F1 would fit in the same “no strategic nous” bracket as Simona, Joe, given that F1 would (or at least should) want to break into the US market?