I am going to ignore the comments made today by Bernie Ecclestone, on the basis that it was absolutely the wrong time to say it, and because I completely disagree with what he says. Perhaps I will come back to it later in the week, to try to make sense of why the promoter of the World Championship should want to say such things and perhaps what he is trying to achieve.
Today, however, is a joyous day for F1 fans, as the circus went back into business after nearly two months without any significant running. We should not read too much into anything on the first day of testing because no one knows who is doing what and so the times mean very little. The number of laps is often more important as a measure and, in this respect, there was a clear winner with Lewis Hamilton completing an impressive 156 laps, nearly twice as many as anyone else. The fact that he was four-tenths slower than Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari will excite the tifosi, but should not be taken too seriously.
Yes, perhaps Ferrari is closer to Mercedes, perhaps it is even ahead, but we don’t really know yet. Vettel did only 69 laps.
Third fastest time went to Dan Ricciardo’s Red Bull (don’t say Renault) TAG-Heuer, 1.1 secs down on Vettel’s best, but with 87 laps under his belt. Valtteri Bottas was next for Williams, a fraction slower than Ricciardo.
One must put it all into perspective when one sees F1 new boy Mexican GP3 driver Alfonso Celis Jr next in the Force India, two-tenths off the Williams.
The times thus must not be taken too seriously. Let’s see how patterns develop later in the week.
joeblogsf1 
Tunisia? God bless auto correct! 🙂
Fixed now!
Hello Joe, appreciate all your posts. But surely you would agree with Bernie that once you have seen the start you can switch off and do something else then return 15 minutes before the end to watch the procession come to an end?
No, I don’t. I think people who say that don’t understand the sport. Perhaps the sport is to blame for that.
That has been the case from time to time in the front two spots over the last two years, but far more often than not, 3rd through about 12th have been an absolute melee. I think most races have been very, very watchable, from start to finish.
Ecclestone Bakery, Purveyor of Fine Pies…
Their motto: “Don’t buy our pies, they taste awful!”
Hi Joe, while You are present, can You precise a bit on Red Bull – it’s bit interesting but not clear from pics so far – is there a space between gelb schnautzer and a schwarz schnobel ?
I’m not present. I don’t do testing.
😦 why not?
ahh Bernard, he couldn’t wait all winter and not talking about rubbishF1, graveyards, democracy and cardboard box haha, nice one Bernie! 🙂
Well it’s a nice diversion from his daughter’s husband’s alleged situation I suppose.
I so wish the noise would come back, it’s just not creating any atmosphere any more. I have taken friends to a GP for the first time and it was always the noise that they raved about. Yes, you will always have a race that’s not the best, but you always had noise, atmosphere and adrenalin to keep you going. I agree with Bernie, he knows what it was like and sees what we have today, very sad.
I don’t agree.
I’ve heard these cars three times already. Twice in Hungary and once in Monaco. The noise was quite enough. If you have grandstand seats close to the track, you definitely need earplugs for GP2 and GP3 (especially GP3 – the rattling pitch of the V6s hurts my ears a lot more than the smoother V8s of GP2 cars), but not F1.
But when you use earplugs, the experience is not much different from the sound coming from the speakers of your TV at home. The sound of F1 has a great ambiance – especially in Monaco – and you are actually able to talk to other people. It’s a lot more engaging.
Well I spoke to a number of disappointed spectators in Singapore last year. I don’t want to have a nice conversation with the person next to me, if I do I’ll shout. I’m sorry but this V6 is like going to an air show and watching gliders perform.
Different stokes for different folks. Do you not remember the last turbo era or the Cosworth days?
The noise has come back. Sadly, mostly from Bernie’s arse.
It’s not the amount of noise… it’s the quality of the noise…
We don’t need more noise… the noise before was too much, it was downright painful… but a better grade of noise is desirable… it should be a thoroughbred noise… last year’s noise was too lumpy and un-special… it wasn’t haunting, and F1 noise should be…
Surely they can design noise by now…
Not read Mr E’s comments, doubt I will. F1 is back! Roll on Australia.
Mixed grids are a good idea. The fastest driver in qualifying is awarded the most points for that session and these are added to their race finishing points, the total of which goes towards their world championship points.
The grid position is determined by a random number generator, or even lottery balls, and the race will see some intense racing and overtaking. These drivers are the best in the world so safety shouldn’t be an issue…
No, that’s a horrible fake idea
Whilst we’re at it, why not draw the race results out of a hat too?
Some of the best racing isn’t shown on TV. How many people did Mad Max pass last year? Did we see a tenth of them? Mid-field battles between teammates are quite illuminating, equal cars and such.
Oh and screw Bernie E. His relevant comments are few and far between. Too bad he calls the shots….
Bernie is p•ssing on his own doorstep
Yes I think that is a perfect analogy … Bernie is becoming a complete pain in the ass with all of his negative comments .. He is just plain wrong about the new PU”s
It’s the future of automotive design, so Bernie suck it up and get used to it !
The constant negativity from within and outside F1 does get tiring.
Sure, many things could and should be better but lets not forget that we have a quality field of teams and drivers, excluding Manor and Hass ofcourse every single constructor has won a Grand Prix. Long gong are the days of entrants like Andrea Moda.
And even with the team’s preference for drivers who bring sponsorship I don’t think a single one of 2016’s class doesn’t deserve to be there. Gutierrez and Hyranto are probably the weakest and yet far from disgraceful since they’ve won races at GP2 level.
Completely agree with your Bernie statement. Truly astonishing that he says things like this.
I no longer have cable TV so races are watched on a fuzzy online stream or at a friends house. Maybe F1 should do a deal with Apple TV. That would make it easy to watch. I’ve reached the point where I don’t mind if I miss a race. Bernie’s statements do nothing to enhance my motivation to watch a race. It’s a turn off.
It will be another 20 years before I’m Bernie’s preferred customer. But I still won’t be able to afford a Rolex.
I often get a 24hr pass for skysports on NowTv via my Apple TV..
I am with you.
Totally agree with this. 2014 was the first time I was out and about on a GP sunday and several times even forgot it was on come 1pm. Would catch the highlights, but even then sometimes not til mid week cos it was relatively dull.. when the liv race isn’t there and or the actual racing is relatively dull, you lose that immediate interest to WANT to watch it.. ‘Oh, i’ll catch it later then..’
I could tell you were having a good day from your joshing with Andrew Benson and your flirting with Suzi Perry.
If any employee of just about any enterprise in the world went to the press and talked as much garbage about their employer as Bernie does about F1, they’d have been fired many, many months ago. I just can’t understand that man.
Do you understand CVC any better?
Oh, my goodness, I absolutely do not understand CVC any better. And I find it utterly distressing that someone who has been around the F1 paddock as long as you have, Joe, can’t understand them either. That is meant an indictment on their part, not on yours, by the way. I just have to imagine that the sport would be in a far better place without their influence and “black hole of cash” as a distraction from strengthening the sport to continue into the future.
My thoughts exactly. Can’t help but recall the Gerald Ratner fiasco all those years ago…
I second your comment Speedgeek. CVC may be as unfathomable as Bernie, but when they are trying to take the sport public how can they tolerate Bernie pissing all over the product they are trying to sell?????
Briatore and Ecclestone are telling some unpleasant truths. People are so consumed by an intense dislike of their past and / or their image to recognise the reality of their words.
I do not agree. In order to write this, you cannot truly understand the sport. This is a failure of F1 to educate the fans sufficiently about what is happening and why it is so interesting. There will always be people who watch to see crashes and endless overtaking, but F1 is a more subtle sport than that. It’s not as arcane as cricket, but the concept is not dissimilar. People who don’t get cricket, call it boring too…
I only really like test match cricket. So much going on, much like F1.
Some things should not be rushed…
While I’m completely happy watching cricket in the manner described (and a good number of other sports too), F1 was a more physical (and risk-laden) challenge in previous era than it is today. Given the level of ‘sanitization’ of the sport alongside the increasing disparity of equitable distribution of prize revenue, this has detracted from its sporting credentials (and therefore makes it boring). Yes there is strategy, but its coming from rows of data analysts using computers to calculate every permutation to nth degree…take that level of assistance away and then we’re back on the path of making this a true sport (as opposed to ‘sports entertainment’).
Exactly.
With all due respect Joe (and I mean that sincerely) but I think that your attitude is part of the inherent problem with F1. I think you are being dismissive to suggest that ‘if you don’t like it, you don’t understand it’. No person should need umpteen years of understanding to sit there and enjoy (let alone just watch) a 1.5 hour car race. Nor should they be expected to read (and be excited by) pages and pages on some “significant” development on a car, which, when boiled down, amounts to an additional winglet the size of a beer coaster being added to a front wing.
Globally, audiences aren’t consuming TV, media and sport the same as they were 15 years ago, hell, even 5 years ago. I’m not talking about the method that it is delivered in but format of the ‘show’ or the lack of audience education. Like or or loathe it sports are changing, some reluctantly some enthusiastically, It’s funny how you should use cricket as an example without even a hint of irony. Traditional forms of cricket are grappling with similar issues to F1 – i.e. a declining interest in its traditional forms, however, unlike senior management and decision makers of F1 they have accepted this market shift and done something about it. Whether die-hards like the new take on an old format is irrelevant, that is not their target. Instead of perceiving the interest in this ‘fast food’ version of cricket as at threat, the sports owners are embracing it and see it as an opportunity to grow a fan base and eventually graduate those new fans into the sports less immediately attractive forms. What is F1’s answer to its own market shift? Its treating it with at best indifference and at worst gleeful ignorance. Ask a fan, ask a team owner, ask an engine supplier, ask a journalist, ask a tyre supplier on what is wrong and you will end up with five different and heavily vested answers…. and a silent sport owner and an all too loud, sabre-rattling commercial rights holder. None of which, in isolation, care about the sport.
F1 has not broadly invested in its fan base in countless years. Instead they have poured their resources and efforts into investing in gimmicks and appeasing the self-interested car manufacturer ‘cartel’ (to borrow Bernie’s words) to create an artificial show that appeals to neither an enthusiast or a casual observer. There is a laundry list of reasons as to why this sport has been declining in recent years and not one is rationalised by telling people that there is is in fact nothing wrong and that they simply just don’t understand it.
yours truly
A fan of F1 for over 25 years.
I’m sorry but if you don’t see excitement in F1 today I don’t understand you.
Aggrieved – you nailed it. Jody Scheckter was on BBC radio Five Live this morning saying the excitement has gone out of F1 and that its not just due to the dominance of one team rather overregulation by the rule makers. If a former World Champion is saying that, something is amiss regardless what others may keep preaching.
It depends on who the former World Champion is
How about a triple World Champ who is also a current team boss of the reigning World Champions? Lauda said only last August that MotoGP provided “the most incredible racing you can see today” and that F1 was “the opposite”. He also went on to describe MotoGP as more spectacular than F1.
‘I’m sorry but if you don’t see excitement in F1 today I don’t understand you.’
Joe, please can you explain what IS the excitement ? From a journalists, inside the paddock, perspective ?
If you don’t get excited about a new season of F1 beginning, I fear that you should probably give the sport up.
Am not sure defining F1 as a sport is accurate these days. That may explain why many have indeed become disenfranchised with the competition and done as suggested (given it up).
A response which would make Mr Ecclestone proud…
“MotoGP is just so cool, much more exciting to watch, I would say, just because it’s closer racing”
“I definitely want to make it to more races this year – I’ve only been to one in a season, and I want to get to some more.”
Reigning F1 World Champ on MotoGP…says it all really.
There have been big changes in the MotoGP word since last season. It will be interesting to see whether this improves the show.
Well, not everyone thinks it’s rubbish. I was up at 0-dark-thirty to follow live testing and have been eagerly awaiting pics and vids of the session to enjoy vicariously. Australia can’t come soon enough!
A joyous day indeed, I was happy to see some cars go around again.
Soon the circus starts for real! Can’t wait (Even if I can’t help to whine now and then about the sport).
The only question for me from testing is the forward progress of the McLaren-Honda. So far, it looks better than last year, at least.
I don’t care about engine noise-at all. I am watching on TV.
I agree-a joyous day. Happy travels to you this season.
Any news on the changes to Honda’s engine …… or come to that any engines ?? Thanks
Just returned from a week in BCN. I couldn’t find one mention of F1 or the Circuit de Catalunya at any of the tourist offices or any billboards or other outdoor signage. Not even a word about Alonso. Yes, BBC or SkySports has coverage on TV, and yes the local Barcelona daily had a preview in the Saturday edition, but that’s all I saw. Lots of football, of course, and live handball on the Spanish sports TV, but F1 is for all intents invisible. How sad for such a great sport. Thank you BE and thank you CVC.
Bernie is saying what he is saying to create buzz about the sport given that the GP of the season is just a few weeks away. I do hope that Mercedes have some competition this year and it’s not just Lewis and Nico battling for the top step each GP. Yes, I know that F1 is about the development of technology and innovation in different ways. I think that it’s sad that people are already handing Mercedes both championships and the first GP hasn’t even been run yet. Good things can’t be rushed (like cheese, wine, and coffee). I’m afraid that by the time the current technology will have reached purity that F1 will have lost enough ground in the global sports marketplace that the sport will have a hard time recovering, getting new sponsors, and getting more exposure. I love cricket too.
I don’t think this has anything to do with buzz.
+1 – good post heidiwf1