Formula One’s new investor Liberty Media admits that it has a lot to learn about the sport. This, in itself, is a good thing because all too often people arrive in F1, thinking that they know all the answers and, inevitably this doesn’t end well. The problem about learning in the University of F1 is that one’s success will likely be related to the ability of the teachers. But how does one know which course to take and which lecturers to listen to? One can see that Dr X has a good rate of success, but this does not mean that X is a great teacher. It might just be an easy subject and X is doing only a so-so job, picking the low-hanging fruit. In addition to this, in a commercial environment such as Formula One, it is fair to say that everyone has an agenda, even if it is just relating to earning consulting fees, and one must also bear in mind that when big money is involved, more often than not, the pursuit of money walks hand-in-hand with the pursuit of power. So it is complicated and the best way to do it is to talk to a lot of people to get a broad view and then one can figure out who are the best people to listen to. Generally, if one taps into trustworthy people one is introduced to other similar folk, and when that happens life becomes easier.
I was interested to see stories about Liberty Media thinking that expanding the F1 calendar is a good idea. It is in financial terms, but in order to achieve it, there must be some rethinking because burnout is becoming a serious problem and it is nonsensical to try double the size of the crews because some people just aren’t replaceable.
If one looks at the way the military works, the answer may not lie in beefing up an armoured division, but rather in developing fast intervention units to get the job done in a more efficient way. Right now, for example, huge sums of money and large amounts of effort are wasted to move tons of equipment around the world when teams could either “live off the land” or arrive in facilities that have been specifically-designed for their needs and to their standards, if there was better central planning. Having standard facilities, for example, would make increasing the calendar much more doable. But things change too. As an example, the sport is currently tied to Boeing 747s by the design of its travel boxes, but it could be more flexible if these were redesigned for the 777 because the older planes are now harder to find. It’s a little thing, but significant.
Some things do not change, however, and the dream of racing in Las Vegas remains a dream. The city and the casinos are opposed to the idea, and every time they have gone against their instincts, it has not worked out well. Casinos want free movement of people and anything that blocks roads or causes disruptions is bad. It’s just mathematics. Would F1 bring sufficient gamblers to town to offset the disruption caused to regular business? They believe the answer is no. In any case, does this flashy Tinseltown need F1’s global exposure? Not really, everyone knows Vegas. It’s far cheaper to make another caper movie to spread that message. And is the Vegas image really what F1 wants? Vegas is many things but it has never been called classy and it would undermine the Monaco-esque chic and sophistication that F1 trades on. Long Beach is a much better bet. So too was New Jersey. A night race in the U.S. would be a great spectacle, although it doesn’t really work with time zones and key audiences.
Half the problem at the moment with scheduling is that there is little logic in the calendar. Races are not twinned sensibly within similar time zones because finding promoters where you want them is not easy, at the price being asked. Yet, there are other business models that might work better, with more cooperation and less exploitation.
Vegas held some F1 races back in the days when Sinatra was playing at Caesars but that event – prehistoric by Vegas standards – soon died out and since then – 35 years – F1 in Vegas has been all talk and no action. So maybe some starry-eyed new promoter has come along, thinking they can do what generations of others have failed to achieve, but I fear that the dream will end as all their others have. F1 doesn’t need Vegas any more than Vegas needs F1. There are smarter ways to do this.
joeblogsf1 
I’m pretty sure you have mentioned it before but it would be nice to have the championship split into 3 distinct regional zones of Asia, Europe and Americas. Each region could be shown at times appropriate for that region and a champion could be crowned for each region, keeping interest up throughout the year.
More committed fans will watch all races regardless of time zones but to drum up local attendance I think this would make sense.
This still needs a couple extra races in the Americas… Also doesn’t solve the problem of fatigue as the teams can’t have staff living in Asia/America for 1/4 of the year… Nice to dream though 🙂
Multiple champions creates a farcical situation. Look at boxing, it may generate a little more money but it makes a laughing stock of the sport.
“better central planning” may not be a dream too far.
Bernie E , when ousted from his present position in F1 by Liberty is rumored to be looking to buy up all the circuits. This would mean better facilities for sure, but also a firm testicular hold on all things F1.
You can try to ignore Eccy, but only at your peril!
You cannot buy street circuits
Bernie can’t live forever either
… but you can hire them for the weekend then lease them to Liberty.
when MR E is gone from F1, most if not all of F1’S problems will follow him out the door.
Bernie has had complete control of F1 for a very longtime. Why would he give that up, to restart a new circuits management venture to try and regain the same control? Please don’t suggest he would do this for the money, his wealth is massive and his life probably short. Bernie has decided to move on and once he is fully paid I expect him to largely disappear from F1 .
Joe – I think independent/Freelance journalists will be most hit. I can see teams/Large TV media corp/FIA staffing up given incremental revenue, and rotating staff to minimize burn out. I guess drivers will take more salaries and stop complaining.
Can the calendar be chunked into a 4 Asian races |4 European races |4 Asian races | Break | 5 European Races | 4 Pan American races. Will this offer any respite. This logically should cut long distance travel, and reduce back forth transportation that is typical of current travel.
Do you have any thoughts on how to schedule the calendar for a 20 race season and 25 race season, or are you saying this is impossible.
call me crazy, but I don’t think it’s a good thing when a Co. invests huge sums in another and says it has a lot to learn about it. It sounds like they didn’t do their due diligence before throwing down for it. 😯
Indeed. Likewise, I was astonished to read a couple of months back that Gene Haas has only now realised that he would have been much better off buying an existing team rather than starting from scratch, due to all the financial and travel benefits of doing so. And yet Joe was saying it right from the start, a year before they even got on the grid… one wonders if these people do any research at all.
So many alpha persons I’ve met only listened to what they wanted to hear .. the notion of saying ‘I don’t know’ sounds like a weakness to them when in fact it’s an indication of wisdom as it lets in an opportunity to learn and develop,
Exaclty MartinAero, coming in with the attetude that you still have lot to learn seems to be to be the far wiser and more successufull thing to do. First of all, because you really wouldn’t have a clue about the inner workings.
And second, even if you did have a good idea of it, saying you don’t understand it and let the insiders explain it to you (from all possible sides, probably trying to paint you their picture) you will learn a great deal more both out what the business is like, but also about all the different factors, players and movers and something about their motivations and targets.
The only way Las Vegas could get F1 is for Bruton Smith to build a new pit/paddock and grandstand complex where the “exotic car” circuit lies to create a 6km circuit that uses parts of that and a 3.9km club circuit that has been around since 1972 when the drag strip and club circuit designed originally to replace the now-defunct Stardust circuit opened. (The drag strip was separated in 2000 by Smith.)
I would hate to see you stop your blog and e-magazine but methinks you’d be of great help to correct inepties and promote good sense into F1
Ihave no idea what you are trying to say here
I think it is being suggested you take over running F1 Joe
F1 does not need vanother slot car race between Armco barriers. Forget it.
“As an example, the sport is currently tied to Boeing 747s by the design of its travel boxes, but it could be more flexible if these were redesigned for the 777 because the older planes are now harder to find.”
The 777 F is a great aircraft but it isn’t a nose-loader for the oversized pallets F1 uses, and you’d cube-out the aircraft long before hitting its MGTOW. I’d defer to @freightgeezer ‘s opinion, but I’d guess you’d need something on the order of a dozen 777F’s to move all the cargo. They also have less range so more technical stops = more $$$.
The annual utilization rate of the 747F’s is low enough that they’ll be flying for many years to come.
If you can find available planes
Shouldn’t be a big issue: plenty of old 744s hitting the 2nd hand market, and Lufthansa have ordered some new 748s which should keep the production line running for some time.
It’s a shame the a380 was never designed with freight in mind, it could have made a great carrier and I suspect there’ll be plenty of spare production line capacity as EK migrate orders to A350 and B777, while most other airlines are starting to realise its a (glorious) white elephant.
Bernie should get onto his mate Vladimir and get him to build him an Antonov A225. One would be enough and at present only one is flying but they have enough parts to build another one if someone has the dosh!
Vegas coffin lid very firmly nailed to to box ! New Jersey would be terrific. A California race is extremely desirable. Long Beach ? Laguna Seca ?
OK….dreams, at present……but as you so rightly point out Joe, F1 needs the brittle tinsel image of Vegas like a hole in the head.
One thing is very certain….Liberty have to get this one area right on the nail
first time of asking.
I think there are lots of reasons to criticize Mr E for setting up F1 the way it is now with several questionable solutions from hosting fees to global logistics but it seems to me that he built up an empire that – despite all of its problems – still gives huge rewards to its citizens and it can only be ruined if small blocks are modified. If somebody has the courage and is able to take the risk to overrule the whole business model, it may be the story of the next 50 years but he may fail and take down everything.
I don’t think anayone is suggesting changing the whole business model. The suggestion is that it could be tweaked to create more money
I’m absolutely on the sidelines but it seems difficult to me. Just by launching a proper online stream, they would harm the expensive TV deals. Scheduling geographically closer races after each other to make sense for the logistics would be a setback for the promoters because of the decrease in attendance figures, thus they would need to get lower hosting fees. Giving shares to the teams and renegotiating the Concorde Agreement would create a host of legal and commercial problems. And these are only tips of an iceberg.
Obviously the involved parties are far more knowledgable than myself but it seems to me that it may be tough to tweak Bernie’s systems without recreating the whole in an entirely new form. Which is also an unrealistic idea.
“I don’t think anayone is suggesting changing the whole business model.”
Well maybe they should! It was F1 that bled dry, all the traditional European circuits. It was F1 that prevented other formulae being shown on FTA tv.
A different business model could have kept money inside the sport and let us retain the much loved European circuits.
Maybe Bernie’s next court appearance (in 2017) will finally nail him as an unfit person, as at the last, the judge made clear, his opinion of BCE.
maybe the best teachers in this case are the ones that have been there, done that and have nothing to lose now if some smack needs to be talked about who you’re getting into bed with. Ron Dennis anyone?
According to Tom Bower’s biography of Ecclestone, outside of F1, Bernie’s major interest is high stakes gambling. When Bernie goes, we might finally hear the last of Las Vegas. I know that if we did have another car park race, I’d not bother watching. I have no interest in watching cars racing between concrete slabs. Artificial tracks of that type ruin WTC and Formula E for me.
If I were an honest man involved in F1, I’d like to know how honest Liberty Media are before giving them my opinion of the sport.
Agree 100%
Once Bernie has bolted some sense and less avarice might happen. Until then, just what is he saving up for?
My father-in-law carried on saving for his retirement ’til the day he died, aged 92…..
He is going to bribe the Grim Reaper into letting him stay here longer!
I didn’t believe Vegas was a true target when Bernie was saying it and I don’t believe it now that Liberty is saying it, mostly because I think perhaps Liberty are continuing this part of Bernie’s campaign, which is specifically the negotiation of a deal with Long Beach, which actually seems clever in my opinion. So I wasn’t to surprised when I saw the reports of Liberty wanting a race in Vegas despite the idea being dumb. In fact, it made me believe even more that Long Beach will happen.
Were these the minuets from the recent strategy Group meeting?
Joe, many of the new races have not been classy nor image enhancing. A fair few have hardly managed to attract any national spectator interest from the countries citizens. Think of Korea, Valencia & India not to mention Abu Dhabi, Bahrain …
Frankly, Singapore is a marvel to people who don’t know any better imho. Bright lights make Blackpool look good, but not F1. Boring track, processional racing in the dark. The only reason its held at night is to gain a larger international TV audience.
Who is now the main target audience? I used to think it was us, (baby boomer generation) but we are all dying off. When I die there will be no one in my family who watches F1.
For my generation television was a magic thing from our teens (or late childhood if our parents were rich) we devoured everything, and to have Jenson’s dad showering mud every Saturday at Lydden or Brands, the all the sports car races and the FF crash and occasional truck race all on the BBC! I suppose we were spoiled. Computers too developed over our lifetimes from CPM Z80 and Commodore Pet, through DOS and clunky Windows from 3 to 10 . None of this is fantastic to our kids, tv is boring mostly and all computing devices are taken for granted as are iphones ipads iwatches all of which supply oxygen! Mind the idea of watching F1 on a wrist watch is beyond my understanding.
The FIA now does have video streams, though one would not know this. In fact the GP of Macau was on the FIA site only yesterday!
While Ross is apparently advising Liberty from his experience, who is to undo the Gordian knot of the Bernie deals which like a certain US chappie said there’s things we know, we know, then there’s things we know that we don’t know and then there’s things we don’t even know we don’t know. Thus it is with Bernie’s deals and even the F1 rules.
Liberty’s best option would be to say “Ok Mr FIA let’s go back to basics, you run it and we’ll do the money. All existing shares are canceled FOM is dissolved as are Delta Alpha Beta Theta and Zeta etc etc. We will work out an agreement with the teams and circuits, you and the teams sort the rules out. “
Joe, agree with you Vegas is not the best place for a new venue in US´ s, for the F1 tour. Hope Liberty convince by themselves & forgets on it quickly. F1 has a more complex auditory, lots of sophisticated technology on it, passion, history, pride, and egos. Long Beach, if its same circuit as Indy Car series would be another flat boring, claustrophobic downtown streets circuit, surrounded of concrete slabs. No way, please ! Besides, Long Beach, Austin and Mexico are all in the western U.S, too close each other to hold 3 consecutive GP´s.
A new US venue should be better in the eastern coast side, a track designed for F1 in a closer cosmopolitan, more sophisticated city, with its own local personality as: NY-New Jersey, Miami, or a northern N.Y city. Miami has lots of european immigrants as well as Brazilian, Argentine, Colombian, Venezuelan, affluent South-american fans that really appreciate the F1 circus history. All these east coast cities already have plenty of services, airports, hotels, highways, restaurants, accustomed to please and accommodate all visitors.
F1 needs to grow its fan base in US to make it more profitable and sustainable in the future, they should aim to the best-best locations.
This is very simple for me. I want more races!
I would like to see a number of develpments:
There should be a traditional calendar of say 15 race weekends at existing venues that really enjoy the current 3 day agenda culminating in a GP. These races should hold the most value in terms of points for the “world championship”
Then there should be a set of secondary weekends with a new creative format that essentially follows a 2 day program. This could easily fit a practice session a small quali session and 2 GP style races (long and short). These venues could be at events that are trying to attract new audiences or maybe existing venues that need spicing up! There should be around 10/15 of these races.
Obviously the logistics issues here are tight but a clever format with races held in sets of geographical locations should easily be feasible. Let’s not forget that this years calendar got cars from Canada to Baku in 4 days but also had a stupid start of Aus, Bahrain and then back to China which is completely impractical for anyone who works in F1!
This is very simple for me. I want more races!
I would like to see a number of develpments:
There should be a traditional calendar of say 15 race weekends at existing venues that really enjoy the current 3 day agenda culminating in a GP. These races should hold the most value in terms of points for the “world championship”
Then there should be a set of secondary weekends with a new creative format that essentially follows a 2 day program. This could easily fit a practice session a small quali session and 2 GP style races (long and short). These venues could be at events that are trying to attract new audiences or maybe existing venues that need spicing up! There should be around 10/15 of these races.
Obviously the logistics issues here are tight but a clever format with races held in sets of geographical locations should easily be feasible. Let’s not forget that this years calendar got cars from Canada to Baku in 4 days but also had a stupid start of Aus, Bahrain and then back to China which is completely impractical for anyone who works in F1!
Try living it before proposing it
I think it might work better if there were two parallel series (northern&southern or eastern&western) with, say, 10 teams in each series.
Maybe some larger teams/manufacturers would field cars in both series.
One series would have Quali and Race on the Saturday,
The other would have Quali & Race on the Sunday.
And then, there would need to be a Finals Series at end of year where top 10 drivers from each Series meet to race for the actual WDC.
Viewers therefore get a much larger amount of racing.
More TV = more sponsors would be interested.
Tracks get used more often so promoters would be happier.
More new Teams and drivers would also be good.
I think that would be a good longterm objective to aim for.
America will continue to be a tough nut for F1 to crack. Only 727,000 people tuned in to watch the race on TV this year, down 18% from last years 889,000. It’s going to take a successful American driver on the podium to raise the sport’s profile here.
Joe,
Maybe you should be Liberties first port of call!