as much as i hate him, Branson's got the money to help Lotus if he wanted to
Posted on 08/05/2009 7:57:45 PM PDT by Chode
This will be a general purpose thread for F1 news and pings that really don't require a thread of their own.
as much as i hate him, Branson's got the money to help Lotus if he wanted to
he barely sponsored Braun GP when they won the title....
and with all his cash... he's a wretch
For the ping. Last paragraph:
The Daily Mail added: “The wildest, but not necessarily ill-informed rumours suggest that Ecclestone could be discarded within a fortnight.”
be still my beating heart...
In the rush to try to make F1 cheaper and more modern they have come up with this stupid “power unit” concept. As it turned out to be the most expensive engine package in history of F1 or any other racing series. Idiocy.
During the heydays of Ferrari and Schumacher the term “super team” was coined. The advent of the new “power unit” has resulted in what I am now going to call “mega team”. A team such as Mercedes that has the resources to built the “power unit” as well as their chassis. It has increased the cost of racing so astronomically that only mega teams will be able to afford it. Hence, the three car teams are coming in an effort to save the series.
Mercedes had such a huge jump on all the other teams since they designed the engines, they knew its physical size and capabilities long before the other teams even knew what it looked like. They had probably a year jump on all the other teams for chassis design, which is around the engine. No other team has the resources, engineering, financial, developmental, personnel as a factory such as Merc. There is just nobody out there that can compete with Merc, period. You say well Honda can. Phffftt, Honda will be just as bad or worse than the other losers.(I do not mean losers derogatorily)
Merc will win all future F1 titles until they decide to leave F1. (how is that for ballsy prediction, or idiocy?) The current main competitors now, Ferrari and Red Bull) are 1.5-2 seconds a lap slower than Merc when they should be 1.5-2 tenths of a second.
F1, the wonderful series that we all love to watch is over, finished. Merc has done the same thing to F1 that Porsche did to the CanAm series back in the early 70’s. At its heyday the finest bar none road racing series in the world. Faster than F1 cars at the time, world famous drivers from everywhere, packed with spectators, ground pounding 500 cuin engines and Porsche killed it with ....... factory money.
A friend of mine that started working for a race team for the CanAm series in 1969, ending his career with 3 Indy 500 rings, 5 Cart championships and several other championships including sports cars has told me that this is precisely what happens when automotive manufacturers get involved with a racing series and become participants. My friend also said to watch, when shit-head Bernie kicks the bucket there will be a veritable world war for control of F1. A war for the take over and control of this monster of a money machine that will be so big it will end up being the nail in the coffin. F1 will be finished off after Merc has given it the paralyzing blow.
As to Vettel leaving Red Bull? He is grasping for straws that will not be there. Merc robbed Red Bull of some key people and although Red Bull has lots of money the old cranky Austrian will find it impossible to compete with Merc. Ferrari? Look at their successes this year with a two time and a one time former world champion?
Nope folks, the last bastion of non-spec racing is slowly drowning in a vast sea of money and the good ole days are just that.
excellent analysis
Jules Bianchi: F1 bosses to implement 'virtual safety car' LFormula 1 bosses are to implement changes to ensure drivers slow down for on-track incidents, and pursue the idea of a 'virtual safety car'.
F1 is determined to learn lessons from the accident in Japan that left Frenchman Jules Bianchi in a critical condition with severe head injuries.
Bianchi's car hit a recovery vehicle despite caution flags being waved.
Race director Charlie Whiting agreed to changes with the teams at a meeting at the Russian Grand Prix on Saturday.
For the 'virtual safety car' idea, drivers would have to stay within a certain pre-determined lap time in the event of an incident that would previously not have been regarded as needing a safety car.
This would be when officials felt an incident could be cleared relatively quickly, but when workers, marshals or recovery vehicles needed to be on track to return it to racing condition.
This is an extension of the system currently used when a safety car is deployed, when drivers have to slow down to a certain level while waiting for the safety car to pick up the leader.
The system cannot be implemented immediately because of the complexity of the cars.
But governing body the FIA may run a test of the new system after one of the practice sessions at the next race in Austin, Texas, in three weeks' time.
In the meantime, Whiting will exercise "extreme caution" in the event of any incident.
Bianchi collided with the tractor vehicle that was recovering Adrian Sutil's Sauber, which had crashed on the previous lap in the same spot.
Whiting said in a news conference on Friday that all drivers had slowed down for the Sutil incident, but some had slowed more than others. He would not say how much Bianchi had slowed.
"I know what speed he left the track at," Whiting said. "We have seen the data from all cars, and everyone slowed down.
"Some didn't slow down much, some a lot. We don't need to go into how much he slowed down compared to others. He did slow down; it is a matter of degree."
Whiting also said the decision of the Japan Grand Prix organisers to reject an earlier race-start time given the approach of typhoon Phanfone played no part in Bianchi's accident on a wet track.
The Marussia driver had to be taken to hospital by road as the medical helicopter was unable to land in the conditions in Yokkaichi.
Whiting said: "On this occasion, the way in which the marshals reacted, the fact the safety and medical cars arrived at the scene in very quick time, that the extraction vehicle and ambulance were despatched correctly, nothing could have been done better.
"We have procedures in place, we deal with things and we know exactly what to do under the circumstances."
Whiting: “Some didn’t slow down much, some a lot”. What a load of Bill Clinton type crap. Spin it all ya want Charlie, you screwed the pooch and now you trot out a ‘virtual safety car’ to steer talk away from your lack of SOP. ALL cars should be slowed down to a SAME, pre established speed. Pick a number Charlie, say 10-50 mph? or 25-60 mph. SOMETHING/ANY agreed upon Caution MPH, (for THAT particular and each race), standardized!!!!! Then old Charlie will not say how fast he was traveling as the poor kid slid off the track into that crane. Why Charlie you sad sack?! Then this: “The system can’t be implemented due to the complexity of the cars’.........................UNFREAKINREAL Chode!! Hows this?: A Caution is declared....IMMREDIATE notification to all teams at their central control.....Teams IMMEDIATELY notify drivers by radio! 5 freakin’ seconds at most!!! Is that so freakin hard? Good God! Sorry for the rant Chode but I can’t STAND spin like this from anyone and Whiting is pulling his crap big time here.
Dittos to those years!! Shark nose baby!!!
no rant, agreed 100%!!!
howdy stranger, great last lap, the year turbos came into their own
the Glen F1 got rained a LOT back then... sometimes snow
Bernie Ecclestone: I don't know how to fix F1 finances http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/29868355 Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone says he is to blame for the financial problems afflicting some of the smaller teams in the sport.
Marussia and Caterham have gone into administration, reducing the grid for Sunday's US Grand Prix to 18 cars.
Their collapse has caused anger among some surviving teams, who say the sport's revenues are not split fairly.
Ecclestone said: "There is too much money being distributed badly - probably my fault."
He added: "Like lots of agreements people make, they seemed a good idea at the time. I know what's wrong, but don't know how to fix it."
Force India's Fernley says US GP boycott is 'on the table'
Ecclestone has struck private financial deals with all the teams over the last few years and the result has been a revenue split that is heavily in favour of the big teams.
The contracts are secret, but Ferrari are believed to have been paid more than $200m (£125m) for the 2013 season, in which they finished third in the championship, including $90m just for turning up.
By contrast, Marussia earned a reputed $14m (£8.8m), and Caterham a little more than double that.
The costs for a midfield team to compete in F1 for a season are believed to be about $120m (£75m).
Ecclestone dismissed claims from Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley that they and the Lotus and Sauber teams might boycott Sunday's race in the USA - which World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton starts second, behind Mercedes team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg - in protest at the financial problems afflicting the sport.
Christian Horner has said he would prefer to see the standard two car teams in future seasons
"They will be racing, I give you a guarantee," he said. "But I worry if they will be racing next year."
He said that if the bigger teams wanted to prevent the risk of more teams going out of business, they would have to give up some of their income.
"It's not the biggest crisis I've dealt with, but I'm not happy," he said.
"It's just you are talking about larger amounts of money, so therefore it is more difficult to solve.
"We'll have to do something about it because we can't all sit back nicely, relaxed and think the problem will go away.
"It's not like having the flu and taking a few tablets and it will disappear.
As well as suffering administration, the Marussia team saw their driver Jules Bianchi critically injured during the Japanese Grand Prix
"The situation is such that if enough people want it resolved, we can resolve it.
"It's a case that the people involved in the sport will have to want to look after the sport and be prepared to make some sacrifices."
He added that he would be happy to renegotiate the teams' contracts if they were prepared to do so as well.
"It makes no difference to me how the money is shared out.
"If they sat down here with me now and said they want to share out all of the money they get in a different way, I would say: 'Good, give me the bit of paper'."
And he said he would be prepared to give up some of the income earned by main shareholder CVC, which employs him to run the sport, if the teams did the same.
Many jobs are under threat at both Caterham and Marussia
"I would say to people getting a chunk of money that I would like to take a percentage of their performance-related payment," Ecclestone said.
"I would put that money together to divide among the three or four we know are in trouble, and then I would put in the same amount of money.
"But there would not be one team that would think it was a good idea."
...he seems to be the ONLY one finally recognizes HIS failures. MORON
So Ricciardo is a huge Junior fan, awesome...
The race course is great, but the last American to win a F1 race was Mario Andretti in 1978.
In the post race interview, Mario walked towards Hamilton, and you could see Hamilton’s respect. Then later, Hamilton got ahold of Mario’s cowboy hat, and it was cool.
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