The salary number looks more rational vs earlier press. If true of course. The length not so focused to me given the performance clause the contracts have normally
The smell of death and desperation is in the air. The salaries in F1 are becoming as big a turn off as the technical rules and the personalities. Not that F1 is the only sinner in terms of money. But I have already turned my back on those sports. Not sure I care enough to come back to F1 in 2020.
This is the era of fathers buying their sons F1 teams and drivers buying $20mm seats at trash teams. Pretty soon, F1 will be a multi-billionaire's only club and the days of drivers getting seats purely on merit will be gone. If you think the show sucks now, just wait until 95% of the grid is comprised of Strolls and Latifififis whinging around street circuits in a two-make series.
It looks like the glass is half empty for you. For me it's still half full, and I haven't lost my interest. F1 cannot stand still, but has to move with the time.
It has always been the case that car manufacturers' involvement in F1 is subject to the economic climate. For Renault, Mercedes and Honda, F1 isn't their core business, but the reality is that they have to adapt their strategy to satisfy market and legislation. So, I can see exiting F1 before too long. Ferrari will always be the odd one out.
F1 will not survive Ferrari alone. The subject of the future is the only question that matters. All makers are affected and F1 is not a significant part of sales as an incentive to buyers.
If the car manufacturers desert F1, Ferrari will be the only obstacle for it to become a specs series like Indycar.
Max confirms its the car - (BBC F1) I can beat Hamilton in the right car - Verstappen Red Bull's Max Verstappen says he can beat Lewis Hamilton to this year's world championship as long as his car is good enough.
Sure, give Max a car that is 3 seconds per lap faster than anyone else, and the championship will be his.
I hope his car is good enough that he gets a chance to prove himself right. Having said that, I also wouldn't expect him - or any other top tier driver - to respond any differently. Give me the right car and I can beat anyone.
Even if the car is good enough, you still have to be consistently fast and perform under pressure in order to beat Hamilton. Ask Vettel, he can confirm this.
Put Max in the same car as Lewis then we would know, never going to happen, but with F1 so extremely car dependent for so long we will never really know who is better without both drivers driving for Mercedes.
In my 60ish yearsof auto racing fandom, I don't remember when this wasn't true. Even during the "Formula Cosworth" era, it was the same....vast majority of years it was 1, 2, or sometimes 3, that were on top of the heap. Hey! Sounds like now, eh? Please remind me when it was that I'm forgetting. Don't slip in lesser teams winning when the dominators DNFd. That happened alot when things were stressed to the max as opposed to nowadays. That did not make them competitive opponents, just lucky. Look at the Constructor points over the years........
Yup, soon to be just a memory though, as the masses are more interested in "real" racing (bs....scripted showtime). It's called auto racing as it was originally mainly about who could build the fastest cars. It's not called "driver racing" or, what it appears to be what the masses want...."who can design the most entertaining, closest, racing show" (fiction as opposed to the reality of real auto racing).
Max in the Merc would be the end of Little Mermaid Lewis. For the same reason Ricciardo is not in a Merc seat.
If, if, if ... "If my auntie had balls, she would be my uncle ! ", is the saying. Always the same speculations from the haters camp, to dismiss Hamilton's success as some kind of fluke.