"Hindsight is a wonderful thing......" Remember, back then, it was hardly televised. Very little money by todays standards. And, it was run by, basically, a bunch of amateurs without any "vision". [Sound familiar? ] Bernie actually offered them (the team principals/owners) a sizable share. They *all* decided he was crazy, was going to lose his shirt and wanted nothing to do with it. IIRC, it was Lord Hesketh who called it the worst decision any of them ever made in his autobiography (?) Cheers, Ian
Sorry, have to say this... Let's deliberately make the cars unstable and twitchy. Let's make the races 'exciting' by making handling and performance unpredictable in the turns. Then let's make sure we only have one or two engine suppliers... And then we can call it NASCAR.
I have a problem with the length of the contract too, but Mosly pretends there were no takers ... Maybe we will one day have someone at the helm of the FIA with the guts to challenge these terms. So far, only politicians outside the sport have raised objections about it, but it's a low priority in their agenda. The FIA sees itself as a regulator more than an organiser and has in fact "leased" most of its international series and world championships to commercial interests: F1 is in good company with WEC, WRC and other top competitions. Being an international organisation, its financial deals don't come under the scrutiny of a particular government, a bit like FIFA.
I get that, and I agree it may have been hard to understand the value perfectly in the early 2000s. However, if you look at the way he solicited (read - did not actually) bids, it shows that he had no interest in attaining the best price, but rather selling it to his buddy. That is really what is damning in that article IMHO. If any CEO, trying to sell an asset, did the same, he would be out of a job immediately. There was also absolutely no reason to sell it for 100 years either; that's absurd. Yah Hesketh actually says that in the movie "one", but I believe it was in reference to the original deal, not the extension. Could be mistaken though. I know Mosley did some good in F1 also, but **** like this is disgusting to me. I also don't judge people for what they engage in sexually - I really don't care. But when you have deception as part of your everyday life, and live with it for so long, it does say something about your character and what you are capable of doing.
Exactly...saying no one was interested in the commercial rights to F1 in 2000 is insane. Setting an arbitrary deadline is just a tactic to affect his desired outcome. Then the typical tactic is employed of - "oh the teams can't decide anything...they are a joke." They ARE the sport. Psst.
Even with the changes I secretely wish for, there would still be a world of difference between F1 and NASCAR. We used to have F1 cars difficult to drive, and even ONE engine supplier at one time (Cosworth for all, bar Ferrari), but it never became NASCAR ! F1 and NASCAR is like chalk and cheese ...
+1 bingo And just to add fuel to that, when Mosley ran his own team March, he cheated by getting one of his muppets to break the cross line beam with a board in Q, to gain a better Q slot for his car. At least Todt admitted when appointed, he would not be playing a, in your face role, on the fly rule amending/twisting sod... And folk want him back!!!.....jeeeez, well all I can say is they must have developed language skills just for the need to complain... Oh and Mosley never did any good in F1 ..he called Jackie Stewart a certfied half wit ...and JS IMO did more for safety in F1 than most..
Todt seemed lost, and totally clueless about F1. Linking headache and cancer is really a poor choice of words, IMHO. The sport is slowly dying, and it's a fact.
For me what is killing F1 has been the trying to introduce the "road relevance" concept to the sport and he's been big part of this. Nobody cares to watch the same technologies and products they already have in their cars. It's like making a car show all about reasonably priced cars, nobody would watch it. And if the reason behind it is that in this way manufacturers will want to get involved to promote their road products, when nobody watches there's little to promote. I am watching Formula E right now and the worse thing about the cars are the Michelin road tyres they use. They have zero grip. On a racing car, what's the point? Hope Todt doesn't push for Michelin to come to F1 too, with their wacky ideas about "road relevance" tyres or that'll be the end for me. And hope there will soon be a "fair" new election at the FIA and he gets the boot rather then asking for even more powers to fix what he's broken, as he's doing now.
The point is that the cars slide and are difficult to drive. Watching drivers struggling with tyres that have low grip is more entertaining to me than seeing cars cornering like if they were on rail with no drama. Less grip and less downforce makes racing more interesting for both drivers and spectators.
Less grip and downforce makes cars slower and easier to drive and that's why they're changing the specs for 2017
JT's latest comments. Edited...... He actually makes a little sense here IMO. Cheers, Ian Todt vows to reduce engine costs - Pitpass.com
Thanks for the link sir. I like the conclusion myself ; ) "Fact is, the likes of Manor and Caterham, albeit in different guises were encouraged by the FIA to join F1, lured by the promise of a price cap that the governing body was not unable to deliver but presided over as costs rose ever higher. It is all very well for Todt to say such matters are not in his, thereby the FIA's hands, the fact is he is president of the governing body... he must govern. Furthermore, the 'nothing to do with me guv', 'this didn't happen on my watch' excuses don't cut it." ...he is almost bragging about having Manor stay like it's an accomplishment. They are just obstacles on the course. They have no business being on track IMO and we are probably lucky nothing terrible has happened as a result.
I know the contact with the Lotus in Canada, but ultimately the Lotus was at fault (Grosjean). Were there others I missed? I mean aside from just screwing up the flow of the race?
I don't agree there. I don't know if Manor's survival has anything to do with Todt, apart from him bending the rules to allow their new owner to enter this yea. But don't consider them as useless, even if they are at the back, at the moment. Manor is a new team, with a lot less experience than well established teams; they are on a learning curbe and facing a mountain to climb. Today you don't like Manor and wish them to go; tomorrow it will be the next tail ender, Force India maybe, or Sauber. And who will be next when these two will have disappeared too? Then, you will blame Toro Rosso maybe, etc...If only potential winners were allowed to compete, that would be 8 to 10 cars at most, probably less. The fact is that F1 NEEDS at least 20 cars to be credible and offer a good show. So, not only top rich teams should be there, but also lesser teams that surprise us when they put up a good show. Their performances have to be analysed with their resources in mind. Beside, many teams started at the back of the grid (ask Williams), and many drivers also started driving for small teams before getting a place among the top teams. Reducing the number of cars means reducing the number of seat for young newcomers to gain experience.
Hey I'm all for them being allowed in once they actually have a 2015 car that meets the speed requirements like everyone else on the grid. Those requirements were waved to keep the illusion of a full grid since F1 is embarrassed at the lack of cars after losing Caterham and Marussia. It has nothing to do with wanting to help young drivers or Manor. Until then, they have no business being out there. There is back of the pack, and then there is being lapped 4 times in under 1.5 hours. No one is gaining experience driving one of those things at anything other than looking in their mirrors so they don't die. The drivers would be better served in a lesser division or elsewhere. Chilton went to Indy Lights for example.
