Given that F1 is the most viewed motorsport in the world, I would say a lot of people care. Endurance racing...a lot less care save one big race.
I am not sure about that. There are plenty of cars less glamourous than Alfa, but they have a good dealer network, and reliable after sale. The new Alfa Guilia arrives here in UK next year. Apart from around London, the dealer network is very thin on the ground in the rest of the country. I cannot see the situation changing. It took years for BMW, AUDI, Honda and the others to build customer confidence; I cannot see that happening overnight with Alfa. A Porsche or a TVR owner would accept to drive his car 200 miles to the dealer and leave it there to have it serviced because it's his second or third car, but an Alfa owner, for whom it's often the every day drive and the family car to take the kids to school, will not suffer the same inconvenience. I am just giving my opinion; good luck with your Guilia !!!
in my haste, I meant to say that f-1 has lost me personally. I truly could care less about it. I always loved the romance of endurance racing sports cars and loved the alfa history. I bought my first alfa (1975 alfetta gt) as a result of the race program. a true win on sunday sell on Monday example.
+1 And not just the most watched motorsport but the most watched sport! OK, the Olympics & World Cup garner more eyeballs, but they're only on every 4 years. Year on year, F1 is where it's at if that's your metric...... Cheers, Ian
Yah I left out the sport because I didn't want to get into a debate about special events. : ) I just got into an argument with a young racer about this a couple weeks ago. He tried to tell me that NASCAR was the most viewed motorsport in the world. He eventually backed down when he garnered no support from the surrounding people. I was nice of course. : )
It seems to me that you forget football!! (I mean soccer) Since satellite TV, millions, hundreds of millions are glued to their set, almost everyday of the week, not only to see the world cup and the annual big international tournaments, but also the regional championships in Europe, Asia, South America, plus the matches of national leagues in Brazil, Argentina Britain, France, Italy, Spain, etc... Just in the Far East, there is an enormous gambling industry based on football results in the Premier League in England. Imagine the size of the audience in China, where they are gambling mad !!! As for memorabilia sold, soccer certainly beats all other sports. It's a big source of revenue just for British teams to export apparels, souvenirs, photos, calendars, caps, scarves, T-shirts, flags and other paraphanelia. I am quite confident that more people worldwide watch soccer than F1. Also, it's easier to understand: they don't change the rules all the time!!!!! Before you accuse me of bias, I must say that I do not like soccer; but I can see its impact. Compare to that, F1 is an elitist sport.
But isn't the reason it isn't broadcast like F1 the nature of the issue? If they could get it on TV like that, or pay-packages, they would. They can't because the interest isn't as high. The interest isn't as high for a number of debatable reasons. The chief one to casual fans, IMHO, is the format. It is hard to get people interested in racing period, let alone a super-long race with multiple classes, drivers, rules, etc.
Ha! Maybe if I add a parking spot and in a couple of years. I try to never buy any first model-year car regardless of make. Maybe pick one up used or get the second or third gen if they keep them going and they prove to be reliable.
Yes and no. I think F1 is better promoted than endurance, but maybe Ecclestone will one day go too far and find that selling TV rights starts becoming difficult. Who knows. In Germany, they show a lot of DTM which is their main championship, in France it's WEC and ELMS because of Le Mans (10 or 12 races), I am sure in the US it's NASCAR. What I mean is that F1 audience is worldwide, whilst other forms of racing are more localised to the regions where they are most popular. If endurance was correctly promoted like F1, with TV commentators explaining the rules, the categories, the cars, and the broadcasting concentrating on the highlights, it could grow a wider audience I think. F1 benefits from mostly good coverage with good commentators who speak about the formula, but also the gossips, the latest news, etc... which the endurance hasn't yet. F1 has broadcasted qualifs, pre-race press conderences, interviews of drivers, principals, etc... You hardly see such effort for endurance. If it happens, it looks amateurish. So, I think an effort should be made there.
Alfa? Reliable? *Never* going to happen IMO. That's for some unknown reasons, not going to happen! You buy an Alfa, good luck! Cheers, Ian
Mind you, they used to say that about Jaguar too at some point, and justifiably too, I may add. That was during the 70s and 80s, when Jaguar became part of the nationalised British Motor Holding (later British Leyland) under a left-wing government. The cars were the same, but the quality control abyssimal, and the equipment outmoded. Jaguars used to overheat and break down as a matter of course, and rusted like hell too. No more anti-corrosion treatment, see ... I remember repairing some panels on Jaguar where the rust had gone through in ... 2 years! The cars were like Swiss cheese; full of holes. Then Ford bought them and improved the quality tremendously, until they became reliable. Now, under Indian ownership, Jaguar is jousting against the big 3 German makes in the luxury car sector, with good quality and reliability. Years ago, Italian bikes had terrible electrics. Their components were just Cr*p and the loom attrocious to work. Now, Italian bikes don't have that problem. Alfa may have solved its quality control after years under FIAT; I hope so !!!
"Sure, why not? What else were they gonna do with all of that RACE IPO cash? " I'm thinking FIAT is using all that Ferrari IPO cash to pay down their debt, build new plants, or try and grow Alfa. Maybe after taking care of those three objectives they'd think about F1...maybe.
You mean like when I back out of my garage and my Scud alarm goes off while I'm driving it away? I thought that was a feature! I plan to hopefully never sell the M3, so I have the Germans to bail me out. Agreed though, that is a lifestyle choice to have an alfa as your daily driver.
Yah I can see that. Indycar has similar problems surrounding the marketing and the stories outside the racing. They've done some stuff on youtube because they don't have the exposure on tv, but I don't know how effective it really has been. That's true though - the only racing you can 100% count on being televised in the US is NASCAR. Most other racing requires some kind of upgraded tv package.
There are two problems with endurance racing and making it popular to a TV audience: 1) The races are incredibly long!: 6 hours, 12 hours and even 24 hours - Even for the most dedicated motorsport fan, that's a long time to stay watching a race! (especially if they're in a relationship!: "Yeah, yeah honey! - I'll just watch the last 9 hours of this race and then we can go out!" ). 2) The races are based more on attrition than on track, wheel to wheel action. That means that there are long periods of time when there's very little action actually going on! F1 gets a slating these days for there being a lack of on-track action, so how is endurance racing going to fair any better when it's whole concept is based on attrition rather than outright wheel to wheel racing? At the end of the day, endurance racing takes too long and doesn't have enough action to become a mainstream, popular motorsport on television! As for Alfa Romeo, their biggest problem is their past reputation and the damage that it has caused them - Competing in F1 (or endurance racing for that matter), isn't going to erase that reputation for the majority of car buyers!
My Milano (75) Verde was one evil deed after another. Loved the car, detested the weekly collapse of something necessary. Can't wait for their return . Quick quiz, did Edward ever take the silver in F1 ? http://img.favcars.com/alfa-romeo/formula-1/alfa-romeo_formula-1_1984_wallpapers_1.jpg Image Unavailable, Please Login
I'd love to see Alfa back on the grid. I remember them well from the eighties. They sucked badly and they didn't get much better over the years: At the US GP in Indy (remember?), they had the classic F1 cars including an Alfa Romeo and it sputtered along. The guy standing next to me goes: "They sound just the same as back then". I agreed. PS: RIP Depailler
I think it is a good marketing move for fiat if they capitalize on being in F1 When we just at the Ferrari factory last month they had a v 8 engine with the Alfa badge on it so I think there is more coming Alfa vs Renault and Honda in F1 Maserati Vs Porsche in endurance racing and perhaps as an engine badge in F1
I would rather they start with a sportscar (GT class) factory backed effort and maybe after a few years(10 or 20 years) they could dip their toe in F1. I think F1 sucks now...Can't stand the sound or look of the new cars so other than a marketing tool for the said manufacturer it is meaningless to me and many others. Plus it will drain reasourses so that neither Ferrari or Alfa will win just like when they ran the DTM/ITC team from 1992-1996 and Ferrari F1 fell apart until they stopped the factory Alfa effort.. I used to love F1 and have been to 11 F1 races in my lifetime.
+1 They should learn to walk before trying to run. I can see another Alfa foray in F1 ending in disaster, just like when Andretti, Depailler and else raced them. Can't they do a proper GT, for a start?
a) There are 3 hours and 4 hours races as well, and very few 24 hours races. The format could be changed to have some 2 hours sport car races to suit TV. b) Gone are the days when attrition was the main component of endurance. Nowadays, the races are in fact long sprints with drivers going flat out from start to finish. Most of the cars falling out do it through accidents or drivers errors rather than because of reliability problems. Endurance is based on tactics and team work. But I advocate short sport car races as an alternative to GP; something like the CanAm in fact, or the Interseries which was a good format.
