Oh c'mon man. Liberty is doing the best to give us a championship this year. You should appreciate that. As for the 3 continents part of the rule: That's not Liberty making that call but the FIA. They might abandon it, but I hope they don't. I don't want F1 to be a European formula but a global one. How about Melbourne? It's a public park, couldn't they just set it up for a race again?
No, I don't appreciate it at all. I made it plain from the begining of the "season" when many GPs started to be postponed or cancelled, that I was against a Championship this year. The conditions won't be met, everything will be done in a hurry and the climate for organising the WDC is wrong. I remember posting this "If we cannot do things properly, it's better not to do them at all". Bernie Ecclestone thought more or less the same. Several circuits said the same: Monaco for example., Zandvoort, Vietnam I think. Japan postponed the Olympics for 1 year ! Liberty doesn't even know how many GPs will be held. At the begining it was 16, then 8, now they don't know; it's ridiculous How the teams can plan their programs? How do they know how many parts to fabricate? What about the engine change rules? How can you enter a competition without knowing how long it will last? It's all improvised and hapazard. They could have a few stand-alone races towards the end of the year if the conditions are met (public attendance, unrestricted travel, no quarantine) as appetisers for the next season, but PLEASE, don't call that a championship.
You're likely out of luck William,... regardless of whether you are correct with your sentiment. I suspect that the TV contracts require a "Championship",... thus the push by Liberty and Brawn to call it a Championship. Without TV money the house of cards falls. I am quite sure this also holds true for sponsorship contracts. I am quite sure they require the teams to participate in the "Championship". Mark my words,... It'll be called a Championship no matter what ends up being arranged.
As with most things in the year Covid 19, it will be known as the "Asterisk World Driving Championship 2020"
The TV money argument is the same for the Olympic Games, no? And there must be $billions at stake there Well, the Japanese organisers and the COI postponed them for 1 year, regardless. I'm pretty sure that most contracts have a "force majeure" clause in the small prints, cancelling all liability in some circumstances. That can cover "acts of God" (floods, earthquakes, etc..), conflicts, civil unrest, and ... pandemics too. In any case, 2020 will have a "championship" with a big * attached to it. The races better be good !!!
Actually,... NO. Entirely different. F1 has a championship every year,... and has a TV contract for every year... a year lost is lost forever. The summer olympics is held every for years... It was likely better for the TV broadcasters to delay 1 year and get 100% participation.
The comments will be - Too much time passed after testing, not enough testing/warmup, they used last years tires, not enough races to be a real championship, they did 2 races at tracks but not all, etc, etc, etc lol. The lack of a normal full calendar will generate all kinds of issues/comments or 'caveats', when a team no one really likes for the last few years wins again potentially.
Maybe, but the changes will affect teams differently. Imagine athletes who train for years on the 10,000m. Then you tell them "No, that's cancelled, you have to run the 1500m instead, or maybe it will be the 5000m. We don't know yet, we will tell you when you get started!". Don't you think it would be a joke? Surely tis year will be strange without public. GP will look like glorified track days on a club circuit. They can dispense with the prize giving ceremony and playing the national anthem.
Come on, I get your point, and realize there is an element of jest in there, but Covid ins't a world war. There was no F1 championship until 1950 and racing stopped altogether, so no chance for an abbreviated season. As long as the season meets the regulations for visiting three (I believe) continents and has at least seven races then it's just as much a world championship as 1950. I will agree that I'm not a fan of two races in two days at the same track. I don't like it in Indy Car even though my (adopted) home city of Detroit always has two races.
Still, it would be the same for all runners (teams). And given the forewarning each runner (team) will have made adjustments. They have not been sitting around for the last 3 months doing nothing.
No, of course, there is no front, and no material destruction compared to an armed conflict. But the number of casualties in so many countries and in such a short time, allows us to draw a parallel even if we cannot isolate the enemy. And in the middle of that, we have an entertainment company (Liberty) insisting on putting on a show, as if it was of absolute necessity. The first WDC in 1950 was planned to have few races, so comparison with the truncated 2020 season with 8 GPs (so far) instead of 21 isn't really valid.
For many of the teams and the sport in general to survive financially it actually is an absolute necessity. More so for the teams than Liberty. Look around in Europe and the world and see what's going on: everybody had enough of this lockdown and wants to resume the joys of life. The #1 topic I see in Euro news bulletins is whether and when people can go on summer vacation and whether that'll be possible in Spain and Italy. Nobody wants to bury their heads in the sand and stay at home lamenting the horrors of this pandemic. F1 is as welcome a distraction as any other sport. And there will be other sports.
Until the early 70s the championship had 10 races a season. This year, we have 8 confirmed and more will be added, so we will likely end up with plenty enough races to consider this a proper season. Just think of it as a sprint season. I am delighted by the prospect of racing resuming and I’m bewildered by the thought that any ‘fans’ might not be. Weird times...
Totally agreed. I don't get that any fan would prefer NOT to have races. Oddly enough I even see some of that with certain journalists. Blick's Roger Benoit has an axe to grind with Liberty: They treat him like any other journalist (as they should) whereas he had special privileges with Bernie while Ecclestone was still in charge. Now that this is gone, Benoit doesn't miss an opportunity to talk bad about Liberty. Might also have something to do with the fact that Liberty is an US company: It behooves a European journalist to criticize anything with a US label. And so Benoit continues to mock Liberty's attempts to put together a season.
There was a feeling that F1 was an European domain. GPs started in Europe. F1 started in Europe. F1 was built by European makes, teams, organisers, circuit owners and drivers. For years, the USA did their own things, like board tracks, ovals, and refusing to accept the worldwide jurisdictopn on motorsports. European racing was on closed public roads, until purposed built circuits came. The modern F1 has been the child of Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA in Paris. The FIA and its ancestors has always been headed by European presidents, Belgian, French or British, and the USA didn't belong for decades. So, it came as a shock when F1 was sold to an American company. What! Don't they have Indianapolis already ? Not so much because it's American, but because Chase Carey straightaway talked about introducing changes like if he was talking to a boardroom. The emphasis shifted more than ever from sport to show business, the need for growth, talks of profits, stats of audience, etc ... F1 fans didn't feel the respect for long standing traditions, or knowledge of F1 history. Bernie had been around ALMOST since F1 started! Try to beat that! For Carey, circuits are treated like branches of a multi-national that have to accept the dictat from central office. Period! We started with 18 branches, now We wants to expand to 25 branches (sorry GPs). Teams execute !!! . Bernie Ecclestone never talked like that; he was a sport organiser, and was less crude about the business aspect, although we knew he was making a pile! So, yes, there is a change of atmosphere, which is resented in some quarters. The tone has changed in F1; Bernie for all his faults, accommodated needs, helped teams and drivers in trouble, and was generally benevolent. We don't see any of that coming from the Liberty mob; for them it's just s business to make money, like Exxon, Microsoft, or Amazon. So you can expect some cynicism towards Liberty among some fans, and some rejoicing from their troubles. The future of F1 is on balance. Some say that the hybrid formula will kill F1 (it's talked a length on FC), others blame the constructors participation. Covid-19 will have an impact, bringing an economic recession. Personally, I wonder if Liberty isn't the biggest threat to F1. That's it, I said it!
SILVERSTONE: WE’RE LOOKING AT CARDBOARD CUT-OUT FANS https://www.grandprix247.com/2020/06/07/silverstone-were-looking-at-cardboard-cut-out-fans/ The British Grand Prix is considering the use of cardboard cut-out fans amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, managing director Stuart Pringle has revealed.
It would be easier to just leave the grandstands out of frame on TV. I agree in that starting the season without knowing how many and where the races are going to be held is not very good idea. Maybe they should wait a bit more to fix a calendar: if they can only secure 7 or 8 races, then so be it.
In the case of the Summer Olympics, many of the competing states did not even had time to perform the events to know who should even be going to the Olympics. F1 knows the cars, rules, teams, personnel.
TV already does that, and it is torturous! F1 in china avoiding seeing the empty stands at the entry to the back straight. NASCAR zooming in so close to the cars you can't see where they are on the track. It is torturous!
The races are advertised as to be without fans. So show the race and stands as normal. No gimmick camera work.
They should ask the Hollywood studios how they create "crowds" by using special effects in their films.
