Somewhere I read, that the first F1 sponsor sticker was a Shell logo on a Ferrari. Dunno whether that's true.
Not if he wore it in the car. Beside you said decal not patch In any case Lotus was the first team to change livery for a sponsor.
Gotta agree with you 100%. Every team except Ferrari was a newbie at some point. And if they are all operating on a similar budget, then the cars will be equal, what their respective engineers and drivers come up with is what will make one a winner and the other not, not being Lola, or USGP1.
Then why exclude driver salaries and engines from the cap? Parity is not the goal here. By leveling the playing field in terms of expenses FOM and the FIA are trying to reduce the clout of the major teams.
Excellent question. My only guess is if the FIA brought that into the mix, then the drivers would complain and join FOTA's side. Not a good negotiation move, better left untouched. But a subject that might come up again in a few years. At this point, I have not read any driver saying anything except they will follow their team. The only other expanation, is that a driver is not actually part of the mechanical car, the cost reductions are to bring down the cost of the actual cars. If a new team wants to pay Raikkonen salaries, they could, but they won't. How would budget caps reduce the clout of a team? What happens on the track affects the clout of a team.
Yes Lotus was the very first to bring in branding and true advertizing sponsorship. Gold Leaf Team Lotus was the name of the team and the cars. Then they changed to John Player Specials - John Player Team Lotus. Colin Chapman was the guy who brought advertisement to F-1 Ferrari Did not have sponsor logos on the cars untill 1967, with some Shell and Champion logos. and they were very small down by the engine ...
Tell him "Thanks very much you b@stard for the advertising bollocks, that has ruined the reason for the sport" Pete
Lotus brought F1 excitement to the masses with their JPS-advertised production cars. Here's one of the Lotus Europa JPS editions which later became very popular in the states when Mario Andretti was racing for Lotus. It brought more F1 excitement to America. Geting back to the thread, perhaps (agreeing with earlier posts in this thread) Bernie is trying his way of bringing more F1 excitement to America. Image Unavailable, Please Login
But that's not the number. They're taking about 45 million Euros if I'm not mistaken. The dollar has not been spoken of at all and I don't believe $45m is the right exchange. Regardless, the proposed cap IS too low and Mosley's arbitrary and capricious rule has made it tough to be a fan -- Literally (the constant rule-changes make it a hard sport to follow) and otherwise (the hooker scandal made F1 a laughing stock among non-fans and thus difficult to profess interest in). I don't mind smaller teams entering but I have no interest in a "two-tier" series, a spec series or one where they use low-tech cars. The cutting-edge element of F1 is essential to its fan appeal and Mosley's FIA appears bent on damaging the sport in this regard and others.
Man you guys must have thin skin or something ... nobody could give a rats @rse about it over here. Honestly it was never mentioned to me at all, the only place to discuss it was FerrariChat. Pete
I am not sure if you are correct, other than it is not in dollars. I have heard both euros and British pound sterling. Converted, around $65 mill USD, is too low, but I heard that Mosly would accept around $150 mill USD the second year (2011) and the $65 mill USD the third year (2012). The final compromise for year three would be $100 million USD. I agree the intial figure is too low. I have to believe just tactical BS.
I'm fine with USF1, Prodrive, etc. I just don't know enough about some of these other prospective teams. Didn't "Superfund" sponsor the Spyker cars?
Maybe in part, but F1 cost Spyker millions and they were in danger of going out of business because of it, so they sold their F1 division to Force India (thanks mostly to Hans Hugenholtz).
FYI, USF1 is no longer the correct name - Bernie wouldn't permit that name so it's USGPE. Prodrive isthe most successful of the group to hang in there; USGPE is a gimme team; Team Superfund is geared much akin to Red Bull Racing (Austrian mega dollars too); Lola is no fly-by night operation (building some of the finest chassis for LMP1 and LMP2); Campos Meta1 is running in GP2 - Adrian Campos; March, well the M stands for Mosely as in Max...; now a German owner is considering entering under Brabham (Bernie bought the rights and then sold); Litespeed is a British Formula 3 team working with Mike Gascoyne Carol
That may well be true! I like to share my passions and it became embarrassing for awhile there. Co-workers -- NASCAR fans mostly -- were quick to jump on the humorous possibilities when F1 came up. Tifosiron, I think the numbers I read were an exchange converted $65 million as well. Possibly $100+ next year but Mosley isn't budging apparently. I believe I read it on planet-f1.com or f1-live.com (for mobile updates - they have a nice mobile interface).
Carol , I just read in F1 com Litespeed has gained approval to use the Team Lotus name from the owner, David Hunt. I'm assuming Team Lotus is a separate entity from Lotus Cars, although I can't imagine Proton wouldn't file an objection (or offer assistance..).
You guys are all forgetting one important fact: 99.9% of the USA does not watch F1, and as far as the rest of the world goes, it's what, only 10-15% watching - really - maybe - depending on the country. So, nobody knows who a 'newbie' is - and most won't care.
Which still translates into the most watched sport on TV (excluding the Olympics and World Cup Soccer). Amazing, isn't it? BTW: I couldn't stand listening to Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett trying to pander to the newbies. They explained just about anything since the dawn of time in F1 motor sports. Yawn.
