I'm sure Gene Haas is rubbing his temples and wondering what effect it will have on his deal. I wonder who signed off on it. If it was Montezemolo...who knows?
For those who haven't heard the news, the hammer apparently finally dropped after Ferrari's poor showing at Monza. Ferrari chairman and key F1 figure Luca di Montezemolo steps down (autosport.com)
That was quick. Effective immediately. I guess I wasn't paying attention to the details, figured this was something they were going to consider as a rule change for next year. Q&A with the FIA on team radio restrictions (GPUpdate.net) ANALYSIS: Impact of F1 team radio limits (Racer.com)
I can't imagine that Lotus would bother upgrading Maldonado's steering wheel since it seems he tends to crash before his first pit stop...
I suppose they could restrict which data are allowed to stream live. In theory, teams won't be able to use most of it in real time anymore so it could just be recorded but I suspect they'll be allowed to make use of data elements that indicate whether the car needs to be retired immediately. Or maybe even a call telling the driver to retire the car will be verboten?
I hope so, I miss the days of a good old engine letting go. Now they see it happening and shut down before parts fly.
Yeah, but given at least one driver has already exceeded his allocation of one power unit component or another (and has been penalized for it) if they do that -- i.e., prevent teams from shut-downs and retirements to preserve components -- they'll probably also need to change the allocation rules.
F1's image problem has nothing to do with radio communication. It has to do with stifling rules and single team domination. Yes I like when my team wins but all the time can get boring.
Joe Saward has been thinking about the travel/transport side of F1 logistics. In a perfect world… (joesaward.wordpress.com) If interested, read the rest here.
Two weeks between Malaysia and Australia doesn't mean they fly home to Europe in between, does it? Seems to me they need that first two week break to regroup after the first race, someone is always unexpectedly fast and someone is also unexpectedly slow - it gives them a breather to rethink and reset, but it makes sense to me they'd either stay in Australia, or go immediately to Malaysia and stay there till the race rather than going home again. It's much cheaper to fly some parts over (if they need to change some bits) than the whole race team.....
I would assume that some of the team would fly home, can't imagine that the entire team (including the hospitality team) would need to hang out for the extra week between races when there is a two week gap.
Bernie didn't like the cheap ticket prices at the Indy race. He said it let in too much of the riff raff. I'm not sure if I was riff or raff but I liked the prices.
Someone needs to remind Wolff, et al, that Bernie was quoted a few years back calling Europe the next third world. Asked why he was dropping traditional venues that always drew big crowds in favor of moving to Asia, etc, he said, essentially, that F1 needed to follow the money. Said if a promoter at traditional venue couldn't afford his prices, there are plenty of others with money, able and ready to take over. He only wants F1 in places where the locals can afford and are willing to pay the high ticket prices required to support his fees OR the promoters don't care whether they make a profit. The #1 entry on his list of priorities is continuously increasing profits and he's only interested in either status quo or change if it supports item #1. He doesn't care about the traditional fan base unless it has money and is happy to spend it freely. Same goes for traditional venues. I don't know who actually spoke to Bernie about this but I guarantee if Bernie didn't immediately laugh in his face he laughed later behind his back.
I don't know if I think those particular venues are great losses to F1 but you're spot on about the reason for their departure from the schedule. The same reason Bernie threatened Monza with replacement, and I think most would agree that Monza shouldn't be relegated just because Bernie sees another customer off in the distance waving a larger stack of money at him.
Bernie gets a fee for any GP to happen & I'm sure he gets a percentage of the gate. If the race doesn't get enough paying fans than Bernie's cut is not enough. To cut Monza would be a sacrilege. Sure seemed to be a sell out from in front of my tube.