Matthew on 18/3/2009 at 15:24
Am I right in saying that they're bringing in some sort of 'more financially economical teams get an advantage' rule too?
David on 18/3/2009 at 15:36
From 2010 they are supposed to be bringing in a 'voluntary' £30m budget which would give the teams more technical freedom.
This is shit. Budgets for the top teams were a couple of hundred million for last year. This year most of them have cut them by 30%, and again FOTA are working together so that they can bring costs down in an under control method. I believe FOTA wanted to reduce have a budget cap of around £90m by 2012 or 2015 (I can't recall which). This represents more than 50% drop for the top teams. The smaller teams already spend less then £90m
The £30m is supposed to include driver salaries, which is where a large portion of a team's budgets go. Kimi Raikkonen, the highest paid F1 driver, signed a contract with Ferrari for the 2007 to 2010 season reported to be worth £36m a year.
The teams that do go for the voluntary cap will either not ever be able to afford the top drivers, relegating them further back on the grid, or paying them a token £1 and then having him suddenly get a lucrative sponsorship deal to cover the rest.
In case it wasn't obvious by the above two posts, I am a massive F1 nerd.
D'Arcy on 18/3/2009 at 16:11
Used to be a massive F1 nerd a long time ago (late 80s/early 90s), when Nélson Piquet was still driving :cheeky:
The 80s were for me the golden age of F1, when there were several drivers fighting for the championship, fierce rivalries even between members of the same team (e.g., Senna vs. Prost, or Piquet vs. Mansell), and it was almost impossible to tell who was going to win. We used to have drivers winning the title with three race wins (in the extreme case of Rosberg, he won only one race). There were also a lot more overtakes and changes in the leadership during a single race.
With the loss of competition, I stopped following F1 so much, and usually only watch the qualifying and the race itself. And not always: if I see that Alonso is going to win, I stop watching :p
R Soul on 18/3/2009 at 17:45
Quote Posted by David
FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) wanted to keep the points system and increase it from 10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1 to 12,7,9,6,5,4,3,2,1, making wins more relevant...
However the FIA rejected this for some crazy reason
It's an absurd situation. When Schumacher won lots of races and won the championship in France, the FIA decided they needed a points system which made it harder for a driver build up a large points gap. Now they're upset about race wins not being rewarded enough.
Of course they
can't reintroduce a large points gap between 1st and 2nd because that would be a public admission that they were wrong to abolish it in the first place.
On the matter of cost cutting, I wonder if the FIA have reduced the fees payable by F1 circuit owners...
David on 18/3/2009 at 17:56
I can't believe they want to fuck with the points system given that the driver's championship has been down to a single point in the last two years.
This way if a driver dominates for the first half of the season and wins all the races then they don't even have to bother with the last half as they've already won!
And...
The circuits don't pay the FIA, which is non-profit. The circuits pay FOM (Formula One Management) which is controlled by Bernie Ecclestone and is a for-profit company. They are entirely separate entities.
An interesting thing I recently discovered is that despite his posturing, Bernie can't remove a 'traditional race' (Great Britain, France, Monaco, Italy etc) without agreement from the FIA. It is actually quite unlikely that Great Britain would lose its Grand Prix even if Donnington wasn't ready in time as it could be transferred to Silverstone. The FIA could pretty much force Ecclestone to have a Grand Prix in GB.
Of course, this relies on the circuits being willing to pay a decent amount. For example Bernie can't say "Give me $100m or there's no race", however the circuits equally can't say "We will pay you $1"
Ulukai on 18/3/2009 at 17:59
I'm not a huge fan of the "he who wins the most races, wins" plan either. Last season had such a great finale, simply because Hamilton
didn't push as much as he perhaps could have done - and very nearly stumbled because of it.
And was last season not one of the best damn seasons in a long while? Yes, it was. So stop fecking with the rules ¬¬
Edit: Dave evidently read my mind whilst I was posting >:|
I also get the impression the technical constraints are so stringent, there is no place for ingenuity any more. Don't think we're ever likely to see anything quite like the (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrrell_P34) Tyrrell P34 again, neh? Even the rather crappy looking extra wings coming off sidepods etc. got stamped on pretty quickly.
SD on 19/3/2009 at 13:19
As long as you bear in mind that the motorsport authorities are doing everything in their power to shaft McLaren, then this change is perfectly understandable.
D'Arcy on 19/3/2009 at 14:57
You really have some sort of nationalistic 'Calimero complex' going on there, haven't you?
SD on 19/3/2009 at 15:09
No, I personally don't give a shit about McLaren, but this doesn't stop me recognising a pattern when I see it.
You had the whole bullshit spying thing and numerous odd decisions last season involving points deductions and pit penalties, and funnily enough they all seemed to benefit Ferrari at McLaren's expense. Now F1 has broght in a rule that, if implemented last season, would have seen Ferrari's Felipe Massa take the title rather than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.
Just how much more obvious does it need to be?
David on 19/3/2009 at 15:31
But that was last season. If the points system had been different last year McLaren and Hamilton would have gone into the last race (at the very least) with an utterly different mindset, knowing that they couldn't possibly settle for 5th as they actually did. You can't use the new system to draw conclusions on how it would have affected previous championships.
Additionally, FOTA have responded with dismay at the change to a 'wins' system. The Chairman of FOTA is Luca di Montezemolo, chairman of Fiat and Ferrari.
The 'wins' system actually benefits teams with a fairly clear #1 and #2 driver - something that Ferrari doesn't really have after last season and, no matter how much they protest, McLaren do.
