I'd take 3m if I was as shit as palmer.

Bob wrote:

Apparently Renault have offered Palmer £3 million to go early.. but Sainz says no one has talked to him about it. Lol.

Renault are clearly planning on running a single car for the remainder of the season and estimated that they would save at least £3 million by not having Palmer in the other car causing damage.

Equalising competition in Formula 1 to allow shock results like Leicester City winning the Premier League is part of a five-point plan created to improve grand prix racing.

Leicester was tipped for relegation in the 2015/16 season but instead its shock title triumph made it only the sixth club to win the league in 24 years of the Premier League.

It was also the first time since Nottingham Forest's 1977/78 success that a new winner had claimed the first-division title in England.

F1's commercial boss Sean Bratches believes a motor-racing equivalent is not possible at the moment because of the disparity in budget and performance across the F1 grid.


Although independent teams Red Bull and Brawn have won titles in the previous decade, Red Bull's quartet came at significant expense - and as the de facto Renault works team - while Brawn's sole season was a takeover of the axed-but-heavily-developed Honda programme.

Bratches said a newly-conducted study had revealed five "north stars" that F1 wanted to focus on, with the first theme prioritising fairer racing.

"'Revel in the Racing' is all about creating a better competition on the grid," he said.

"Right now there are no Leicester Cities in F1.

"The back of the grid is way too far behind the front of the grid. It's not a meritocracy.

"Through costs caps, reapportionment of revenue, or governance, we're actually going to create a better spectacle, a better racing environment, a competitive one, for fans."

The 'Breaking borders' theme is aimed at tackling F1's "cloak of exclusivity", according to Bratches, and finding a way for fans to "touch and play at certain levels".

Bratches said his tender to "create fan festivals in city centres, in proximity to grands prix next year" was the way to tackle 'putting the spectacular back into the spectacle'.

Telling the "extraordinary" story of F1's technology is the motivation behind 'Taste the oil', while 'Feel the blood boil' focuses on putting the spotlight on its "gladiator" drivers.

The plan emerged from a study Bratches claims has "never been done at F1".

"We went to four continents, we talked to 10 avid fans, in each continent, for seven hours over two days," he said.

"Our mission statement as a company came out of this - to 'unleash the greatest racing spectacle on the planet'."

It has now been more than a year since Liberty Media inked its deal to take over F1's commercial rights from CVC.

"I think I've credited an excellent edit of senior executives with a wealth of experience to take this commercial side of the business and allow F1 to punch where its weight class is," said Bratches.

"I think it's been under punching to date."

Source:autosport

I’ve always hated the idea of capping spend or restricting innovation in F1. We have other forms of racing for that, F1 is meant to be the pinnacle – seeing what humans and cars can achieve.

Wasn't Brawn and subsequently redbull the equivalent (bar and then jaguar) of winning the league while not being Man U? Even merc were a new team - although building on brawn (remember when everyone thought Ham was a madman for leaving mclaren)

The problem for me is that it's perfectly possible for any team to win the f1 championship. apart from this year the genius gimmick apparent at the start of the year has lead to dominance and unassailability through the season.

It does seem like a shit focus group. ‘Avid fans’ are already watching F1. Their opinions won’t help you draw in new audiences.

Not really Ram,

Brawn did it on a tiny budget the year he won. He was lucky the merc engine fitted and very lucky to exploit the double diffuser rule. Even then it was in credibly close as the big teams copied his teams idea

I think a spending cap is on the way, no matter how difficult it is to enforce. Aston Martin, Volkswagen group and others would join F1 if there was a spending cap. Ross Brawn has alluded to as much.
F1 has to change and there will be a huge amount of it. It will probably upset the core fanbase but the powers that be won't care as its an aging fanbase at present.

My own guess is we'll see the following eventually:

1. Race series split into 3 continental mini championship: Americas, Europe and Far/middle East (with an overall world champion). 7 or 8 races per continent.

2. A spending cap.

3. Three car teams (so you can have a guest driver take part in one of the mini continental championships I.e a nascar or indy car driver for the America's portion of the championship).

4. Bigger presence on Internet and social media and attraction of younger brands to appeal to 18-35 market. Also tailored advertising for the continent in question I.e AT&T or Walmart sponsoring a car for the Americas portion of the championship.

5. Possibly frachised teams ala in NFL. Giving each franchise a fair portion and therefore chance to win.

6. Maybe a merging of formula 1 and formula E in the future.

Ferrari use f1 as an advert for their road cars. Can you recall ever seeing a ferrari road car advert ever on TV?

Porsche run magazine adverts in car magazines . Ferrari don't. It's entire marketing budget is f1.

HAMSPIN

Bob wrote:

Not really Ram, Brawn did it on a tiny budget the year he won. He was lucky the merc engine fitted and very lucky to exploit the double diffuser rule. Even then it was in credibly close as the big teams copied his teams idea

Yeah, Brawn had a tiny budget, but my argument was they don't fit the Leicester analogy 'cos the car (and double diffuser) were designed with a huge budget from honda.
A football analogy for that would be like if an Abramovich-type owner suddenly pulled all his money out of a club at the start of a season, so they had to get by on gate receipts alone, but meanwhile they already had the best squad and won the league despite fading after not being able to buy anyone in the January window.
And then at the end of the season their revolutionary double sweeper formation was banned!

anyway, that's enough torturous analogies.

merc struggling today, though a comment from Ricciardo suggest he reckons they were running loads of fuel

Vettel out in Q1. Problema with engine. Changing it will take too long. Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Starts last on Sunday. Love it.

Is the last race double points Still? Or did that stop?

Could be a big swing though. 1-5 Or something means a lead of 40 odd points doesn't it? 5 seconds?

It's hamiltons to lose now