F1 2016

[Limejuice]

I'm afraid the BBC is a fixed income broadcaster and sport is much-sought-after content in a world of stupid money.

I would love for my licence fee to bring me all the sport I like to watch, but it's spread over Sky, BT Sport, ITV who have paid eye-swivelling amounts of moolah for shared rights for most of the big audience pullers.

I'm amazed the BBC could afford £200m+ for Premier League highlights - essentially Match of the Day.

 

[weltweit]

I wonder about the relative financing of Sky Sports compared to the BBC. The BBC has a fixed and protected licence fee while sky earns money from ads and subscriptions. If Sky has massively more money to hand perhaps it is inevitable major sports events will end up on pay-per-view?

 

[Limejuice]

I wonder about the relative financing of Sky Sports compared to the BBC. The BBC has a fixed and protected licence fee while sky earns money from ads and subscriptions. If Sky has massively more money to hand perhaps it is inevitable major sports events will end up on pay-per-view?

At the risk of sounding like a Jeremiah, I think it is inevitable that the big events will migrate to the richer platforms.

Satellite TV broadcasters do well because they charge a subscription and take advertising - I'd argue that punters are paying twice, once with money, and a second time in irritation.

The extra pressure comes from BT and the like in other countries. Their broadband service is a commodity, a price / speed race to the bottom that has to differentiate by providing content. Mega corporations like that simply tell shareholders they want a billion or two to develop value-added content to protect their long-term income and wallop, the BBC is steamrollered into Wimbledon's outer courts.

Anyhow, here's some soft info (guesses really) on Sky's budget: What SKY's New Budget for Sport Might Look Like - SEO

I imagine advertising is extra income.

The BBC licence fee brings in about £3.7 bn, or roughly half of Sky's subscription income.

 

[1%er]

At the risk of sounding like a Jeremiah, I think it is inevitable that the big events will migrate to the richer platforms.

Satellite TV broadcasters do well because they charge a subscription and take advertising - I'd argue that punters are paying twice, once with money, and a second time in irritation.

The extra pressure comes from BT and the like in other countries. Their broadband service is a commodity, a price / speed race to the bottom that has to differentiate by providing content. Mega corporations like that simply tell shareholders they want a billion or two to develop value-added content to protect their long-term income and wallop, the BBC is steamrollered into Wimbledon's outer courts.

Anyhow, here's some soft info (guesses really) on Sky's budget: What SKY's New Budget for Sport Might Look Like - SEO

I imagine advertising is extra income.

The BBC licence fee brings in about £3.7 bn, or roughly half of Sky's subscription income.

It is all available on line for free, football, tennis, F1, golf etc. The rights holders for all major sporting events will sell pay-to-view via the internet with-in the next few years. This should bring the prices down, but regardless of price it will all be available for free online until a system is found to stop that.

 

[Limejuice]

It is all available on line for free, football, tennis, F1, golf etc. The rights holders for all major sporting events will sell pay-to-view via the internet with-in the next few years. This should bring the prices down, but regardless of price it will all be available for free online until a system is found to stop that.

Fair enough. "Free" is always going to be an attractive price.

If the music / movie model is repeated, it'll take a wee while before the broadcasters count up how much money they're losing. Then they'll collaborate to close down illicit streaming. The best way for them to do that is to make a high quality stream available for very low cost.

Is there a Spotify for sports streaming? One payment covers all rights holders to a given sport? I would much prefer to pay my £x a month to one supplier and get access to all the F1 / football / rugby etc.

 

[1%er]

Fair enough. "Free" is always going to be an attractive price.

If the music / movie model is repeated, it'll take a wee while before the broadcasters count up how much money they're losing. Then they'll collaborate to close down illicit streaming. The best way for them to do that is to make a high quality stream available for very low cost.

Is there a Spotify for sports streaming? One payment covers all rights holders to a given sport? I would much prefer to pay my £x a month to one supplier and get access to all the F1 / football / rugby etc.

I don't think there is a pay site yet that covers all sports (if you pay for sky you can also watch their content online), but I use vipbox.sx which covers almost every sport and is free.
There is also Stream2watch that has loads of TV channels from many countries, the UK area has 76 channels, all main channels and also many of the sky channels including F1, football etc.

You get pop-ups before you get to the content, but once you go full screen they disappear, people do say that have had problems with malware, but that is because they have clicked on something, many friends that I know who use the site almost every day haven't ever had a problem with it, you just need to make sure you never download anything, there is no need to download anything, just watch what you click on.

 

[1%er]

How much will it cost the BBC to cut F1
The BBC may want to cut F1 from its schedule but it has a contract with FOM until 2018, it is reported that the cost to the BBC is £20 million a year (not all that will be for the rights). I can't see Bernie saying "its alright, I'll let you walk away". If there is no termination clause they may well be better of keeping F1 as Bernie is likely to want a very large termination fee. While the news reports claim ITV will take over the coverage, I don't believe it will be that simple. FOM have been in the TV rights selling business for over 40 years and you can be sure there is a clause in the contract that stops the rights being sold-on or even given away to another broadcaster, so ITV are likely to have to pay FOM a signing on fee, if they plan to take on the coverage.

Just found some comments from Bernie on the issue, he has told the Press Association "The bottom line is that they are cutting back on all types of sport and if we really, really, really had to, we'd say 'you have got a contract and you better get on with it.' They can't leave the contract early. The Beeb have always done a very, very good job. I have no problem at all with them. It is just they can't afford to continue with what they have done in the past". With regards to ITV taking over, he said "To do that we would have to agree to have that done so I don't know. We like the BBC for obvious reasons. It was free-to-air and they did a good job as I say with all the support they gave at the circuit. At the moment I don't know what we are going to do".

German GP unlikely to return in 2017
Bernie has said "We can say for sure, that there will be no race" when asked about the prospect of a return to the Nurburgring in 2017.

Ecclestone argues that the Nurburgring's place on the calendar would have been safe for "100 years" had his 2014 bid to buy the famous circuit, which was then in administration, been accepted. "It's a pity, because when the Nurburgring was for sale, I agreed to buy it," he said. "They came back to me and told me that they have a better offer. Maybe one or two millions higher than my offer. I said: 'I made only one offer. If somebody wants to pay more, sell it to him. They've sold it to a person and this person resold it. The stupidity was: Because of two millions they've lost somebody, who had guaranteed, that there would have been races for 100 years and who would have tried to improve the things. They ran away for a few dollars more. And what did they achieve? It is disappointing and annoying for me. That's why we've lost the Nurburgring".

Future of Monza appears to be settled
The future of Formula 1's Italian Grand Prix at Monza appears to have been secured, according to Automobile Club of Milan president Ivan Capelli.
Monza's place on the calendar beyond next season was up in the air as negotiations over an extension failed to find a resolution. Ex-F1 driver Capelli says a change to the law that allows the Automobile Club of Italy to use its finances to fund the race means a deal can be struck, "The Italian government confirmed the amendment in the law that Automobile Club of Italy can use the money from all the companies that are connected to it to pay the fee for the Italian Grand Prix organised in Monza. There will be an agreement between the Automobile Club of Italy and the Automobile Club of Milan, which owns Monza through the company SIAS, that we will provide the funding. "The AC of Italy president Angelo Sticchi Damiani achieved this through the connection he has in Rome, especially because the political side understood the importance of the grand prix for the region and for the whole country". When asked about the length of the new contract Capelli said, "At the moment, there is a discussion on that as to which is the best option so I cannot say for how many years, I would like to reach 2022, because it is the centenary of the circuit".

Will Mercedes resign Nico Rosberg
Rosberg signed a contract extension in 2014 that will take him to the end of 2016, but will Mercedes give him another extension? Earlier this month Toto Wolff made it very clear that if their antipathy towards one another affects the team in any way then he may have to reconsider his driver line-up. Lewis has a contract with the team until the end of 2018, so if he is again dominant in 2016 will the team keep Nico?

When asked the question, Wolff said "Both of them are a major part of the team and responsible for getting the team to where we are today. But it's early days to discuss that [Rosberg's contract]. I want to see how the season pans out. There are areas we want to develop altogether as a team, and let's see how that goes".

 

[Bungle73]

It's been confirmed: BBC to drop F1 from next year, with the rights going to Channel 4: BBC to end Formula 1 television contract early - BBC News

Who are Ch4 going to chose as their team I wonder?

 

[weltweit]

I suppose F1 is likely to be worth more to C4 because they can sell advertising around their coverage, something the BBC can't do.

 

[Indeliblelink]

Hopefully the BBCs F1 crew will move to C4, although I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the BBC team end up doing Top Gear with Evans.

 

[Tony_LeaS]

Personally I think it'll be good for Channel 4, unless they go good old ITV and have ad breaks in-between laps. Commentators will probably switch over and presenters, anything else will be interesting to see.

 

[Bungle73]

Personally I think it'll be good for Channel 4, unless they go good old ITV and have ad breaks in-between laps. Commentators will probably switch over and presenters, anything else will be interesting to see.

CH4 have said the live races will be ad-free.

 

[Tony_LeaS]

CH4 have said the live races will be ad-free.

Thats all that matters to me then, same level of coverage as the BBC with selected live races and such?

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I hope DC makes the move, he's developed into a really good presenter.

 

[spitfire]

Thats all that matters to me then, same level of coverage as the BBC with selected live races and such?

looks like it

F1 snapped up by Channel 4 as BBC exits deal early

 

[1%er]

C4 seems an interesting choice, I don't know much about them but a quick look via google appears to show they are not really known for sports other than horse racing and something called cricket most of their other sporting coverage seem to be late/overnight stuff.

They will have to doing something very special to better the sky coverage, I've tried a number of channels (via the internet) to watch F1 and by far sky wins hands down, it will be interesting to see how they cover it. I've just checked and I can get C4 free via a number of streams, so I'll give them a go next season.

The BBC are said to have been paying around £12 million a years for the rights and the total cost to the corporation is reported to be around £20 million, so I'd guess FOM is getting around that amount from C4 unless the BBC have paid a termination fee that has been offset and reduced C4 fee.

 

[1%er]

Vijay Mallya will need more than the force to get him out of his financial problems, it is reported that he personally has been classed as a "willful defaulter" by a number of banks as has his main holding company United Breweries Holdings. He is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation over fraud and also the tax authorities have seized many of his assets for none payment of tax, both personal and that collected by his companies for his employees tax.

His defunct Kingfisher Airlines is said to have debts of at least £1 billion, Diageo who brought one of his company, United Spirits Ltd, are trying to have him removed from the board of directors following a report by PriceWaterhouse, which alleges improper diverting of USL funds to bolster other companies in the Mallya empire and they are also considering legal action.

As mentioned in an above post Diageo have claimed in their annual report the F1 racing team Force India as one of their company asserts, so it is now unclear if they own the team or Vijay still owns it. There are also reports in the press that the deal between Aston Martin and Force India F1 have been put on hold by the board of directors at the car company, which given Mallya current problems isn't really surprising. Force India was/is owned by Vijay Mallya who has 42.5% and Subrata Roy who brought a 42.5% stake in the team back in 2011 for $100 million, the final 15% is owned by the Moll family. Subrata Roy has just managed to get bail, he was in Jail in India for the last 18 months on fraud charges.

Edit, He may still be in Jail for failing to comply with a Supreme Court order, some reports say he has raised the funds for bail other reports say he is still in jail

 

[dessiato]

Just seen on instagram that Renault have completed the purchase of Lotus. (1800 hrs my time)

 

[Limejuice]

Just seen on instagram that Renault have completed the purchase of Lotus. (1800 hrs my time)

Renault completes Lotus takeover for 2016 F1 season

The BBC confirms the report.

 

[Bungle73]

Seems Jenson has split from his wife, after only a year of marriage.

 

[dessiato]

Seems Jenson has split from his wife, after only a year of marriage.

Married Dec 2014 IIRC

 

[Indeliblelink]

Hopefully the BBCs F1 crew will move to C4, although I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the BBC team end up doing Top Gear with Evans.

Looks like I might be right, reports saying DC is off to do Top Gear.
Top Gear presenters: Virtually unknown Chris Harris and Sabine Schmitz 'to be Chris Evans' sidekicks'

 

[Limejuice]

Looks like I might be right, reports saying DC is off to do Top Gear.
Top Gear presenters: Virtually unknown Chris Harris and Sabine Schmitz 'to be Chris Evans' sidekicks'

There is no way that grinning chimp is ever going to share the limelight with another "name".

Chris Evans' entertainment is primarily about Chris Evans.

That means he is, and always will be, front and centre, the yapping front man in hot pursuit of his own personality cult.

As he can't churn out the whole content alone, he must choose other, unthreatening presenters. And giving them a career leg-up reflects well on Chris Evans. Kingmaker Chris. Bestow your blessings upon them.

Normally, a producer would hire and fire the help. But it seems that Saint Christopher is now the showrunner.

I expect Top Gear will become a tin-plate cross between Loose Women and Pebble Mill At One.

I hate it already.

 

[weltweit]

There is no way that grinning chimp is ever going to share the limelight with another "name".

Chris Evans' entertainment is primarily about Chris Evans.

That means he is, and always will be, front and centre, the yapping front man in hot pursuit of his own personality cult.

As he can't churn out the whole content alone, he must choose other, unthreatening presenters. And giving them a career leg-up reflects well on Chris Evans. Kingmaker Chris. Bestow your blessings upon them.

Normally, a producer would hire and fire the help. But it seems that Saint Christopher is now the showrunner.

I expect Top Gear will become a tin-plate cross between Loose Women and Pebble Mill At One.

I hate it already.

Come on, get off the fence

 

[1%er]

Happy new year to all contributors to this little corner of U75 I hope you have a great year

What can we look forward to this year in F1, personally I don't think it is going to be a stellar year but I guess we will have to wait and see. If reports are true we could see Ferrari catching up with Mercedes and with Jock Clear joining Ferrari from Mercedes they now appear to have their top team in place. We have a 21 race calendar and a 22 car grid with Haas and Renault being the new boys on the block, Haas has a good start as they will be using many Ferrari parts and Renault now a works team should have plenty of money for development. It will be great to see how Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz both great prospects for the future get on, could we see one or both getting on the podium at some point, if not I'm sure they will give us some exciting racing to watch. There was very little driver movement other than Grosjean moving to Haas, so almost all teams will have the same line up, one big question is, will Mercedes extend Nico's contract and later in the season we should hear who will replace Kimi at Ferrari.

It could also be a interesting year "politically" with the FIA World Council giving Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone a mandate to do whatever is necessary to move the sport forward and the manufacturers told to come up with a plan to dramatically reduce the cost of engines to customer teams. Also the European competition commission will decide shortly whether there is a case to investigate in F1, after Sauber and Force India made an official complaint that the money is unfairly distributed and that this skews the competition in F1. I think they have a strong case as the strategy group is anti-competitive as all players can not take part. I don't think we will see the sale of formula one this year but I think CVC will be looking to sell once the decisions above have been dealt with and a new Concorde agreement is in place.

Bernie finds a letter
It looks like the USGP will remain on the calendar until the end of its contract in 2022 now some documentation has been found. Late last year the new Governor of Texas said he was going to reduce the amount of money the State paid to hold the race as they didn't get as much from sales tax as they believed they would collect. Bobby Epstein Chairman of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) said he had no written agreement committing the state to pay the $25 million. He may not have had any documentation but it now appears Bernie did. A letter sent to Bernie (at Formula One World Championship Ltd) by Susan Combs, former Comptroller for the state of Texas, commits the state to paying $25 million every year over the decade-long duration of the race contract.

 

[1%er]

Maria Teresa de Filipis
Today marks the passing of a real pioneer in F1 history. Maria Teresa de Filipis the first woman to race in the Formula 1 World Championship, has died today at the age of 89. She entered five Grands Prix in 1958 and 1959 and qualified on three occasions, all of them at the wheel of a private Maserati 250F. Her first start, at the Belgian GP at Spa would end up being her only finish, in 10th and last place, two laps behind the winner Tony Brooks. She failed to finish the other two races because of mechanical troubles but went on to play a major role in the Grand Prix Drivers’ Club.

 

[Bakunin]

Maria Teresa de Filipis
Today marks the passing of a real pioneer in F1 history. Maria Teresa de Filipis the first woman to race in the Formula 1 World Championship, has died today at the age of 89. She entered five Grands Prix in 1958 and 1959 and qualified on three occasions, all of them at the wheel of a private Maserati 250F. Her first start, at the Belgian GP at Spa would end up being her only finish, in 10th and last place, two laps behind the winner Tony Brooks. She failed to finish the other two races because of mechanical troubles but went on to play a major role in the Grand Prix Drivers’ Club.

She quit after a fairly brief career because of the death toll among drivers during the so-called 'Golden Age,' especially that of her friend Jean Behra at the German GP on the lethal AVUS street circuit in 1959.

Maria Teresa De Filippis, 89, passes away - FormulaSpy

RIP Ms de Filipis, gone but not forgotten.

 

[1%er]

Engine manufactures have until this Friday to come up with proposals to cut the costs of engines (and/or power-units if they also supply the ERS) supplied to other teams, but the only proposal I have heard to-date is from Ferrari and they want FOM to foot the bill, can't see that going down too well with Bernie. Although it may be interesting to see what other options they bring forward.
***
What will be different this year? Well tyres appear to be the biggest change, with Pirelli bring an untrasoft tyre to each race and the teams making the choice of what to run and not Perelli, it will be interesting to see if teams choose different tyres.

Maximum number of engines remains at 4 per-driver according to the sporting regulations, but, and it is a big but, the rules also say that, if the calendar has more than 20 races it triggers an extra engine for each driver. The trigger point for the extra engine will be the first race of the 2016 season. So if no race is dropped from the calendar prior to Melbourne then drivers will have 5 engines, even if a race is subsequently dropped. Now that documentation has come to light re Austin and the State financing the race (see above post), I can't really see any race being dropped.

It doesn't seem that the FIA have managed to come up with a clear "Track Limit" rule, as yet. So it will still remain subjective, the new wording of the rule doesn't really change anything. It now reads "Drivers must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not deliberately leave the track without a justifiable reason" and goes on to say "Drivers will be judged to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with it and, for the avoidance of doubt, any white lines defining the track edges are considered to be part of the track but the kerbs are not", so it remains down to the stewards to decide if "they believe" a driver as gained an advantage or not. The FIA are testing new electronic equipment with reference to track limits, so this should become a non-issue in the near future.
***
A couple of interesting articles from James Allen comparing the drivers view and engineers view on "how do you drive an F1 car".
Drivers view
Engineers view
***
Channel 4's coverage of F1 will still have David Coulthard as a presenter/commentator it seems, it is not so clear if his business partner Jake Humphrey will also still be alongside him. Humphrey has signed a deal with BT sport to present their football coverage, maybe he can do both. C4's coverage will be produced by Whisper Films, a company co-owned by Coulthard and Humphrey. In a statement Channel 4 said “as well as demonstrating significant innovation and creativity in their approach to producing Formula 1 coverage, included within Whisper Film’s winning pitch was the signing of a number of key production personnel and presenters with extensive experience in the sport. These include Mark Wilkin, the editor of the BBC’s award-winning F1 coverage, as programme editor”.
***
A full-length video of a race which saw a young Ayrton Senna take on and beat a group of Formula One world champions has recently appeared. It can be viewed here. I read about this race in his biography but have never seen any footage of it. According to Prost, Senna forced him off the track at the start, sound familiar, LOL

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Good news about DC, he's a great presenter.

 

[1%er]

Some rumors about future manufacturers engine/power-unit supply
By Friday the manufacturers have to come forward with plans to reduce the cost of their engines or FOM will/may change the specification or introduce non-manufacturers customer engines for the 2017 season. Clearly the manufacturers don't want a change in specifications as they have spent millions on R&D for their current units. The average price paid by customer teams at the moment is around $25 million a season, the reason it is an average price is because different customer teams buy different parts, some by the full package including internal combustion engines, gearbox, recovered energy storage (battery), turbocharger, the Motor Generator Unit – Heat (MGU-H), which takes power from the turbine shaft, thus converting heat energy into electrical power, and the Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic (MGU-K), which takes recovered kinetic energy dissipated during braking and converts it into electricity and then adds additional drive to the crankshaft. Others just buy the ICE and develop their own supplementary parts.

The rumors seem to suggest that the cost could come down from the $25 million to around $13 million if the manufacturers standardise some of the supplementary components. The MGU-H controls the speed of the turbocharger. This is valuable technology, but the MGU-K could be standardised quite easily, as it is already restricted and thus not really being developed. The turbocharger itself might also become standardised, while it is unlikely that the manufacturers would want to provide common energy stores, as batteries are key for the industry. A great deal of the efficiency in these engines comes from the software that balances how, when and where the recovered energy is used. Overall, these combine to makes some of the most impressive engines in the history of the industry, with unheard of thermal efficiency figures and impressive horsepower numbers for the amounts of fuel being used. This progress can continue even if there are standard MGU-K and turbochargers. The key point is to keep the technical development in areas that the manufacturers can use to develop their road cars, much of which is in the software.

Could K-Mag get a drive in 2016
There is speculation in the Danish press that Kevin Magnussen is talking to a team with a view to get a drive in 2016. my personal view is, he will not get a drive this season but may get a support roll in a team with a drive lined-up for 2017. There are only 2 seats left and both are with Manor-Mercedes who I think will take pay drivers this year to help offset the cost of racing, it looks likely that Rio Haryanto will get one seat as he can bring millions with his sponsorship from the Indonesian government, the 2nd seat is more open but I think they will still go for a pay driver unless K-Mag can bring lots of cash with him. Will Stevens and Alex Rossi have also been linked to Manor, both of them would be pay drivers bringing serious money with them.

There is of cause Renault who might be looking for a better driver line-up, but it is also believed that both Pastor Maldonado and Jolyon Palmer have already provided sponsorship, so it would/could be expensive to change one of them. Maldonado brings loads of money from PDVSA the Venezuelan state owned oil company, but with the political change in Venezuela and the fact that PDVSA are loosing millions because of the low oil price Maldonado's sponsorship could stop, but not for 2016 I don't believe, Could it workout that K-mag gets to be reserve driver for Renault for 2016 with a race seat lined up for 2017?

Pirelli poor cold-water on 5 seconds a lap faster cars for 2017
The changes discussed in the 2015 thread about cars running 5 seconds a lap faster in 2017 seem to be unworkable as far as Pirelli are concerned. The regulation change that include bigger tyres, a new aerodynamic floor concept and differently shaped wings creating a significant increase in downforce levels could be too much for the tyres to handle.

Pirelli have informed the teams that its tyres, when made to the required 2017 dimensions, could not cope with the expected downforce levels unless they used much higher tyre pressures (as much as 27psi far higher than is currently used), that means a smaller contact patch thus reducing grip which would undermine any advantage gained from the newly designed cars, Pirelli believe the load capacity of a tyre built to the current construction would increase by about 10 per cent.

A reduction in car weight could be the answer, but I can't see how that could be achieved, the new power-unit with the energy recover systems and battery's have increased the weight, in fact the weight of F1 cars are now 100 kilograms more than they were some 10 years ago, that's an increase of more than 17%.