some overtaking due to different tyre strategy/management – and apart from a man on the course – nothing much else happened….
the more i hear from Mercedes the more i think Bernie has asked them to “lose a few” for the viewing figures and him selling the TV rights a bit higher to Italy 🙂
Well there’s no question about his (well, PDVSA’s) pile of cash – £30m they reckon.
Interesting though as people thought him being retained would mean Renault weren’t going to buy Lotus but that largely seems to be deal. The suggestion was that maybe Bernie wasn’t going to pay Renault their money up front so they wanted the PDVSA money to keep things going at Lotus.
As to Singapore, reckon it was just a bad race for Merc and a particularly good one for Ferrari (well, Vettel).
Telegraph reporting that Button will quit at the end of this season and go to WEC. The timing (Japan) would make sense but I’d have thought he’d want one decent season to finish but maybe there’s not much confidence that Honda will sort it out next season…
Whole things nuts, PDVSA are in trouble with the current oil price so are borrowing billions from China, and then they give millions to an F1 team for what? While Bernie keeps taking more money.
Telegraph reporting that Button will quit at the end of this season and go to WEC
Will be very interesting to see which WEC team he heads for. Porsche don’t exactly need him, he doesn’t strike me as particularly Audi like, and I cant see Toyota having the cash to meet his salary although I also cant see him struggling around in the Nissan until its properly sorted.
More interesting times ahead for F1’s feeder series though!
BBC Sport are reporting the rumour that Button will retire at the end of the season. Seems like a good call for JB, he sounded like a broken man yesterday. I can’t see Alonso being too happy about having a fast, young team mate tho.
I can’t see Alonso being too happy about having a fast, young team mate tho.
No one will be going fast in that McLaren Honda.
Anyway knowing that McLaren are likely to have money problems as sponsors leave, then any new driver is less likely to be fast and more likely to be rich.
Perhaps Im a bit cynical but I do smell the long arm of Bernie wanting to make sure the championship goes to the last race to keep the TV and sponsor money happy.
Looks like someone in Michelin’s F1 department is a mountain biker. According to the BBC they want to switch from 26″ wheels to 28.3″ Yeah they’ll really bring the track to life…
FWIW I hope Bernie does keep the title going until the last race – I’m going 😉
@chrimac has it 🙂 i wonder if the super secret “concorde agreement” up to 2020 states that no one team can win more then 3 races in a row, and the championship cannot be decided before 3 races from the end – would not surprise me after bernies popped his cloggs a lot of skeletons come out of the cupboard
more bad news for bernie trying to sell tv rights…. figures collapse
the less popular the “stars” of the show the less you get people wanting to see them.
Not surprising when you sell it to Sky who then lock it behind closed doors. Needs to be back on BBC full time.
As long as the money keeps rolling in Bernie doesn’t give a monkeys about viewing figures. Boxing seems to be awash with money at the to end but hardly anyone watches that now.
Right now VW need as much money in the bank as they can, as the US might be about to take them to the cleaners. So I think that pretty much kills their investment in F1 if it was ever going to happen. But what will be the wider fall out as allegedly Renault may have similar issues so we’ll have to see if that impacts on their F1 involvement.
In a world where the BBC are being squeezed for money by the government then the F1 deal looks bad. I’m not sure I can see them re-bidding in future.
If Bernie doesn’t care about viewing figures then the teams should make him aware.
I’m fairly sure the sponsors are interested in viewing figures
I don’t think that’s always the case, F1 is a global brand, with the associated press coverage that this brings. If I was a multi-national company sponsoring F1 I’d be more interested in getting my brand on as many multi platform / country reports that hit as many eyes as possible (be it news reports / press coverage etc) rather than trying to appeal to a snapshot of a countries population who will watch the race live.
Its all a marketing tool, the actual race is just a very small part of it.
Kind of makes sense. KM would be better at a team that will hopefully allow him to prove himself but FI does seem to be a bit of a dead end for drivers
Wouldnt surprise me if Button doesnt see out the season with McLaren – knowing Ron he’ll let him escape, subject to a payment, to go off and do a WEC and he can put in a youngster to get up to speed with the car , due to limiting testing in season.
not sure why, but everyone in F1 is saying audi are in, and everyone in audi are saying no we are not….
is F1 trying to talk up their arrival to try and bluff others into looking into F1.
I was away so had a delayed catchup with Singapore – watched most of the race on fast forward. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to agree with the moaners who say it’s got too boring and nothing much happens, I want to keep loving it, but that race was so dull.
Posted 8 years ago
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