F1’s sale totals a whopping £6 billion to the US media corporation, Liberty Media run by a man with a moustache not too dissimilar to a wild west oil tycoon.
The sale has been made up in parts, the first instalment has now been paid up, the rest will come later on. One can only imagine the tangle the deal with have to pick through to be rather substantial. Back room deals, debts and voting rights bestowed for previous agreements… the list goes on. Rumour has it even the Euro commission are keen to look at the deal.
Couple that with the fact we’ll still have Mr E hanging around for at least another 3 years ‘helping’, well it’ll take a brave man (or woman) to put money on this working out smoothly.
For 30 months Mr E will have a job guarantee taking him to the age of 89 and who would bet against him buying back F1, for less money of course, just for a laugh? With luck, that won’t be an option.
The moustached Chase Carey and Mr E looking had several things to say to the media after the deal was done:-
“What’s your No 1 aim over these three years, Mr Ecclestone?”
“I hope I’m going to be here in three years’ time – alive and well,”
Carey added:-
“This is an evolution, this is a great global sport and one where we’re just going to keep trying to build on what Bernie’s built over the last four decades.”
Lets hope the sport’s rule makers can ensure the racing’s decent, no amount of media and marketing revolution can fix an essentially broken product.
Agreed.
There’s all this buzz about social media. But. The only asset (content) F1 owns is it’s history. Do you gain new, bright, young fans with sharing old content? Not in the numbers required.
And how exactly would all these youngsters find F1 on Twitter? And why?
There’s plenty of social media surrounding F1. The content just doesn’t appeal to others.
And you can ‘fix the racing’ all you want, but it won’t help. Cars are just as sexy as trains to young people.
I’m just glad I witnessed the rise of Jos and Max. But we’re heading down Hill.
kudos for your assessment!
investors DEMAND a better than average return on investment than other choices
that requires more income or less expense or both. period!!! no options…
show me even one way to add income – more money from the tracks? more money from the broadcasters with an increasingly angry fan base? more money from sponsors who see fewer butts in the seats/fewer eyeballs on the tele/less chatter on mainstream media/fewer $$ in their pockets… ??? oh yeah, let us turn to everything digital streaming… really? fans HATE advertising. and free streaming brings zero $$. so, who will pay $600 a year to stream when they already do that with SKY cable?? no prob… only charge $100 for streaming. well, who will then continue to pay $600 for Cable??
zero capability to gather increased income….
so, less expenses! the minnows NEED a more fair distribution of funds. with no additional money coming in, that means the top dogs MUST receive less. good luck with that as there are a number of racing series where these big wigs can strut their technology IF they decide racing is still a viable marketing tool. with the disaster of Ferrari, I fail to understand a singular F1 team as benefiting from “win on Sunday – sell on Monday” mentality… and then, we have the contracts until 2020!
and then, we have the “show”. the entertainment/the competition/the show is pathetic. if not by practice and quali, EVERYBODY knows the winner thru about 6’th place by the second or third turn of the very first lap. BUT most have NO clue as to what the hell track limits are or what the hell the bought and paid for Ghost drivers of the past or ignorant corrupt FIA Stewards are thinking…
argh!! IMHO the 2017 regs will result in the absolute WORST set of regs in the history of ANY motorsport. wider/longer/heavier cars for F1 are STUPID! F1 was WAY faster than any series in 1962 and weighed 400 Kg. following and passing will be nearly non-existent with half the braking distance!! fans will have a harder time figuring out who is who as they are huddled into crappy turn-only grandstands. the actual race time will be reduced which will lead to farther cost complaints. thanx Adrian and yer puppet at Mclaren for farther ruining F1. and IF you are a sound and/or volume/content junkie, you totally need to go to GP2 or DPM or IndyCar or NASCAR or IHRA or Swamp buggie racing or Baja or hydroplane racing for that matter… ’cause u ain’t gonna get it from FIA/BERNIE/LIBERTY!!!
post script: read that the NFL (and Liberty) knows how to “manage” time zones.. HAHAHA. wow. 4 time zones for a few months vs 24 time zones for more than double the months… I am HUGELY un-impressed…
I disagree. Twitter, fb, Instagram… all those things are ways to engage with millions of fans. Certainly if you use contest to win stuff. Tour of factories, signed stuff. You get my drift. New generation is lazy and quickly bored. So it has to be fast, exploding. Boom boom. Wham bam thank you ma’am. And people are like sheep, if enough start to talk about it and it goes trending everybody will check it out.
My point is that this is already there. Look at the following of drivers, teams, blogs, journo’s etc.
The sport itself can’t do a lot more, I think.
To attact younger fans, Lewis and Nico should crash eachother out every race, I’m afraid.
There’s no content to go viral.
Start by streaming races live. People want that. Other series do that
there are DOZENS of totally free live and real time HD streaming sites bringing nearly advertising free Sky coverage of the FOM feed for ALL 3 practice and 3 quali sessions and the race, including pre race grid walks and post race coverage in several languages. add in NBCSN and other network coverage if one prefers… Liberty is gonna improve on this how?? these streams are reliable/stable and have been around for YEARS. and it only takes a 30 second Google search to find all of them.
live. free. FOM feed. SKY coverage in several languages. additional network coverage. HD. basically zero adverts. dozens of sources should one have an issue.
please do expand on how a new Liberty stream is gonna improve my race weekend streaming experience…
@titan. I think you and I have different definitions of HD streaming. Or else share your HD stream with me because the ones I found are bad quality of I stream them on my TV and they are all infested with adds and such.
@Titan I would also like to note that not everyone enjoys breaking the law. And why all the complaining, how is more access to the sport you love in any way a bad thing?
If the drivers and other companies are gimped by the FOM’s death grip on any image or sound bite that has something even remotely to do with the race or track. Yes, drivers bring in viewers on instagram, but they could bring in so much more with cool and interesting content revolving around the race rather than just fans of Lewis’s fashion.
in all due respect, you are assuming “with millions of fans” are already paying fans and that they will magically start receiving fascinating/relevant/entertaining F1 content in their news feed that they will find more interesting than the photo of their neighbor’s gourmet dinner or grandchild’s first puppy… and that these millions will spend more and bring more fans with them.
F1 should have started with Aol in 1985 with the Commodore 64 or Prodigy in 1994 or My Space in 2003 – all pretty late in the game, IMHO.
merely looking at Sun race day estimated crowds for the Glen/Mosport/Mont Tremblant from 1967 to 1973 of about 60,000 fans, one may expect to see about 87,000 today based upon sole population increase. add in the instant news and mega advertising/marketing/PR of today along with mega support races, slick logos and sponsorships, carnivals, food vendors, big name concerts, fireworks, fly-overs, convenience stores, megatron TV screens, free Wi-Fi and quality 4G coverage, digital apps for online view and audio, better parking and security and transport and more hotels and restaurants and local entertainment and culture and bigger/closer airports and more car rentals and UBER/LYFT and taxis and busses… I would expect US/Canadian venues to be hosting 150,000 and turning people away on Fri afternoon…
and we know that ain’t remotely close to ever happening!
so, tell me more about the Guru called Liberty…
You mention that the only asset that F1 owns is history. Might I ask what F1 does with all this history? I don’t see anywhere really to watch old races other than torrenting. And obviously you don’t understand how social media works if you are asking how “youngsters” find F1 on Twitter. That is the same mind set that Bernie had and look where it got us. All he has said is I won’t do this because I don’t get it and I don’t see an immediate return.
You make money by creating a great product, not by monetizing every little thing. That is what this is about. Creating a greater product so that people want to give their money to it, rather than people just being squeezed for what they have.
haha. I got a little more to get off my chest…
I own a 1999 Chevy Lumina. it has a HUGE trunk and hauls 4 people comfortably for a 20 hour day or 6 comfortably for a few hours. I get 39 MPG on the Interstate – I am talking 1100 miles (partially over) the Adirondack Mountains at 5 MPH OVER THE speed limit which is mostly posted at 70MPH. 64 mph average.
on multiple posts and articles, I see that the teeny tiny 2016 FIAT 500 with pathetic power sold in the USA has a listed sticker MPG of 80MPG highway. and I see many multiple articles stating that “REAL WORLD” mileage for this shit car is 39 MPG on the highway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – and is the singular WORST advertised MPG to REAL MPG sold in the USA!!!
so, Marchione, head of Chrysler/Fiat and Ferrari, PLEASE be the very first to line up to be executed by a gas chamber. your ignorant Tifosi NEEDS to line up and be executed as the stupid lemmings they are and have always have been…
shitheads are you…
Brilliantly incisive analysis…
Off topic here but a great rant. The problem with a general purpose car is just that..it makes compromise. A little fiat isn’t really designed for the great roads you have in the states,its design is style and city driving in the European market as most cities over here are over a thousand yrs old and the roads are bloody narrow and totally built up. I am lucky,i have a choice of my cars and if I need to pop into a town I use my wife’s original mini cooper and when I am out in the fields I use the discovery but on those rare days when the sun’s out then its the rag top E or the little red number 😉 the main problem is I only get around 8mpg from the girls but who cares…the drive is fun. I would love to take them over the pond and have a proper drive,not a 6hr coast to coast trip I get here.
luv the response! but the issue is not in the compromise. it is the deliberate lie and failure to own up to it that riles my feathers. sound familiar? VW, GM, Toyota, Honda, etc…
and I am over the top jealous you have a mini Cooper – am throwing daggers at you 🙂
A 1999 Chevy Lumina? Are you seeking sympathy crowd funding?
haha. great one!! I knew I liked you for some reason 🙂
had plenty of fun back in the day with the Z-28, Europa, Tiger, Trans Am, RX-7, Shelby ‘Stang, off-road Blazer, modified Titan Mk V with a BDA n a bunch more. the Piper Super Cub in the back yard and Century Resorter Woodie tied up on the front dock helped keep me entertained/busy/broke haha…
seriously, the old girl Lumina with a mere 60,000 miles is a highly under appreciated car!
hey you all 🙂 wanna chit chat about great street cars u have owned or driven??
a few for consideration:
I read Graham Hill’s GP piece by Shell in ’62 and hit the most bad ass local road in Dad’s ’62 Olds 88. what a totally amazing car!
I had a “Smokey & the Bandit Trans Am” . with oversized studded Goodyear F 32’s and 50 lbs of sand in the trunk, it was the absolute bomb in mountainous ski country terrain.
contrary to popular belief, a ’67 ‘Vette was a true joy to drive fast on a twisty country road…
want a super fun cast iron solid car? get a ’72 Mazda RX2 – yeah, u gotta replace the front struts in less than 7,000 miles 🙁
for off road fans in Idaho, my ’72 Chevy Blazer with iconic Armstrong Tru Track tires was unbeatable!
the FINEST handling street car of all time was a T-Bird with luxurious interior, an I-4 turbo and Michelin TRX metric tires. never had to put 30 degrees of steering even on a tight Solo ll course!
hard to believe, but my 2002 Chevy S-10 pickup with cheap Firestone Indy 500 tires drove thru 900 miles of a life and death blizzard with 1 vehicle passing me and then crashing. a true badass truck n tires to do 900 miles of a massive blizzard and 1104 miles total in 17.00 hours…
so, what are your greatest vehicles??
Alfa Romeo 1973 2000 spider.
A smiling my face each and every time I drove it. And I never held back. “Do you feel it drifting?” – still hounds my friend sitting next to me while I drove the motherfucker around the Posbank
(Google it, Ho Pin Tun learned a trick or 2 there)
Hahaha! 😀
Two years ago I was passed on I-15 in Utah by a Fiat 500. I was doing 80. Surprised, I was. I
yikes, Bruznic!! try first row or live sports or DrakulaStream,eu or the chrome app, etc!!!! and yes – if using Windows 10, u need Immunet, EMET, AVG, Malwarebytes, Sandboxie, OpenDNS Crypt, Witopia VPN, HTTPS Everywhere, Adblock Plus, EFF or Blur, Awesome Cookie Manager and a bunch more stuff!!! I get HD with the greatest available internet connection of merely 3.52 Mbps. I suggest you have some work to do…
i think this headline is just too pessimistic nonsence without any explanation in the following text. so i take it as utter bs unless You Lads put up some arguments, grounded arguments to explain your point
It’s quite simple but I’m happy to point it out. The racing itself requires attention. Basic first rule of Marketing: Always make sure you’re selling a STELLAR product, or don’t sell it at all.
That requires the teams agreeing on fundamental rule changes to the aerodynamics. It’s gone too far and has ruined the racing (tweaks can be made to the Power Units to make them louder, but there is no turning back to thirsty v8’s and v10’s, as Mercedes and co have invested too much in PU’s and related technology). I suppose the new fatter tyres might make for an interesting start to 2017, but it will settle as the season progresses.
Plenty of companies sell poor products, like Redbull (foul tasting drinks) and rake it in through stellar marketing. F1 could live stream races if it wanted to and dust off the archives for on demand content (unless Bernie owns the archives). The WWE social media presence and WWE Network seems to be working for them (not broken even yet, but will likely get there at some point). Yes it’s a fake sport, but it makes $$$$ for the shareholders.
What the hell, here goes…. I too do not see much being ‘fixed’. I can only see Liberty for the most part carrying on where Bernie left off with maybe a bit of fiddling around the edges. The bottom line is that they want their pound of flesh and nothing will be allowed to get in the way. The whole concept of the sport being ‘owned’ by a third party for their own gain is anathema and should never have been allowed to happen! The Commercial Rights Holder should not need to exist as the FIA should have done it themselves or contracted someone to mangage it for them on a facilities management basis.
Boxing has about thee world governing bodies I believe. Perhaps Motor Sport needs a new body to offer light touch regulation in all areas of the sport. Maybe the Manufacturers and sponsors would be better off with something completely new instead of the present F1 new and leave the FIA and Liberty to run F1 with anyone who can afford to enter – and I don’t think they would be able to do it under current rules. Not very likely but if would solve nearly everything. It would be ironic if the FIA and Liberty were to end up in court if the teams could agree to move off to pastures new. Yes I know, its a dream.
F1 has become bloated and while there are still benefits for participants there is a secondary goal which is now to make money for investors. The process of moving away from the roots of the sport as been going on for 30 year or so. The hi-jacking has been an incremental process so that fans do not notice! Imagine if you look F1 from 1975 and said “we are buying F1 to make money and you will have to pay us for doing so. You will pay more to get in to see races and have to pay money to watch on TV” many would have lost interest – it would not be as if there would be anything new or better on offer but the same old product. The FIA allowed this to happen as it too has become bloated with power, greed and self importance.
The teams are bloated with several hundred employees, the costs of engines is bloated – back in the day you could buy a DFV for peanuts and it is highly unlikely that anyone ese would try to develop and engine after the Honda debacle. F1 was closer a pure sport when any small team could get exactly the same engine as Lotus or Mclaren and have a clance of winning the odd race like Hesketh. F1 was more of a sport when Ken Tyrell built a car in a shed at his timber yard and won the world championship. He only had a handfull of employees. Now we have arrived at a point where it is practically impossible for a new team to enter the sport – Haas are really just running a Ferrari in disguise.
The cost of some of this bloat is swallowed by Car Manufacturers’ development and promotional budgets, some by dwindling sponsors and the rest is swallowed by forcing fans to pay ever increasing sums to attend races by screwing the circuit owners or to view on pay TV.
So, F1 is disfunctional and looks like staying that way with dwindling interest and revenues unless Liberty are a lot better that I give them credit for!