Today will see the infamous Formula One strategy group discuss a number of topics including moving the usual race start time of 2pm, for the core European races.
The strategy group comprises of the teams, the FIA and Liberty Media. Topics up for discussion also be probable changes to the entire race weekend, starting with Thursdays and the pressers. TJ13 understands that it’s very likely we’ll see a relocation of race start times backwards from the usual 2pm and adjusting them individually for the venues in Europe, as is already common practice in overseas GP’s.
This move is no doubt required to accommodate the various unrelated ‘Super Bowl’ like peripheral events planned for the 2018 F1 calendar. Liberty finally understand that it’s close to impossible to make significant alterations to the sport in the short term, but they must see some return on their investment after they became the majority shareholder of F1 this time last year. The simplest method of which is to increase the commercialised sponsorship partners to the sport. The result are these sponsored ‘events’ dotted around the main race and hosting venue, supposedly to entertain the crowds but more crucially increase revenue. The timing of the first free practice session and the FIA press conferences will also be debated. No doubt the first casualties of this mandate.
Another point of discussion will be to separate the drivers weight from the minimum final car weight along with the long term direction of aerodynamics with the creation of a new working group plus the positioning of the drivers’ names and numbers on their cars.
There’s nothing wrong with the current 2 pm start time of most of the European races, so no need for alterations. ”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I’d say everything is wrong with 2 pm. The sun is out there and I have friends and family to go to. Yes, I record races but having a Total media black out and expecting the same from everyone around you is a headache.
Mornings or evenings are much better. I like those asian races at 7 or 8 o clock. Got the whole day in front of me.
I like the morning start times as well. Most of the races start at 3 pm in where I live. I don’t like the evening times as much as the morning ones (Australia, China, and Japan) due to how long I have to wait till the coverage begins for those races (The NA races + Brazil and Bahrain). Let’s put it this way: Each of them (morning, afternoon, and evening) has pros and cons when compared to each other, so none is entirely perfect.
Wouldn’t it great if Liberty decided to return F1 to a weekend of race meetings like in the days of yore. Give the crowds entertainment at the track throughout the meeting, not just a single race.. what about reinstating the warm up?
In a world where football teams can buy a single player for £200 million or build a team of 11 players for half a billion, with respective multi million pound salaries, isn’t it about time all this talk of budget caps was thrown out?
With car companies making profits in the billions a year, these conglomerates have corporate leaders who understand finances.
Let there be an arms war, let development and testing return. It’s bloody obvious that a multi week break keeps F1 out of the news and testing and accessibility to it would bring about huge opportunity to expand the fan base.
I get your point, even about the € 500M football teams. However, every sport has its financial limits (and those depend on the amount of viewers and thus the commercial possibilities)
In F1 the amount of teams is limited. In football, there are 100’s of teams. F1 is a mechanical sport, in which engineers play a heavy role. The human factor is more limited than in football, in which the human factor is large (hence regular changing of coaches) Put together a € 100M football team, and on a good day, they will beat a € 500M team. Those good days never happen in F1. (McLaren is the exception..)
Frankly, the entertaining element of surprise is completely suppressed from F1. I miss the drama.
The (somewhat) leveling of the financial playing field sounds good to me. The current proposal of limiting the amount of expenditures only feels like a good place to start.
I personally like Renault for competing on a lesser budget than the big 4.
“it’s very likely we’ll see a relocation of race start times backwards from the usual 2pm”
Which I’m sure will help raise TV viewership in North America, especially the west coast, where races will now start at 4:00 am 🤣
To accommodate the US West Coast will delay the exit at the tracks from the spectators which usually travel long distances by car to watch the race. No matter how much you delay the start it will be too early for the west coast
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Maybe saw 3 races live in 2017, all the other ones were recorded. So do whatever you wish, I don’t care.