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[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Team bosses hold Suzuka summit on “improving the show”
2018 F1 season
5th October 2018, 11:56
Dieter Rencken and Keith Collantine


The 10 Formula 1 team bosses held a specially-convened meeting in the Mercedes motorhome at Suzuka today to discuss ways of “improving the show”.

Force India team principal Otmar Szafnauer said the meeting, which did not include any FIA or FOM representatives, was a “talk about the state of Formula 1 and how we’re going to improve it.”

He said it focused on ways to encourage teams to use different strategies during races.

“The racing’s gotten a lot better but it could be even better. So for example if we have two-pit-stop race it might be better. Or a combination of some doing one, some doing two. So how do we do that? It was all about improving the show.”

The teams agreed that encouraging more variation in strategy would make for better races. “Everyone tends to the same strategy now,” said Szafnauer. “But at the beginning it wasn’t like that if you remember.”

Earlier today Lewis Hamilton called on Pirelli to make much softer tyres for 2019 to encourage more varied strategies.

The teams discussed asking Pirelli to bring tyres which degrade more quickly. However Szafnauer pointed out F1’s official tyre supplier had come in for criticism when this was done in the past.

“At the beginning Pirelli did what Bernie [Ecclestone] asked: high tyre degradation. Then people split strategies and we all said bad things about Pirelli.

“So the key is to ask Pirelli to do the same but don’t say bad things. That’s what we really want.”

“We asked Pirelli to do something, they do it, and then we slag them off. That can’t be right,” he added. “So if we’re asking them to do that we should not slag them off if they deliver.”

Speaking in today’s FIA press conference, Sauber team principal Frederic Vasseur said last week’s race showed F1 must produce better racing.

“It’s quite obvious that we need to improve the show,” he said. “That Sochi was a race with less than five overtakes – if I don’t consider the two Red Bulls, [they] won’t start from the back every single weekend.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner echoed Vasseur’s view. “Formula 1 ultimately is a show,” he said. “It’s entertainment, and to be entertaining the racing has to be good, the drivers have to be the heroes and I think we need to improve the spectacle of what we currently have.”

Concern over F1’s declining television audiences and teams’ earnings projections are understood to have prompted all the teams to meet together for the first time in 12 months. However Szafnauer played down the possibility that the meeting could lead to the re-forming of the Formula One Teams Association, which officially disbanded in 2014.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “It wasn’t that inclined.”

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 05 October 2018 - 12:37.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Jebeno ne mogu da verujem:

 

https://twitter.com/...406642652495873

 

 

Will Buxton‏ @wbuxtonofficial

 

Fab. Drivers' briefing microphones left on and being broadcast in media centre. Ooops. Charlie telling the drivers that in hindsight, stewards were perhaps too lenient with Magnussen in Japan and that his defensive move in the battle with Leclerc was, indeed, too late.

 

Uprkos tome sto je situacija bila toliko ocigledna da samo slepac nije video sta se desilo, i nakon sto su izbacili video u kome pravdaju Carlijevu odluku iako se ocigledno snimak i njegova objasnjenja sta ustvari gledamo ocigledno ne slazu, Carli eto konacno priznaje da je "malo preterao". Na srecu pa niko nije stradao kao onomad Bjanki pa ne mora ponovo sam sebe da istrazuje i da utvrdi da nista nije kriv.

 

Ovaj inkompetentni moron i ubica okrvavljenih ruku mora da leti iz F1. Sada, odmah. Dok jos neko ne nastrada zbog njegovog moronluka.

 

Odavno nisam bio ovako besan.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

F1 has changed a long-standing rule about the iconic chequered flag.

In Montreal this year, the end of the Canadian grand prix was thrown into chaos when model Winnie Harlow accidentally waved the flag too early.

As the rules stand, whenever the physical chequered flag is waved, the race is over whether the official number of laps have been completed or not.

In response, the FIA has now replaced the chequered flag with a chequered flag light signal. The flag will still be waved, but it will only be symbolic.

Charlie Whiting played down the development.

"The black and white chequered light signal has been around for three years, and the flag will still be there," the F1 race director told Bild newspaper.

"But now the light will mark the official end of the race. It's partly a reaction to the incident in Montreal," he confirmed.

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Što bi Kime reko, f*cking finally.

[Doorn]

 

 

LATimages.com

Two new venues confirm 2020 F1 deals

Today, 10:17 , by Matthew Scott

Formula 1 could have at least three new destinations in 2020, with organisers in Ha Noi and Zandvoort claiming to have concluded deals with Liberty Media, who will look to push through the Miami Grand Prix for the season after next as well.

 

Liberty had tried to get a deal in Miami done in order to include it in 2019, but strong opposition from local residents has delayed the process, which will not be revisited until next year.

A deal in Vietnam has been on the cards for some time  - Bernie Ecclestone revealed that one of his final acts before selling F1 to liberty was to strike a deal for a Ha Noi street race that he estimated could bank the sport $50million.

And it appears that the south-east Asian nation has finally made it onto the calendar, after invites were sent out this week to a gala which will reveal the circuit.

Invites read: "The city of Ha Noi managed to conclude the cooperation to be entitled as the official host of a race of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship [from] April 2020."

FIA race director Charlie Whiting visited Ha Noi earlier this year and returned with a positive assessment of the potential venues.

He said last month: "That shouldn't be a problem based on previous experience.

"It is mainly on the streets, but there is a section that is not yet built. That is an open site where the pit buildings are going to be built."

There has not been a Dutch Grand Prix held since 1985, but Max Verstappen's emergence and the explosion of F1's popularity in the Netherlands has pushed Liberty to seek a race in the Red Bull man's home country.

Zanvoort held all 34 Dutch GPs between 1952 and 1985 and although the circuit does not currently have the FIA Grade 1 status required to host F1 , it is claimed a deal has been struck regardless.

De Telegraaf reports that Liberty has offered to pay €20million to host the event, and quotes the Dutch Prince Bernhard of Oranje as saying: "If we sign now, the Netherlands will have a Grand Prix again in 2020. With Max Verstappen every one of us realises that this is a unique opportunity."

Orange-clad Dutch fans have become a staple sight at many European races and the Austrian GP – Red Bull's home race – has an entire stand dedicated to Verstappen's fanatics.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

After some teams avoided running to save tyres in qualifying, Whiting said the tyre rules may need revising, especially if the mooted ‘Q4’ is introduced next year:

"I think it’s should be part of a another fresh look at tyres in general. The idea of having this four-part qualifying, personally I think it’s quite a neat idea, but it needs to go hand-in-hand with a look at how the tyres were allocated during the whole weekend.

"Then we’ve had a couple of discussions also about the use of wet weather tyres on the first day of practice and the influence that has on the amount of running that’s done.

"So there are a number of things that I think we need to just don’t try and do it one bit at a time but take stand back and have a good look overall at what we might need to change to try and make the situation a little bit better."

 

Postoji jedan i samo jedan jedini razlog za uvodjenje Q4 i prelazak na cetvorodelne kvalifikacije - tako ce se uklopiti u tradicionalne americke TV blokove reklama. Nista drugo nije motiv za ovu promenu, niti ce ona doneti bilo kakav kvalitativan pomak sto se tice interesantnosti samog takmicenja.

 

A Vajting je i dalje kreten i mora da ide, sto pre to bolje.

[alberto.ascari]

Brejking njuz!


https://www.formula1...GCycMuUM0G.html

Edited by alberto.ascari, 07 November 2018 - 09:59.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

The new front wings for 2019 are costing teams a lot of money but overtaking will not be easier.

That is the fear of F1 officials including Dr Helmut Marko, Franz Tost and Andy Green.

For next year, the regulations mandate wider front wings that are designed to improve the chances that a chasing car can follow and overtake.

But as the wind tunnel numbers come in, there is scepticism.

"Driving behind a car will not be any easier," Force India technical boss Andy Green told Auto Motor und Sport.

Toro Rosso chief Franz Tost agreed: "I discussed it with the people in the wind tunnel and they do not believe overtaking will become much easier.

"I think at the beginning of next season the teams will have reached a similar level of downforce as now."

Red Bull's Dr Marko added: "Our simulations show that nothing changes. Overtaking is just as difficult.

"The whole exercise just costs us money."

He thinks the wider wings will actually become too easily damaged in wheel-to-wheel contact, necessitating a reversion to narrower wings for 2021.

"We can't do a shot in the dark like this again," Marko insisted.

 

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 08 November 2018 - 17:11.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

https://www.motorspo...saward/id/00337
 

16 November 2018
Where is it all going with Liberty Media?

 
The Liberty Media Corporation hosted an Investor Day on Wednesday in New York City and gave details of how the sport is being developed and what they hope to do in the future to create long-term value for investors.

This includes a substantial financial element, which is designed to reorganise and reduce F1's heavy debt load. This is being reduced gradually and Liberty is also managing to reduce the annual interest payments on the debt, which means that more money is available to pay off the debt, thus speeding up the process. Paying down the debt is a very positive thing as it creates value for investors and keeps them happy.

Liberty Media CEO and President Greg Maffei confirmed that the company believes that things are going well and, describing Chase Carey as "a rock star" allowed the F1 chairman to give more detail to investors.

"Our priority during the last two years was to bring a new sense of energy and excitement to F1," Carey said. "We prioritized long term goals over the short term ones, to build the foundations for the future, in order to maximise long-term value. Rebuilding a business is hard work and it takes time to do it right. For us, to some degree, that challenge was exacerbated by the large ecosytem that existed in F1 of teams, promoters, sponsors and broadcasters all of which have their own views, challenges and goals within the business. It's an incredible franchise but it was a tarnished brand that had not made the investment, built the organisation or taken the initiatives necessary to compete in today's world. It was a sport that had sacrificed long value for short term deals. We will finish 2018 with the foundations for the future largely in place and we will begin to pivot in 2019 to drive bottom line growth during the next few years. We also made it a priority to strengthen our balance sheet to further position us for longterm health. We are still navigating through a few of the issees the we inherited in an increasingly volatile world that will continue to face uncertainty, but we believe we are well-positioned to achieve our goals."

Carey said that a great deal more work needs to be done and that one of the core initiatives is to improve the sport on the track and create a situation in which "the underdog wins once in while".  He said that the engines need to be simpler, cheaper, louder and more powreful, but added that Liberty believes that the hybrid engine is the right way to go to showcase the world's best technology and make it road-relevant.

He said that Liberty was making good progress on new rules and financial discussions with the teams and the FIA.

"We are working through the details to find the right compromises as quickly as possible," but he said that all negotiations are going to remain private.

Liberty continues to see the sport as having huge growth potential. The announcement of a Vietnamese Grand Prix is the first new race that Liberty has announced but work continues on several other programmes which may, or may not, bear fruit in the long term. Maffei said that the goal was increase interest in the sport in the United States and confirmed that there have been discussions with both Miami and Las Vegas.

One area where Liberty believes there is progress to be made is in the promotion of the indiviual races and it says it wants to see promoters taking a fresh look at the way in which different events are marketed, with the focus moving away from a focus on cost towards finding ways to create growth. The underlying message here is that Liberty believes that some races are simply not being marketed very well and wants the promoters to either step up or lose their events.

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Uoči VN Abu Dabija dogovor je pao za povratak F1 u Holandiju i to na Asenu a ne na Zandvortu (koji treba pun ***** posla da bi bila Grade1)

 

https://www.formule1...voort-of-assen/

[romantik]

Znaci sad ce da iskasape i ono malo sto je ostalo od starog Asena

[Doorn]

Ne pise u clanku da je odluka pala na Assen. Kako stvari stoje Assen-u ne treba veliko ulaganje da se modifikuje. Cak ni drzava ne treba da ucestvuje u finansiranju.

Zandvoort ima preferenciju zbog istorije i sto je vlasnik princ iz kraljevske porodice, ali ulaganja su ogromna. Uglavnom 2020 imamo Dutch GP, najvjerovatnije u Assen-u. 

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean have collected more penalty points than any other Formula 1 driver since they were introduced.

The penalty points system has been in use for the past five seasons. In that time, 13 drivers have accumulated 10 or more. Among them is Pastor Maldonado, who hasn’t started an F1 race since 2015.

No driver has yet reached 12 points within a 12-month period, which would lead to an automatic ban. Verstappen and Grosjean both ended the year on seven penalty points, but have accumulated career totals of 19.

Both drivers have criticised F1’s penalty points system. “I hate these stupid penalty points,” said Verstappen in Austin. “Maybe you deserve a penalty, but it’s not that bad that you deserve a penalty point. For me that’s a bit out of proportion.”

In response to Verstappen’s criticism of the penalty points, FIA race director Charlie Whiting said they are “there to make a habitual offender take notice.”

Grosjean said many of the incidents for which he received penalty points should not have been penalised. The points system was introduced after Grosjean was banned for triggering a crash at the start of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix.

“Penalty points are not a penalty,” Whiting pointed out. “They are just there to track a driver’s record.

“They’re completely separate. When you have a penalty you always get a penalty point. Except for a reprimand, you don’t get penalty points for reprimands. I know some people are a bit confused [but] applying points is not a penalty as such.”

F1 stewards have handed out a total of 287 penalty points since they were introduced, an average of 2.87 per race weekend. Two drivers ended 2018 with clean licences: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

F1 to use AI to investigate track design, race format changes



By: Chris Medland | 19 minutes ago


Formula 1 will use machine learning to investigate ways track changes and different race formats could impact on the quality of racing.

In a presentation at F1 partner Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent 2018 conference in Las Vegas, managing director or motorsports Ross Brawn revealed the AWS partnership will be utilized to create models that will allow the sport to analyze potential changes thanks to machine learning.

“Further down the road, what’s really exciting is we are going to investigate the influence of the tracks and the racing formats on the quality of the racing,” Brawn said. “Can we create tracks that achieve better racing and better overtaking? Can we build models that allow us to do that?

“Can we change the format of racing to make it more exciting and less predictable? For instance, what happens if we change the format of the starting grid, so instead of being spread out it’s bunched up? We believe that using machine learning, AWS is enabling us to do these things.”

Brawn also revealed more immediate changes that will come into effect in 2019, with fans getting access to more on-screen information as the sport uses numerous data points and the AWS Sagemaker machine learning platform to formulate live predictions during a race.

“We are training machine learning models using this huge amount of data that we have in Formula 1, and we’re using those models to make predictions of what’s going to happen in the race

“We are digging deeper to show you where the performance is coming from. When is a car faster? Why is it faster?

“For next season we are expanding ‘F1 Insights’ for our viewers. By further integrating the telemetry data such as the car position, the tire condition, even the weather, we can use Sagemaker to predict car performance, pit stops and race strategy.

Brawn revealed this will result in “some exciting new AI integrations into next year’s F1 TV broadcast”, including an overtaking probability based on car position and condition or a pit stop call.

“We know that somebody is in trouble: his rear tires are overheating. We can look at the history of the tires and how they have worked and where he is in the race, and machine learning can help us apply a proper analysis of a situation.

“We can bring that information to the fans and help them understand if the guy is in trouble or if he can manage the situation. These are insights the teams always had but we are going to bring them out to the fans and show them what’s happening.”

As well as individual car condition, Brawn says that can be compared to a chasing car’s performance to create an overtaking probability percentage to be displayed during broadcasts.

“Wheel-to-wheel racing is the essence and critical aspect of the sport. And now with machine learning and using live data and historical data, we can make predictions about what is going to happen.

“(We can show) what we expect is going to happen in an event. What is great about this, is that the teams don’t have all this data. We as F1 know the data from both cars and we can make this comparison and this has never been done before.”

And a similar graphic will be applied during pit stops to show the likelihood of a car being able to make gains as a result of the timing of its stop.

“The pit stop is the major strategic element of the race … Stopping at the right time and fitting the right tyre can win or lose a race.We are going to take all the data and give the fans an insight into why they stopped and when they stopped – did the team and driver make the right call?”

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Liberty Media are “genuinely trying” to secure a new contract with Silverstone that will keep the British GP at the Northamptonshire track for many years to come.

Next year’s British Grand Prix marks Silverstone’s last after the track’s owners, the British Racing Drivers’ Club, exercised an exit clause.

The BRDC cited the rising costs of hosting the grand prix, saying it was threatening the future of the track.

Liberty, though, are hoping a new deal can be agreed in the future.

“We are very hopeful,” Sean Bratches, F1’s managing director of commercial operations, told Sky Sports News.

“There has not been a lot of change in terms of the last time we spoke.

“We are having discussions and conversations around the business terms and both genuinely trying to get a deal done.

“Silverstone – it speaks for itself – it’s an extraordinary brand. It’s the home of the first grand prix.”

Silverstone, though, is not Liberty Media’s only option for a British Grand Prix with the sport’s owners admitting they are keen on street races that bring the sport closer to the fans.

“We are having conversations with the mayor’s office and conversations with cities around the world,” Bratches said when asked about the possibility of a London race.

“Certainly if there was an opportunity in London for us to race in the great streets here this would be an ideal circumstance – both for London and for Formula 1 fans around the world.”

 

Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle has warned Formula 1's bosses that the venue won't remain the home of the British Grand Prix at any cost as the circuit works in priority to diversify its revenue stream.

Last year, the BRDC, which owns and operates the historic track, triggered a break clause in its current burdensome contract with F1 that could see Silverstone host the British GP for the last time in 2019 unless a new, more favourable agreement is signed sealed with Liberty Media.

Pringle addressed the issue on Monday at the BRDC Awards, in the presence of F1 CEO Chase Carey.

"We got ourselves into a pickle because we had a business that was solely financed by the grand prix," Pringle said.

"So we had to diversify, and we’re doing that. We’re going to build a hotel, we’ve got Silverstone Experience opening, and we have some additional short-stay luxury accommodation. Aston Martin are now tenants on-site.

"Things are very much heading in the right direction, and it gives us the confidence to say Lord knows we want to keep the grand prix, but not at any price.

"We’re going to have a broader, more diverse business that can survive without it. But we’d much rather have one with it."

Carey wouldn't give anything away with regard to F1's ongoing negotiations with Silverstone, but the American executive reiterated his belief that the sport must retain its historical roots, even as it extends its calendar to include new venues.

"We’ve been very clear: you always build a sport on its foundation, and the foundation of this sport is here in Europe," Carey said.

"The fans that have been followers for the longest period of time are here in Europe, and you have to build a sport on top of its foundations.

“We are committed to making sure the sport is strong here. We think we can engage fans, new fans around the world.

"The reality is most of our events are reasonably long-term, so there is a lot of stability to what we do," he added.

"But we do think you want to bring some freshness to it. We think it’s important to go to some places that can capture people’s imagination that are new.

"That being said, we want to be sure we continue to cherish what has made this sport so precious for so long."