Comments on: F1 links: Walker’s win and Alonso’s deal

By: play snooker

play snooker — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:11:56 +0000

next time i’m asked about snooker in the future i’ll know exactly where to look! thanks for the hard work you put in making your site

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:26:32 +0000

Whoops! I forgot to comment on Bernie’s declaration (as summarised by Keith) that the F1 teams are not good businessmen if they can’t manage on $450M p.a.

Lets look more closely at that: According to Chris Sylt at Pitpass.com, what the teams get is roughly 50% of total F1 revenue. So the other 50% goes to CVC who have a massive bank loan to support and Bernie’s annual fee to pay. All this is due to Bernie having convinced them to buy F1 from him at a ridiculous price, on the basis of commensurate ongoing profits. So $450M to 10 teams – 500 to 1000 employees, plus suppliers and logistics costs and the other $450M to a couple of guys at CVC and BE himself. Yeah that seems completely fair! As I have said before, F1 would be far more economically efficient without CVC and their greed-based loan. FOTA should cut them (CVC)loose and leave them to tell the bank(s) what bad businessmen they have been.

In light of the credit crunch and global depression, that loan must be looking a little scary right now. Talk about a sub-prime mortgage! Especially as Bernie and FIA’s old ally Ferrari appears ready to bite the hand that has fed it for so long, in their alignment with -and leadership of- FOTA.

Ferrari….Italian…. changing sides…deja vu?? did I say that out loud?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:00:07 +0000

Forgot to click “follow up”. Sorry!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:58:24 +0000

For those of us in countries where soccer is not front page news, can somebody put me out of my misery and tell me what John Motson’s Tottenham gaffe was? I’ve looked at the Mirror article which seems to quote all the placegetters, (excitement at a snooker match? P’LEEEEZ!) but not Motson.

So Alonso will go to Ferrari. Having had the fastest car of the year at McLaren (2007) and stuffing up the season for himself and his team, he has a year to prepare a portfolio of excuses, in case his temperament and a few younger good drivers get in his way in 2010/2011.

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:25:19 +0000

I can (sort of) understand why some people might not like his commentary style, but I grew up listening to his commentary and if he was still young enough to keep up I’d have him calling the races tomorrow. I’ve met him a few times and he’s a genuinely nice person and a motor racing fan to the core.

By: beneboy

beneboy — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:34:38 +0000

It’s because he’s such a bloody nice chap Chaz.

Anyone who’s ever met him will tell you how nice he is and this comes across well on TV (for most of us), he also commentates in a way that you feel your watching the race with your granddad.

I’m guessing your not a fan of this style but I like having someone who’s genuinely passionate & knowledgeable about the sport commentating on it, even though he often stumbled in his excitement and gave us countless Murrayisms.

He & Brundle were a perfect team for me as Murray would give you all of the passion & excitement while Brundle would try to give you the facts & stats while trying to keep Murray in line.

You don’t need to worry about him coming back to the BBC, at most he’ll get a few guest spots & the odd pre-recorded segment. He no longer feels up to the demands of travelling the world to follow the circus.

For me, he & John Motson are two of the best commentators British sport has ever seen.
I understand why you don’t like him though, he can be a bit annoying if you rely on the commentary to keep up with the race.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:03:27 +0000

Can someone please please please tell me why so many people like Murray Walker. Seemingly I am one of a very few who cannot stand him at all and find him loathsome frustrating and lacking in complete and intricate and subtleness of F1 knowledge and information. Yes he commentated on F1 for far to long, every minute of which I intensely deplored as he was frankly terrible awful and utterly deplorable (I would prefer to insert other unprintable words but wont). I saw more of what was going on in a race by just looking at the tv.

And thus this is a plea to the Beeb to please please please not bring him back into the fold. I don’t think its justification to bring him back because he did it previously. Length of service is not necessarily indicative to a good quality of service. “Put Murray out to pasture campaign” would do nicely about now.

By: Bassfighter

Bassfighter — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:04:37 +0000

wauw, that could be spectacle. alonso really to ferrari. I never thought that would happen.
now i hope that the history will return between 2 drivers (1 in a mclaren, 1 in a ferrari) like schumacher-Hakkinnen. so that there will be lots of action on the track’s. that would be great. I still love those flash movies of that time. with as best moment the take over from hakkinnen at shumi on spa with a lapped driver.

By: beneboy

beneboy — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:23:26 +0000

Could Toyota’s Loss Lead to Racing Changes?

Are they going to drive backwards ?

It’s the only way they could do worse than they already are with a $450million a year budget.

If they don’t do better this season I don’t see the point in them staying, how much can you throw at a race team and still finish in the midfield ?