Comments on: Ferrari, fuel, and hospitality

By: JV

JV — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:50:45 +0000

Hear what you’re saying about the corporate hospitality and I think that as international sport goes, F1 has it particularly bad. At every GP I’ve been to, almost all the best spectator spots are taken up by CH tents or exclusive seating.

The other sport which suffers is rugby union. These days, it’s almost impossible for the average rugby fan to get hold of an England international ticket at Twickers – far too many go to corporate sponsors, leaving true fans high and dry (or forking out £££££ to touts).

It doesn’t have to be this way.

In contrast, one sport which gets it so right from a regular spectator point of view is championship golf (where daily tickets are a similar price to F1).

I went to the Open at Royal Birkdale last year. Yes there was CH but, at each hole, the seats available to all spectators offered as good if not better vantage points than the areas reserved for CH-ers. I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to got to a sporting event which was focused on putting the regular spectator before the corporate sponsor.

By: Terry Fabulous

Terry Fabulous — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:48:40 +0000

Solid call Pat Symonds, sorry Hollus!

Love your work.

By: Wesley

Wesley — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:09:08 +0000

I too have attended many events here in the States paid by the corporate dollar but,it sickens me to see people not appreciate their good fortune.I have watched all the baseball,hockey games and enjoyed.I couldn’t believe the oblivious idiots that surrounded me at the Paul McCartney concert though….box terrace seats,food,private restrooms and no one wanted to do anything but drink.Can’t you do that at home anytime?

By: Wesley

Wesley — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:08:42 +0000

There are three fuel suppliers that I am aware of:Shell,Petronas and Elf.Does anyone know of more?

By: Nik

Nik — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:44:13 +0000

“Still, I think it wouldn’t hurt to make all recipients of hospitality at F1 races take a simple entry test: name a world champion, label the major car parts, and calculate the optimum fuel strategy on a cool day at Spa, for example.”

Sorry Mr Big Bank, we will not be accepting your $400k for a corporate box at the Grand Prix because you failed to name the 1991 world champion.

Never going to happen.

I attend tons of sports in corporate boxes in the USA and I don’t think I have ever watched a full 5 minutes of a game (especially baseball). Its all about entertaining clients and friends (and drinking!) – nothing to do with sport.

By: hollus

hollus — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:03:23 +0000

I think the best fuel strategy in a cool day at Spa is obvious: just one lap longer than the guy with the second best fuel strategy.

By: scunnyman

scunnyman — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:33:42 +0000

NOt sure if there is right now, but there used to be. In my opinion if there isn’t more than one fuel supplier anymore then there should be for competition reasons , as i also believe there should be more than one tyre supplier. Maybe even several suppliers for every big Item for the cars. I think that was one of the reasons the cars were so different back in the 80′s for me.

By: Pointer

Pointer — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:21:38 +0000

Excuse my ignorance, is there more than one fuel supplier in F1?? If so, are there *any* potential performance gains from one brand to the next?

By: spanky the wonder monkey

spanky the wonder monkey — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:56:28 +0000

i thought the fuel strategy question was the easiest. put enough in to get to the stops and then enough to get to the finish. see, simple!

By: Dougie

Dougie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:38:07 +0000

A great and very interesting article Keith, but I just have to comment on one paragraph.

Inevitably, have to stop yourself and wonder, if the teams were shackled to a spending limit of £40m, could this sort of work continue? The likely conclusion is “no”.

What you appear to be advocating here is that the big teams are allowed to continue to spend as much as they like to find the smallest advantage. Therefore the small teams are just there to “make up the numbers”. I don’t really consider that fair competition. Even with the reduced costs advocated by FOTA its the same debate, can they afford to spend on fuel mixtures?

I guess a suitable solution would be that fuel companies are to supply more than one team, and supply the same fuel to them all. However, that reminds me of the old Ferrari/Bridgestone relationship where the other teams supplied really suffered on tyres perfected for the Ferrari.

The flip side of course is that would we have these “special” fuels on the forecourt (i.e. Shell Optimax, BP Ultimate etc) without the work they do on the circuit. I guess not. But then, was it the work on the F1 cars that gave us Optimax, or work on the Fiorano track with the road cars that produced it… my gut feel is the later.