Teams’ cost-cutting rules deadline postponed

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Teams remain deadlocked over how to reduce costs in Formula 1.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

F1 teams get more time for cost cuts (Autosport)

“This means the F1 technical regulations for 2013 are now almost certain to remain unchanged because any amendments will now need unanimous support from the teams. That is unlikely to be achieved because of disagreements between Red Bull’s two F1 teams Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso and their rivals over issues like the scope of a Resource Restriction Agreement.”

Ecclestone still in prosecutors’ sights (FT, registration required)

“Post-trial, Mr Ecclestone was attempting a business-as-usual demeanour. He put his name and money behind an unlikely project to stage a Grand Prix in central London. But no one believes German prosecutors are about to close the case.”

Alonso’s global virtual travels (Ferrari)

“Many of you ask about the future, what I’d like to do when I stop racing, or if I will set up my own team. Why not? It would be a nice adventure! But if Bernie would allow it, I would like to design a real race track, like the kart circuit I designed at Oviedo which is due to open soon. I’ve already shown you some photos and in the next few days there will be more. See what you think.”

The Inside Line – on McLaren’s Jenson Button (F1)

“Q: If your racing career ended after this season what would you do with the rest of your life?
JB: I would love to still be involved with motorsport, to manage a driver and be involved in a driver’s career. I have a lot to give – a lot of experience, good and bad. And as I am massively into triathlons, another thing to do would be to qualify for the world championship in triathlon. That is a big aim of mine in life. That is something that I definitely will try to do.”

Comment of the day

Finally some good news about Spa-Francorchamps? Here’s Necrodethmortem:

Here’s a good bit of news: A Walloon newspaper reports that there has been a proposal to have an annual GP at Spa for four more years, since the French are apparently no longer interested in a GP since Hollande is president. They do ask to decrease Barnie’s fees from 17 to 15 million euros. They also say that ticket sales have gone up 20% compared to last year (so actually alternating GPs doesn’t seem like that bad an idea tbh).

L’Echo doesn’t have an online edition, but here’s a link to a translated Flemish article.
Necrodethmortem

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Tom Moloney and PJ!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

The non-championship Grand Prix of Reims was won 50 years ago today by Bruce McLaren.

Graham Hill finished second for BRM ahead of Innes Ireland’s Lotus. Ferrari did not attend due to a strike in Italy.

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Teams’ cost-cutting rules deadline postponed”

  1. I’d welcome some tracks designed by drivers, rather than ones fitted in by Mr Tilke around his buildings.

    If you haven’t seen it, here is a picture of Fernando Alonso’s kart track:pic.twitter.com/wB7qBv3Y
    Looks like fun, particularly the wiggly bit.

    1. http://pic.twitter.com/wB7qBv3Y
      Try this if link above didn’t work – sorry!

    2. davidnotcoulthard
      1st July 2012, 9:09

      Well, pretty much anything other than a Tilkedrome is better than a Tilkedrome! Even racing at Aintree or on a track designed by Linus Torvalds and/or Patrick Volkerding and/or Clement Lefebvre and/or Mark Shuttleworth and/or Ian Murdock (Google these people’s “speciality” and you’ll understand) would be nice, or an oval, or the “Spring” track from TORCS and Speed Dreams (free racing simulators, or even Dallas again (Maldonado pushing his car after a crash….that would be nice!).

      Or is it?

      1. Even Aintree? What was wrong with Aintree?

    3. @bullfrog Looks good that, a lot of fun.

  2. Timo did take part in practice, I think if he was well enough to take part in FP but not in the race, he’d just be a DNS. Plus it’d cause some slight hastle..

  3. Well, Di Villota don’t have an Superlicense (to be honest: she’s only in Marussia cause she’s woman).

    And Maldonado probably got more sponsorship.

    1. (to be honest: she’s only in Marussia cause she’s woman)
      Got any proof of that?

      1. Her results? Not proof, but a good indication that she wasn’t chosen for racing acumen.

        1. Shaun Robinson (@)
          1st July 2012, 14:45

          Currently there aren’t anywhere near as many women engineers (not only in F1, but in all engineering expanses) as there are men. If it means that girls watch motoracing at a young age and have an interest in engineering, I’m all for it. There have been loads of pay drivers in F1. So if sponsors are attracted to them because of their gender or where they were born (e.g. maldonado) – it shouldn’t make any difference. I can’t respect them – but they have a role to play.

  4. I wish I was at Goodwood,have fun Keith.

    Re the resources restriction, today I will play Devils advocate and argue the case against development:

    If we had a field of 12 teams all with the budget and performance of the last 3 teams on the grid we would still be seeing exciting racing with cars crashing, spinning off and breaking down, the 7 or 8 seconds extra each lap would take would not be apparent to the viewer. To further reduce costs a single engine supplier could be chosen and drivers wages fixed at a nominal sum but allowing them to retain personal sponsorship earnings.

    There, that should do it, as long as TV ratings and race attendance figures stay where they are now a F1 team should provide its owner with an enormous income and a celebrity life-style. Currently we have only 1 vacancy on the grid openly available, however I may be able to fix something for other interested parties. Contact B.Ecclestone, Berlin jail and country club, Germany.

    1. @hohum I’d like to hear Ferrari’s response to being told they have to use someone else’s engines. The horse whisperer would be fuming. Also correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there an EU law that prevents the restriction of people’s pay? I remember hearing about it when someone was throwing around the idea of salary caps for football clubs in Europe.

      1. @davea86, Dave, you are always so literal, can you not see the metaphoric subtext. However here goes, in the context of a future F1 that entirely about maximising profit and shareholder value ( if you read the financial press you will have heard that before ) Ferrari could accept a single engine supplied by Pure or another small specialist if they could put their name on it, possibly the components could be supplied to the team for them to “build”. After all mighty Mercedes contracted Ilmor to design and build their F1 engine as Ford did with Cosworth. But this is besides the point as the F1 depicted would hold little attraction for car manufacturers.
        Wages ? why not sell the seat and pay placemoney?

        1. @hohum Of course it’s a hypothetical scenario and the overall philosophy is interesting, I’m just pointing out some issues with the practicalities of it. Firstly I think you’re underestimating how much Ferrari would resist using an engine other than their own. Secondly I think it would be almost impossible to control what a driver gets paid. You mentioned that they could keep earning from personal sponsorship. According to google (so the figures may be a little out), Santander sponsors Ferrari to the tune of 40 million euro’s a year and Ferrari pays Alonso 30 million euro’s a year. It would be easy to rearrange the deal so Santander pay Ferrari 10 million and personally sponsor Alonso for 30 million while Ferrari technically employ him for free.

          1. @davea86, re Alonso, exactly, leave the drivers to arrange their own income, the best teams will attract the best drivers and the best drivers will attract the biggest sponsors, but I hate the idea of a sport that is all about profits. The idea of a single engine manufacturer is an old ambition of Bernie and Max, no reason why Ferrari should not be sole supplier if it were adopted but other manufacturers (mercedes) might leave.

  5. Many of you ask about the future, what I’d like to do when I stop racing, or if I will set up my own team. Why not? It would be a nice adventure!

    Would that really be worth it? Look what happened with Alain Prost – he was a great driver, but his team was hopeless (mostly because he over-estimated the French public’s demand for a French team in the sport, and thus couldn’t find sponsors). I suppose that if Alonso lent his name to a team and picked his people carefully, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I shudder every time I hear about a former driver stepping into a team manager role.

    1. Without Stewart racing we woundnt have RBR via Jaguar, While Ross Brawn has shown buy low sell very high.

      F1 is a licence to print money if you play the right game, hence a Chelsea badge on the Sauber.

      1. Ross Brawn was never a driver.

        And let’s not soon forget Jacques Villeneuve’s attempt to re-enter the sport in 2011, by taking one of the worst-performing GP2 teams, funding it with Libyan petrodollars – and dealing directly with the Qaddafi regime in the process – and then intending to be lead driver and team principal at the same time.

        1. But the JYS project was very successful – they won in Year 3 and was 4th in the WCC. In comparison, Caterham is nowhere near that at the moment. And that’s before I go outside the modern era (McLaren, Brabham, and Eagle come to mind).

    2. I think Alonso has the most sponsorship money in F1, so when he stops driving, he wont have a hard time findig more sponsors (based on his career up to date). But I dont think it would be a great idea to start a Formula1 team (just lookj at the “slow” three, they had 2.5 seasons, but still find it hard to compete with the midfield), maybe he should start a team in GP3/GP2/Formula Renault, and work his way into F1. Just like Zengő did it with the touring cars, he never achieved great things as a driver, but he built a team step-by-step, and now that team can compete with any car on the WTCC grid.

  6. Argh, my first CotD and then there’s a typo in it -_-

  7. I saw COTD yesterday an thought let it be true let it be true.
    Lets hope it does come true

  8. It’s interesting to see how suddenly FA has become the people’s champion. In his time at Ferrari, he has changed a lot in terms of how he deals with his fans, media and his actions in public regarding his team.

    On the other side, you cannot see Felipe apart from the race weekends. He has almost gone underground by either himself or Ferrari drilled him underground.

  9. Yawn, another unwarranted, mindless Tilke-bashing discussion.

  10. Happy birthday to the source of great pleasure to us with great designs and amazing posters @pjtierney and a happy birthday to Tom Moloney as well.

  11. Boullier is right when he says that the teams shouldn’t rush to hit a deadline. There’s no need for procrastination but surely it’s better to take their time with this? Why the big rush now? F1 has cost a lot of money for a long time so this is hardly a surprise to anyone. We’ve had stable teams on the calendar for the past 3 years who do seem to be making progress in their own ways. I’m not saying everything is perfect, but I am saying, why rush?

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