Liberty haven’t done enough, says Malaysia promoter

22 comments on “Liberty haven’t done enough, says Malaysia promoter”

1. 

   @HoHum (@hohum)
   30th September 2017, 0:36

   Mr. Razali has a point, but 2 facts have to be considered before blaming the current owners of F1 (1) Most of the current contracts governing F1 are Bernies contracts. (2) Liberty had to pay $8 Billion ransom to have F1 released from Bernie/CVC, and they will have to recoup that money somehow before they can put the shows needs ahead of revenue.
   Money, in the form of BCE is the root of all (F1) evil.
   1. 

      Why Me?
      30th September 2017, 3:31

      When reading the article I’m not sure if he really has a point.
      1) He blames Liberty for not doing enough for on track racing; that’s FIA not FOM.
      2) He doesn’t believe in F1 and doesn’t understand the sport; how do you expect him to sell the event locally.
      e.g. Melbourne makes it a great day out with side events like the speed comparison and local race series.
      3) he forgot to mention that his F1 tickets are almost 3x more expensive than the MotoGP tickets. and that is largely due to your point (1) above.
   2. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      30th September 2017, 5:34

      Sure, he does have a point that things haven’t suddenly made a turnaround in most aspects @hohum. But there haven’t been many things they changed that were clear negatives, and we did see already quite a few (smaller) positive signals.

      I think it’s easy for a long term Bernie ally to critisize the people who made BE obsolete. On the other hand, since the Malaysian GP has not had many paying visitors for the GP for the last couple of years, if FOM is to blame for that (by giving Singapore a race), it was BE to do so, not Liberty.
      One could also say that instead it shows the bad job of the local promotor did not to build up any steady fanbase in almost 2 decades of F1 races, in part because they “knew” that the bills would be paid for by Petronas anyway. So instead of doing their job (I know, it was not easy under Bernie, where promotion of the sport was frowned upon) they just ran along for the ride.
      1. 

         Sonics (@sonicslv)
         30th September 2017, 8:17

         @hohum I agree, besides Liberty just can’t make radical change the first year they have fully control of F1. And even then, they largely hold the commercial aspect of F1, not the sporting aspect which still governed by FIA. The shortcoming of Sepang is entirely on Malaysia’s promotor. They build a circuit out of nowhere hoping F1 (and MotoGP) alone will sustain it, which is ridiculous. The races will attract motorsport tourist crowd, but it’s up to them to build the surroundings so it can sustain itself as tourist destination the other 11 month F1 isn’t racing there. Kimi said it best: there’s nothing there but airport, hotel, and circuit. This is also why Sochi and Korean GP fails. Compared it to Singapore, while its because geographical restriction, you can do so much there outside of GP hours.

         And like @bascb said, there are some positive thing they’ve done, like not interfering too much with the technical aspect like BE does, instead appointing Ross Brawn which what looks like a good move for the future. The fans meet event in Silverstone also a nice beginning and could be better next year.
2. 

   Chris
   30th September 2017, 0:49

   Change will take time. The engine regulations are locked in until 2020. Give them more than 5 minutes to fix things … Some people have unrealistic expectations of how things work.
   1. 

      Bonbonjai
      30th September 2017, 3:27

      I kind of agree. The problem though, is that liberty gave the impression, and still continue to, that changes they wanted to better F1 were just round the corner. I always thought, they would make cosmetic changes that cost very little, immediately. Significant changes would come, once they had factored in how much Bernie and the CVC mafia, had ransomed them was to be paid for. After all, they are in this to make even more money out of F1 than Bernie and friends did.
3. 

   Bernie
   30th September 2017, 0:58

   The car might be unusual, but it’s still better than a Haas or a Williams or a Toro Rosso or a…
4. 

   Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
   30th September 2017, 1:56

   McLaren might have made a terrible mistake, but suppose for a minute that the Honda engine starts to show real progress… how do you build confidence back after 3 years of complete disappointment? you can’t recover a relationship just like that…

   I don’t know, McLaren can’t risk it anymore. Last year also showed signs of progress and look how it went in Australia this year. Toro Rosso won’t shout so loud if things don’t go well enough.
   1. 

      Kalun (@briankalun)
      30th September 2017, 8:59

      I don’t think McLaren made a big mistake. If you compare the top speed, McLaren is at the bottom about 5-10kph slower than all Renault powered engine. In F1 term, that is a lot. What helps Fernando crack the top 10 is all because of the chassis. McLaren bring new aero update to this track. I’m excited to see how McLaren perform with Renault engine next year. Peter Pedromeu is flexing his aerodynamic knowledge from Adrian Newey.
      I think the weak spot for McLaren is not the aerodynamic but the suspension system. McLaren is on par with RedBull in term of Aerodynamics. That’s why McLaren is trying to pouch Mercedes Suspension genius last year.
5. 

   Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
   30th September 2017, 2:50

   So Lewis on Pole then?

   Expect him to say something along the lines of “thanks so much to the team for working through the night to figure out the set up bla bla bla” after qualy.

   Chase and Sean have probably cut a deal with Toto and Niki in order for Merc to sand bag a little till the end of the season…they can’t have people turning off even before the weekend starts! I mean, if Lewis was 7 tenth ahead of everyone else in FP2..what hope would we have of a remotely exciting qualy let alone race!
   1. 

      David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
      30th September 2017, 6:02

      @jaymenon10

      thanks so much to the team for working through the night to figure out the set up bla bla bla

      wouldn’t be the first time anyone said that this season to be fair
   2. 

      anon
      30th September 2017, 8:10

      @jaymenon10, and now the conspiracy theorists are running overtime – I recall people claiming that Mercedes were sandbagging in the 2015 Malaysian GP and just playing with their rivals, except it turned out that Vettel really was that competitive that weekend when he ended up winning that race. No doubt that, whatever happens in this race, it will be twisted to keep such paranoid dreams alive.
6. 

   Sumedh
   30th September 2017, 3:53

   Look at Franz’s words: “I am also convinced that the engine is already much better than many people think because McLaren is quite close to us”. What he is implying is that McLaren being quite close to Toro Rosso is not because of an ultra superior chassis and ultra horrible engine canceling out each other. It is because of the combination of a slightly better chassis and a slightly worse engine canceling out each other.

   I have been saying this for a while now. McLaren’s chassis is not as world beating as they think it is. None of McLaren’s ideas seem to be have been copied by anyone on the grid. Unfortunately for McLaren, they seem to have made this decision of ditching Honda solely on the basis of their supposedly superior chassis. I would not be surprised if their chassis is found to be lacking speed compared to Renault and Red Bull next year.
   1. 

      NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
      30th September 2017, 5:33

      Yup. McLaren Chassis is midfield quality. Also to compound the issue, seems dragy. What they need is Mercedes power..

      Id bet 2018 Honda in STR will be decent.
      1. 

         Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
         30th September 2017, 8:15

         I dunno, their pace at Monaco, Hungary and Singapore suggests the chassis is half decent.
   2. 

      Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
      30th September 2017, 8:24

      Concerning cotd and McLaren, last season the Honda pu was early on, stronger than Ferrari’s 2015 and their car even managed it’s best results on quick tracks, such as Russia, obviously it was not the pu but rather the car that was very strong on traction and braking, but the engine couldn’t be that bad. This season again, the Honda pu looked early on, stronger than the sauber’s 2016 ferrari engine, that said less reliable than Honda’s 2016 but still the same story, yes McLaren have comparatively a stronger chassis than 2016 but I think that’s a reflection of the new more expensive rules, undoubtedly the compact Honda installation has always been behind some of the chassis performance, also to note they now run optimal rear wing and don’t care if they are embarrassed on the straights. On optimal power they can’t be that bad, I agree with Franz.
   3. 

      anon
      30th September 2017, 8:37

      Sumedh, course, it would be in his interests to flatter Honda in that situation given he is about to become their partner (you don’t exactly want the initial working relationship to get off to a bad start).

      @jureo, I think that you are being a bit harsh on McLaren’s chassis, and that in reality the situation is probably more somewhere in between. An individual on the F1 Technical forums, who claims to be connected to Honda’s engine development team, has made some comments about McLaren’s chassis (though only able to talk about it in generalised terms given that most information is confidential).

      Whilst he does partially support your post, in that he implied that the chassis does produce more drag than McLaren let on, his opinion was that the lift to drag ratio wasn’t terrible and that the overall downforce levels were reasonable – not a world beater, and probably not quite as good as McLaren claim it is, but at the same time indicating that it was better than the midfield pack.

      If anything, the general consensus is that Toro Rosso have been the team that produced a particularly high drag chassis and aero package this year. With Honda seemingly confirming that they will not be providing any funding to Toro Rosso to develop their chassis – they’re providing the engines for free, but that’s it – that suggests to me that Toro Rosso probably aren’t going to have that much more in terms of resources to develop their 2018 chassis.
   4. 

      Ju88sy (@)
      30th September 2017, 8:43

      The McLaren chassis looks good, the teams have the data and that seems to be the widely held view rather than just McLaren ‘words’. Will it be as good as the Red Bull? 2018 will reveal, we know McLaren can build fast cars, it should not surprise us, I would welcome the additional competition.

      Looking back to Spa Alonso had the PU issue caused by taking Pouhon flat, by comparison it was only on Hamilton’s Pole lap that he had the confidence to do the same (Bottas did not) with the Ferrari able to take it flat out all weekend, the McLaren clearly has latent performance in the chassis that is hidden thanks to the Honda PU.
7. 

   Kalun (@briankalun)
   30th September 2017, 9:17

   As a Malaysian and an F1 fan, it is sad to see Malaysian GP leaving. There are not many F1 fans in Malaysia and many of the f1 fan you see in Sepang are there to support Petronas.

   So, why do Malaysian GP fail miserably?
   1. There is no proper public transport from Kuala Lumpur City to Sepang.
   2. Sepang is too far from Kuala Lumpur City Centre.
   3. Sepang is dead at night. I agree with Kimi. All He saw is the airport and the jungle. Nothing interesting.
   4. The tickets are too expensive for middle class workers. May take up our 2 months salary.
   5. Malaysian prefer MotoGP to F1 because it is cheaper, motorbikes can be easily bought and replicate, and better racing.
   6. Malaysia are lacking of motor racing fan. Mostly football fans. Just like MotoGP/motorcycle racing, Football can be easily be replicated. Sport cars in Malaysia from all the brands currently racing in F1 are too expensive due to our tax structure.
   7. Not good after race entertainment.

   Singapore GP is doom to fail if Singapore GP situated far from the city centre and there is no entertainment after the race. South East Asian nation do not have a proper racing fan. They just support who ever win the championship or any company that has relation to the country (eg. Petronas)
   1. 

      Yoswarit Pookkanasut (@billyos)
      1st October 2017, 3:57

      As I’m Thai, I can confirm that MotoGP already totally outnumber F1 in fans. Motorsport in Thailand is kind of Rich hobby. No Thais even recognise F2 and below.

      Liberty need to revolute F1 to conquer the world, otherwise MotoGP will runaway…
8. 

   Yoswarit Pookkanasut (@billyos)
   1st October 2017, 3:56

   As I’m Thai, I can confirm that MotoGP already totally outnumber F1 in fans. Motorsport in Thailand is kind of Rich hobby. No Thais even recognise F2 and below.

   Liberty need to revolute F1 to conquer the world, otherwise MotoGP will runaway…
9. 

   I have an opinion
   1st October 2017, 6:33

   An update to the forum article “F1 extends Fox Sports broadcast deal in Australia”: now it appears channel 10 Australia will be broadcasting *no* further races, Malaysia included. This has changed completely since yesterday.

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