I guess there is also the 'issue' of what a drivers salary covers? i.e. is it just driving the car or does it include promoting the manufacturer or the sponsor brands. Drivers could easily circumvent the salary cap by being paid by a 3rd party company to promote stuff (including team sponsorship). That way it's not their salary! So I doubt it's enforceable either. I'm not even sure the budget cap is enforceable. Way too many teams working together will be sharing costs - probably not equally sharing costs either!
I think perhaps the difference this time is that the teams seem to genuinely want a budget cap, from Mercedes down. It's not like F1 trying to introduce one to satisfy Caterham and Marussia. If the teams are on board, it's much easier to arrange enforcement. Renault/Alpine probably have the hardest job sharing costs, because they have no customer team. They'll absolutely want to give the regulators teeth. The teams have to accurately keep track of shared costs, value of resources, etc for tax and shareholder purposes. Accurately assessing their spend Vs a budget cap isn't fundamentally impossible if the teams allow proper monitoring. In terms of obscuring driver salaries, I think the easiest thing to do is set up "ambassador" contracts for after the likes of Hamilton stop driving. So pay him £10m/yr to drive for 2 years, then pay him £20m/yr from 2024 to be a Mercedes brand ambassador.
Don't get me wrong . I know the teams want it ( A drivers salary cap ) , but can it be enforced ? That is my question , you could get into all sorts of legal arguments . Time will tell .
This forum has saved a rainforest! Hooray! You might (won't) remember a post a few months ago... Well, it seems those plans have been cancelled... New Formula 1 track plan for Rio abandoned over environmental concerns I don't know how many people from here signed the petition, but it gathered a dizzying 24 signatures and I expect that this forum made the decisive difference. The outside world might never know what we achieved, but we know. And we can all stand tall, our chests swelled with quiet pride. I can end my own personal protest and stop pooing in my neighbour's garden. Forum friends - we saved a rainforest today. I salute you all.
After the dreadful F2 crash 2 years ago this is a heart warming story. Juan Manuel Correa to make sensational racing return in F3 after recovering from Spa crash injuries | Formula 1®
I really hope not. So according to the muppet himself he terminated the Haas contract for poor performance. So IF he now sponsors Williams I think Haas might sue him as Williams will probably be as good as Haas were a couple of years ago! I really hope that no team lets him anywhere near their cars. Why would any team deal with him? OK so promising to pay them lots of money but look at his track record!!! If anyone were to risk it they should insist 100% of the money up front before a decal is applied!!
With Williams under new management they may make headway, if they do they will get more TV coverage as that in itself will be a story. I would imagine the contract is tight after watching the experience of Haas.
A question. Is Adrian Newey the advantage to a team he once was. In raising the bar, as he once did, I think the generation of designers we now have are challenging him. His era culminated in the blown difuser success. I do think Redbull out performed their Renault engine supplier. I recognise he is less hands on these days but not sure that makes so much difference. I think, in his time, he showed the way for young designers who now are a match.
Was Newey about at the start of the current era? I think he has only recently been catching up to it. So to me its a bit hard to say if his pen and paper ways are over. But I'm sure computer aided design is getting better and better and can find things quicker and more crude than any human.
I also think there was frequently ambiguity in the drafting of the design regulations which they have tightened.
While computer models are very good they do rely on skilled engineers to develop the models and continue refining them. About 15 years ago I worked on testing/developing Jet and gas turbines with Rolls and the amount of work just trying to get the thermodynamic and fluid dynamics models better was huge. Masses of thermal pain and megga instrumentation. Thinks will have come on in leaps and bounds but F1 is so specialised and unique each teams models will be very different. I think Adrian was a head of his time by maybe 10 years but I don't think he has maintained that lead.
Just read that Billy Monger is doing 140miles - walk, cycle, and kayak over 4 days for Comic Relief. Info here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-55996052 The bloke is certainly a fighter. Hope he does get back into racing after Covid dies down.
Interesting article about F1 popularity Formula 1 announces TV and Digital audience figures for 2020 | Formula 1®
So even though many many people were stuck at home, no restaurants, pubs, shops open, not much other sport on Liberty are happy with a 4.7% decline in viewing figures!!! They even suggest that 1.5Billion for 17 races in 2020 was not a drop off in audience compared to 1.9Billion in 2019 with 21 races!! Even simple maths shows average figures are down!!! The figures should have been way way up.... I know it's very different but look at Netflix and how their subscriptions went way up. F1 figures should have been way higher in 2020 not lower.
Their excuse seems to be not performing in China and some other countries impacted the audience. The social media stats told a better story. Of course, we all can tell a different story with the same statistic data.
The social media stats are shown as "biggest increase". When F1 was absolutely terrible at social media before Liberty, it's not that surprising that they perform well by that metric. They had a lot of catching up to do.
Great question. I see the logic. All I know is that I would never write him off. The current regs certainly seemed to have stifled him a little bit but Red Bull has still been right up there despite initial PU issues. He has had quiet spells before such as the Ferrari domination years under Schumacher, and bounced back. The big chance of course is 2022 and the new regs. I’m so interested to see how he approaches that and I’m also keen to see James Key take on the McLaren equivalent too- one chance for a guy to cement a legacy and a chance for the other to start one. Of course Ferrari, Renault, and if they stick around, Mercedes, will all have something to say about that I’m sure. Very intriguing!