Yes, F1 can “unleash” global marketing campaigns and grid kids and
agencies in China, but the big news is that the F1 Union meetings –
basically unchanged for over 40 years – are now being chaired by a
media guy with no history with the teams, no history with the FIA
and a genuine, worrying desire “to do what’s best for the F1 brand”.
Thus the noises we hear from the big
meeting rooms: “Ferrari are going to quit!”;
“F1 can survive without Ferrari!”; “Equal pay
for all!”; “Don’t tempt Marchionne!”; “Keep
engines as they are!”; “Engine regs must be
changed!”; “Budget caps are crucial!”; “Spend
what it takes!”. And so on.
It’s 1981 all over again, except that thereLIBERTY’S ONLY SOLUTION TODAY: PAY MUCH MORE
MONEY TO THE TEAMS AND A HUGE, ANNUAL BONUS TO
FERRARI; GET THE NEW AGREEMENT SIGNED. CONTINUE
TO SPEND BIG ON F1 CITY DEMOS AND THE F1 BRAND
are now six noughts attached to every digit.
To be fair, no auditing firm was ever going to
be able to tell Liberty what they’d bought. Audits
by definition are visible. F1 by definition is not.
The best auditors would have been Bernie himself(yeah, right!) and the real Formula 1 people
on the ground.
F1’s P&Ls [profit and loss statements] no doubt
made good reading – but beneath the surface
there are too many imbalances. To fund the
PR and the growth of the F1 show, you tighten
the money-flow to the teams and expose the
inequalities between them. Tighten the money-
flow to the teams and you kill the show.
Bernie’s business model, all those years ago,
was that fragile. Ferrari-fragile.
Liberty’s only solution today: pay much more
money to the teams and a huge, annual bonus to
Ferrari; get the new Agreement signed. Continue
to spend big on F1 city demos and the F1 brand.
Pour funds into the development of young drivers
in countries like China, India, South Korea and
the UAE. And underwrite two additional F1 races
in the USA, return races in South Korea and India,
and pay subsidies to ensure the future of the
British GP at Silverstone.
Oh yes: and forget about the profit side of the F1
books. That disappeared when they said goodbye
to Bernie Ecclestone.Max and Bernie
went back a long
way. Here, at the
1973 British Grand
Prix, the pair
were simply team
owners, of March
and Brabham
respectivelyThe FISA/FOCA war of 1982 came to a head at
Imola when the FOCA teams, led by Ecclestone,
boycotted the race. McLaren driver Niki Lauda
and designer John Barnard listen in to Bernie...