Formula 1 auto racing became a force to be reckoned with thanks in large part to Bernie Ecclestone. Through a series of cunning acquisitions and negotiations he gradually gathered more control over F1 and created a racing empire that made him one of the richest men in the UK. His actions brought the racing series to a position of eminence, and some would argue led to decisions that in recent years have adversely affected the actual enjoyment of watching a race.
Now 86 years old, it's time to say "Bye Bye, Bernie." Ars Technica reports Here's how Formula 1 will change, now that Bernie Ecclestone is out the door:
In September 2016, news emerged that Formula 1 was changing hands, with a proposed sale from CVC Capital Partners to Liberty Media. Despite a couple of hurdles—including the sport's regulator standing to make a hefty profit from the sale—everything looks to have sailed through without a hitch. On Monday we learned that the sale was final and that the new owners have made an immediate change, for Bernie Ecclestone will no longer run the show.
We've known since last year that Chase Carey would be Chairman, with Ecclestone staying on as CEO for the near term. Evidently near-term meant four months, because as of Monday, Carey is the CEO. Ecclestone has been made Chairman Emeritus, and according to a press statement will "be available as a source of advice for the board of F1."
That advice comes from decades of experience, because Ecclestone is the man behind F1's commercial success. He consolidated the broadcast rights from individual races, negotiating on behalf of the other teams. Bit by bit, he took charge of everything, turning the F1 Grand Prix into the well-oiled machine it is today. The FIA was still the sport's organizing body and would still set the rules, but it gave Ecclestone the commercial rights. Tracks would pay to host a race and could keep any profits from ticket sales. But the rest—all that trackside advertising included—would go through his companies.
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Local broadcasters, which it must be said were not all equally good, were gradually replaced with a traveling TV production facility. Luxurious VIP facilities rode in on the same 747 cargo planes, coupled with layers of security that kept the average fan well away from the cars and drivers, giving the sport an air of exclusivity. By 2005 the show was owned by a private equity group called CVC Capital Partners. Intricate—some might say murky—finances prevented CVC from its intended plan of floating F1 on a stock exchange, so instead it just sat there, reaping immense profits while doing little to invest in the business.
That period of chronic underinvestment is why so many have cheered the sale to Liberty. The sport might be in rude financial health, but many of the tracks and some of the teams are far from it. Huge sanctioning fees mean it's impossible to host an F1 race without state support (Monaco being the exception). Petrostates like Azerbaijan and Russia will pay $50 million a year to bring the circus to town. Meanwhile it falters in its traditional heartland of western Europe where the British Grand Prix loses money paying less than half that amount. There is no German race on the calendar for 2017, ludicrous considering the success of Mercedes and the concentration of German drivers in the sport. …
[...] Carey told the BBC that "the foundation of the sport is western Europe. We want to grow it. There's a negotiating dynamic that exists, but we want a healthy relationship with our promoters."
[...] Carey is appointing a former ESPN man to take control of the sport's marketing, something that it has lacked until now.
[...] Ross Brawn will be the sport's new technical director. He is the engineer who brought success to Ferrari, winning championships in a team bearing his own name above the door (Honda having quit right on the eve of success), and then with Mercedes, so he knows a thing or two about F1 cars.
[...] This year's F1 season is going to look quite different on track. The cars are wider, as are tires and wings. They'll have a lot more downforce and mechanical grip, so cornering speeds should be much greater.
Everyone expects faster lap times, but it's far less clear the changes will result in better racing. More grip means shorter braking distances, and most overtaking moves are made during braking. And higher cornering speeds are all well and good, but wakes play havoc with front wings, so there's little reason to believe that the cars will be exiting onto the straights any closer than before.
Some personal perspective: In 1997 I had the good fortune to work for a startup company which worked directly with F1 as they were developing their digital broadcast channel. To give this some perspective, I bought a mid-upper range 200MHz Pentium Pro laptop specifically for working on this project. We were using Silicon Graphics workstations for the video processing as this was well before even AGP existed.
I was on site for six races and had a press pass which basically gave me full access to all of a racing venue, including pit row. Even more amazing to me was working within their inner sanctum — their portable digital broadcast facility. There were on the order of 100 racks of top-end electronics. (A single digital video recorder cost about $50,000 and only took up about 4U — You do the math!) The whole broadcast facility would be packed up, delivered to the race course, a temporary building constructed, racks installed, miles of coax laid down to link cameras to the facility, A/C and generators installed, and the whole works wired up and working in the matter of just a few days. Everyone knew when the first qualifying race was, that we needed to be up and running when that happened, that there millions of viewers watching, and there was no slipping that deadline! The pressures were enormous (both before and during the race) but so were the joys of working with some of the most amazing tech folks on the planet. Oh, and I got to meet with and talk to Bernie Ecclestone a few times, too. And stand less than 25 feet from the Chancellor of Germany and the King of Spain when they toured the facility. But I digress.
In my opinion, over the years the races and broadcasts have lost some of their excitement. Just watching the lead car or two drive on and on. Maybe an overtake here or there. I understand the motivations to make changes in the permitted engine, aerodynamics, etc. so as to make things more similar and bring out the best in the drivers, but the effect seemed to lose something in its execution. Maybe this is a needed change which will bring back some of the excitement that made F1 great?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2017, @10:03AM
I stopped watching GPs after the death of Senna made clear to me that first came the money, then the show, then the men.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday January 26 2017, @12:37PM
I've been watching F1 for over 2 decades, I don't think I've missed a race. On the rare cases I couldn't find somewhere showing a race when on holiday, then I'd keep my face away from tvs and newspaper stands for a couple of days so that I'd not be spoilt, and watch it when I returned home. Race at 5am? Sure, I'd set my alarm for 4:50, that was part of the fun, part of being a fan.
What I particularly like about the last 5 years is that the quality of drivers in the field is about as high as its ever been. And with some of the young blood in the field, I don't see it doing anything but staying that way. (Max is a future WDC, I really should put some money on that...) So I just hope that all changes are slow and steady, I don't want the sport to change much at all.
Looking forward to March...
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Thursday January 26 2017, @03:00PM
F1 has the potential to really embrace the digital age, but judging from the E series, they will fuck it up.
Fan boost? C'mon. I'm here to see team and driver talent, not get a boost because your popular.
As for F1 itself:
1) Please stop cutting to women in the pit area, your director has a real bad habit of doing that when something interesting is happening on the track. I'm here to watch cars, not attractive young ladies.
2) Put it online and allow me to purchase access, so I don't have to spend £80 a month on sky TV, plus the TV licence just to watch a race decently. No, highlights on the FTA channels is not the same. This is why your loosing viewing figures, I cannot actually watch legally except by watching the highlights on demand the day after. Also, use some of your power to persuade the UK parliament that I should not have to have a TV licence to watch live streams on the internet. Technically even watching twitch.tv is illegal in the UK, without the licence. Why should I pay the BBC to watch something that's streamed from a foreign country???
3) Sort out the money, it's so unbalanced. Some years we have struggled to get 24 cars on the grid. Support the weaker teams more so we actually have some competition. At the same time bring back in season testing so teams can really develop their cars.
4) Stop the races in horrible countries. If they abuse human rights and people try to rob/abduct the drivers and teams, you shouldn't be there. Lead by example not your profit margin. Same goes for the drivers, they should be boycotting these races.
5) Invest in the traditional markets. We have lost some great races and we stand to loose more with the current deals. Silverstone is on the ropes.
6) Remove some of the technical restrictions. Let teams experiment with tech, let them try new ideas.
7) Stop the obvious cheating. (Re: Rosberg, tyres, Monaco. Can you say fixed?)
8) Get rid of the boring tracks (Valencia comes to mind) and any new tracks should designed better. None of the new tracks are as exciting as the old ones. Bring back Brands Hatch!
There's so much more I could say, but this post is long enough already.
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday January 26 2017, @06:00PM
9) Make the starting grid the reverse of the championship rankings. I'm not paying money to see guys take off from the front row, lead the whole way, and then win, with only the pit stop changing the order. They should earn it by passing the other cars, not just by "don't make a mistake and you'll arrive in Nth place".
10) Find a way to make passing easier, without giving the guy at the back an obvious artificial advantage. Either let everyone tinker their aerodynamics in real time, or nobody.
10.5) 98% of the tracks' length is a no-pass area, because there is one optimum line and not enough time to go around someone who's taking it. Either someone makes a mistake, or you can go get a drink because you have a full minute before the next pass attempt. Boring.
Motorcycle races are a lot more fun to me, because it's so easy to change the lead on the tiniest tire-wear-mistake+aspiration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2017, @07:23PM
A couple of years ago a friend recommended the book, "No Angel", a bio of Bernie Ecclestone. The author is a tabloid writer who claims he had pretty good access to Bernie when he was writing, and he puts references for many of the quotes in the back of the book. Nice review here, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/05/no-angel-bernie-ecclestone-tom-bower-review [theguardian.com] The book is old enough that I was able to buy a cheap used copy.
I've been going to F1 races since the first Watkins Glen USGP in 1961. Was very lucky to meet many of the 60's drivers -- Clark, Hill, Stewart, etc at Watkins, when they were approachable. Long before there was TV coverage, I read Henry Manney III race reports in Road & Track to follow the rest of the races around the world https://simanaitissays.com/2016/01/15/remembering-henry-n-manney-iii/ [simanaitissays.com]
Based on stories I'd heard, I expected the book on Ecclestone to include some less-than-straight dealing. As I read it, the story was overwhelming, the level of sleaze was many times what I had expected. While I wasn't counting, Bernie might have "sold" F1 three or four different times, and each time hid extra terms in the fine print so he still retained control. Same for deals with others within F1--Bernie made countless "handshake" deals which were accompanied by his unethically worded fine print in the contract. Of course you will get rich if you can keep selling the same thing over and over and over...
While the general sentiment I've seen in the press is, "This time it's for real", and Bernie is well and truly out...I would not be surprised if he appeared again in a controlling position.