Formula 1 still needs testing

Formula 1’s 2008 Loose Ends
By David Mirsky

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 12/27/08 — Although there hasn’t been any racing since the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Louis Hamilton won his first world championship, there has been an abundance of testing by most of the teams. Normally, many teams would have waited until after the first of the year to test, but due to FIA rule changes, teams have decided to get a jump on the new season.
Season’s Greetings, race fans. I thought I was on vacation until next year, but there’s just too much going on in Formula 1 since my last report, I just had to keep you informed.
The new changes to F1 include a lot less aerodynamics on the car, a smaller rear wing, and a return to slick tires instead of those terrible grooved tires that were supposed to reduce the speed of the cars (which it did not). The changes are mainly for the purposes of passing other cars without the effects of “dirty air” caused by other cars. Other rules for the 2009 season include limited engines per car…basically, getting 3 races from an engine instead of 2. The transmissions will also ante up an extra race before replacing a fresh engine and transmission. This should help cut costs to all of the teams, which is the number one concern of the FIA. The new rules also include limited testing, and incentives for engine manufacturers who want to offer their engines to various teams. Those are the big changes for the 2009 season.
Other movements in F1 have been the withdraw of auto giant, Honda from Formula 1. For the past several seasons, Honda has performed poorly, even with such journeyman drivers as Rubens Barrichello and Jensen Button, Honda has failed to advance their program. Other teams such as Red Bull Racing, Toyota, and Renault have made giant improvements in their car’s performances, making them somewhat competitive with Mercedes and Ferrari. Honda has shown practically no improvement in the past 2 years. So, the team, lock, stock and barrel is on the market and Honda will assist anyway they can with the sale. There are several interested parties at the moment…a telecom billionaire from Mexico, a Swiss group, and a group from several mid-eastern countries. Chances are, Honda will be bought in time to make the Australian GP.
Other teams, such as Toyota and Williams (using Toyota engines) will remain in F1 despite the lack luster economy. Red Bull will continue to operate their two teams, as will BMW. Cutting operating costs will keep the other teams in the series. Also keeping Ferrari and Mercedes Benz in the series are their stand on using their own engines for their race cars, and publically denouncing FIA boss, Max Mosley’s attempt to have a single engine supplier for all of the teams. Personally, this has to be one of the lamest ideas I’ve ever heard. Ferrari and Mercedes, for two, build engines for their cars for a living…it’s their business. Why would they want someone else’s engines in their race cars? Also, it will certainly destroy the series. Look what single supplied engines (and chassis) have done to the US CART series, now called INDYCAR. Indycar has to be one of the more boring series ever, especially if you’re a Chevy or Ford fan.
Ferrari’s chairman made it clear that he would pull out of F1 should their team be forced to use engines by anyone other than themselves…other manufacturers agreed with Ferrari. As I mentioned, a certain compromise was reached that would make engines from any company available to any team that needed them for a pre-established annual price.
That’s most of the racing changes for 2009….albeit, there are more, and more to come. But let’s see what else has been going on with Formula 1. Bernie Ecclestone, one of the owners of F1 has become casualty in the marriage game. His wife, of more than 20 years has filed for divorce. That’s the good news…the bad news is that most of Bernie’s assets were in his wife’s name, for advantageous tax purposes. Bernie is thought to be worth something more than 1 billion dollars. That’s going to hurt no matter what. Bernie has also found it necessary to cancel the Montreal and French Grand Prix because he feels that new venues should take over F1, and the money wasn’t enough. I wonder if anyone has told Bernie that the world is currently going through an economic crisis. This also means that there won’t be an F1 race in the lucrative North American market. A smart business man might want to reduce his fees until the economy heals. But not Bernie…not only does he want all of his fees, he also wants to maintain his 50/50split of the revenues, between himself and the racing teams. Call me crazy, but other than bad haircuts, a bunch of lawyers and accountants, and white shirts, what is Bernie’s overhead? Whereas the teams have hundreds of employees, development costs, drivers, owners, travel expenses, marketing costs, and whatever else a team spends money on. But Bernie won’t budge from his take of the revenues created mostly from the television broadcast rights and merchandising.
I’m all for making a buck…but if this formula remains as it is, I foresee some bad times for the series. It wouldn’t take much for the current teams to form their own series without Bernie. That’s a way off for the moment since there are contractual obligations from both sides. And, some good news…the idea that Bernie had, wanting to award medals (in the style of the Olympics) instead of points to drivers was finally killed, proving that if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Please don’t get me wrong, as I think Bernie Ecclestone has done an incredible amount of good for the sport, and he is a good man, but there are times when you just have to ask yourself, “what the hell am I thinking?”
The 2009 season will have a new world champion in the way of Lewis Hamilton, who after a rookie year of losing the championship by one point, took the championship by that same one point. He’s a deserving winner who has come a long way since last year. I think he’ll be a damn good champion. There will be a shuffling of sponsors for next year, mainly by Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz. Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are being picked to have a successful season based on their car’s development. Kimi will be watched closely by Ferrari, and hopefully he’ll be back to his usual top form. Felipe Massa, this year’s second place finisher is also someone else to watch, having won more races in 2008 than Hamilton, but losing the championship by a mere point. Massa is pure talent and his desire to win can be second to none. I see an exciting 2009 season up ahead with the new, more challenging cars and rules, along with the class of quality drivers we saw in 2008. You have to admit, there were more new winners this past year than in recent times, and it’s only going to get better.
All the best for a prosperous New Year. See you at the races.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008 at 5:23 am and is filed under Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.