Winners and losers

[Knock-on]

Just having a little moment thinking about all the issues surrounding F1 at the moment and who it affects.

We all know that there will be a reduction in spending across the board with Max offering a bone to the teams.

So, who will win out of all this?

The sport will be dumbed down of course and financial corruption will blight the series. Every other week F1 will be dragged through the papers with fresh allergations of teams cheating with their budget (which they will all do) until everyone but the die hard fans have abandoned it.

Some smaller teams will benefit by being able to go racing but I expect the sport to suffer in this respect because the quality of the racing will be diminished with teams and pay drivers not at a suitiable level to compete bumbleing around the track.

The larger teams will have to downsize to be competitive in the series so F1 will lose some of it's knowledge base to other series.

The drivers wont suffer unless you consider moving to America to compete in the pinnacle of Motorsport as disadvantage.

The fans will suffer on every front for the above reasons.

So, that just leaves Max and Bernie as the winners.

Max - More control over the teams and manufacturers. More people into the FIA paid for by the teams to monitor the teams. More power to control the outcome of the series by being lenient with some teams that transgress economic limits and finding reasons to vistimise those he has fallen out with.

Bernie - Will find a way to pay the teams less money because of the "economic" situation and that they don't need as much while still charging the circuits top dollar.

Sounds familiar :(

[V12]

I'm tempted to say nobody - because if the fans walk, sponsors will also walk and the gravy train stops.

But I'm sure Bernie 'n' Max will come out on top as always. Plus the success of NASCAR shows there's enough lemmings out there to replace the real fans and suck up a homogenised, gimmicky, entertainment-based form of motor "sport". Although ironically Max's ultimate vision for F1 will probably end up making NASCAR look like Can-Am.

[N. Jones]

Just having a little moment thinking about all the issues surrounding F1 at the moment and who it affects.

We all know that there will be a reduction in spending across the board with Max offering a bone to the teams.

So, who will win out of all this?

The sport will be dumbed down of course and financial corruption will blight the series. Every other week F1 will be dragged through the papers with fresh allergations of teams cheating with their budget (which they will all do) until everyone but the die hard fans have abandoned it.

Some smaller teams will benefit by being able to go racing but I expect the sport to suffer in this respect because the quality of the racing will be diminished with teams and pay drivers not at a suitiable level to compete bumbleing around the track.

The larger teams will have to downsize to be competitive in the series so F1 will lose some of it's knowledge base to other series.

The drivers wont suffer unless you consider moving to America to compete in the pinnacle of Motorsport as disadvantage.

The fans will suffer on every front for the above reasons.

So, that just leaves Max and Bernie as the winners.

Max - More control over the teams and manufacturers. More people into the FIA paid for by the teams to monitor the teams. More power to control the outcome of the series by being lenient with some teams that transgress economic limits and finding reasons to vistimise those he has fallen out with.

Bernie - Will find a way to pay the teams less money because of the "economic" situation and that they don't need as much while still charging the circuits top dollar.

Sounds familiar :(

Hmm... I am starting to wonder is a story posted on grandprix.com is right:

Is this just a fight for control of F1 between Max/Bernie and the F1 teams??

[K-Pu]

It could really be, since the most important thing about F1 is not the sport itself. That´s for fans...

The problem I see is this: If Max and Bernie manage to make things bad enough to force fans, sponsors and whatever out of F1... what are they really winning?

If they lose the fans, people who follow the sport, they´ll lose money. Fans are neccesary in order to make Bernie get lots of money from TV rights, and if less people follow F1, that means less money pouring into F1. Maybe in Bahrein they´re willing to pay an unbelieveable pile of cash to get a GP no matter how many people are at the track, but in the rest of the world it is a bit different. And most of the fans are NOT in Bahrein, Abu Dhabi or Singapur...

What I mean is Bernie and Max need "us". They need people buying their product. Here in Spain it´s interesting to see how many "fans" have stopped watching F1 because Alonso is not winning races. And it´s also interesting to see how many F1 fans were here before Alonso. By that time (before 2003, 2001 does not count since Alonso was a perfect stranger here), F1 was not followed, and I think TV big men were not willing to pay absurd amounts of money to broadcast some series no one follows. And that is less money for Bernie and less power for Max. IMO it´s an example of how important fans are.

And if sponsors also quit, there comes another problem: Teams with no sponsors? Less money for the teams? No way. It´s hard to see a team without heavy sponsor backing, always assuming the budget cap will be higher than it´s thought to be. With low budget caps (really low) and no manufacturers (they won´t last much longer if the two tier system goes on), maybe smaller teams will get into F1, but FANS (in capital letters) will feel F1 is not that. There are many more series to follow, F1 is not the only one.

All in all, I think no one would win, fans would lose, and F1 would be tha total loser.

[Knock-on]

There are two minds at work here.

Bernie the weasel who will do anything for money and Max the Dictator who will do anything for power.

Out of the two of them, Bernie is less dangerous because he wants F1 to suceed so he can squeeze more and more money out of it.

Max on the other hand has to control it. He must have it in the palm of his hand like Ming the Merciless controlling his subjects. It matters not if they hate him and are unhappy as long as he rules and can manipulate them.

The thing is that he does not have to back down. Bernie would because in the end, if F1 dies, his revenue and therefore his reason for existing dies with it.

Max would rather kill F1 than lose it. He must control it otherwise nobody will.

That is very worrying.

[truefan72]

that dystopia you just mentioned is more reality than fiction Knock on and has had me concerned since mid last year when I heard about all these rule changes etc.

The truth is Bernie and especially Max are ruining the sport and are obsessed with power games to the detriment of the sport.

their brazen attitude and unwillingness to treat the teams with any kind of respect will continue to erode the sport. They are more interested in back door conniving and media postulating than actually figuring out what's best for the sport.
They may win the odd battle here and there, but are clearly losing the war.
It is time for both of them to do whats best for the sport and let other younger, fresher men or women, with a new out loook and no mitigating issues with particular teams or people, take over the reigns and save the sport.