Just to look at this from another perspective; like him or hate him Max is an artist behind the wheel. He sells his art to Red Bull, and they sell the car/driver/team package to sponsors and to F1. As you said, that is the business of F1.
How would you feel if you were an artist, and your agent arranged a gallery showing for the work you had slaved over for years, but the gallery owner turned your show into some obscene marketing spectacle where the gallery itself, and the city, and the lights, and the celebrities, and the concerts, and the DJs, and, and, and⌠were the real show, and your art just became a background thing. In that case, even if you sold a lot of pieces (because buying them was the âinâ thing to do, not because they really appreciated your work), then even if your pockets were full of $$, you may not have fond feeling about the âevent.â
I just think there is no selling him without the show. Or at least no selling him for $40m. The people that like the show are the people who spend the money. We donât spend the money. But I get what youâre saying. Thatâs a good point. All I really care about is the racing in the end, whatever happens off track doesnât really matter to me. If it keeps the sport going so be it.
To be clear, I would prefer f1 of the 70s
But yeah, there needs to be a balance between respecting the sport and itâs history, and the marketing side. Vegas seemed a bit out of balance.
Roger that!
And speaking of that, Pato OâWard (McLaren Indy Car driver) took Bruce McLarenâs 1969 F1 car for a spin around Sears Point âBig respect to the guys that pushed this.â
Nope. Again doesnât look like a fool. Looks like a principled person. The fools are the everyone else.
Also, what Max earns is irrelevant. We know heâd driver for free. How do we know? His borderline obsessive simming.
F1 isnât a business. Itâs a sport with a commercial rights holder. F1 will survive without Liberty. There are people building high-level hill climb cars in their garage. Any you keep saying that only .01% care⌠that is absolutely not the reaction Max has had. Heâs had significant support.
Thereâs more than enough people who only care about the racing to fund the sport. Max wasnât totally against dressing the sport up, he is against being treated like a clown at a circus.
I know myself itâs good to have fun elements and so on, even at kart events, because I do them⌠but when it slides too much and the core fundamentals are forgotten⌠thatâs when it starts to fall off. Maxâs comments have actually been a good reminder to never forget the core passion.
All the mindless pursuit of money can actually blind people to errors. Look at Marvel.
The problem with Monaco is that the race is usually on Saturday, with a parade scheduled for Sunday. Itâs essentially a one-lane track with these modern cars.
I started watching F1 in the mid 70âs as a teenager. I still thoroughly enjoy most of the races. I do prefer the classic tracks, Silverstone, Spa etc. I was skeptical about Vegas tbh (canât stand the place personally)and there were still plenty of cringe worthy moments over the weekend. However the racing was good and no worries with stupid track limits.
I wish the rules were not so specific as they are these days. As an engineer I enjoyed the more liberal rules allowing for all kinds of innovation and the cars not all looking exactly the same. I wish we could go back to less restrictive regulations which could maybe work with the budget cap in place. Just my two cents.
The blind pursuit of money has ruined most things.
I guess I get what youâre saying. I think I have to agree with you.
Only thing Iâd argue about is there being enough purists to fund the sport. If that were true, more purist oriented racing (like hill climbs, karting, and BTCC) would be popular.
But I agree with max on the Vegas thing, I just think it couldâve been stated differently
F1 doesnât need purists to fund the sport. Itâs the defacto #1 thus has inherent credibility that other seires do nor. As long as it doesnât get legislated out of existence itâll always be a multi-million dollar entity. I am not automatically against making events fun etc⌠but like all things itâs a balance.
Max is saying the sport is no longer the central focus, and what is is the show. He mentioned Sprints and he mentioned Monaco. Youâll notice those two subjects are making headlines right now outside of him talking about them. These two fundamental questions are related to Sporting matters, and he is saying quite clearly that Liberty want to take it too far. He knows Spa is under constant pressure as well while Las Vegas gets $500m. Thereâs a lot going on here that people havenât quite caught onto yet.
Also, I think Liberty are dancing the line of decline. Thereâs a lot of discontent out there.
He is right, but truth is, you canât expect people to grasp how difficult it is to just drive those cars. They need the show to bring in more people.
The struggles with cold temps and green track in Vegas have me supporting the removal of tire warmers as was planned previously. Would add a whole element of who could put in flyer out laps on cold tires without binning it. Iâd think theyâd need to work with Pirelli though to make a tire that isnât absolute death to drive on at ambient temps.
The one risk I see bringing in these new fans that want to see the greatest and latest thing and get their picture taken on facebook, intsagram hipster magazineâŚand so onâŚthose people tend to chase the lastest thing that they believe makes them cool. (Which imo does the oppsite) Living in nascar land like i do and have friends in the businessâŚthey tried this 20 years agoâŚpaid a bunch of actors to attend the race in charlotteâŚhired Danica even though she could not drive. It worked for 2 yearsâŚand then they left and havent been back. The true fans felt like they sold outâŚa lot of those arenât going anymore either.
Always gives a chuckle when people say this. She earned the right to be there as much as most of the drivers on the grid did. Most drivers donât win races, or even podium during their careers⌠but at the end of the day they beat 1000âs of âbetterâ drivers to even get the opportunity of a shot.
At first glance it might appear to allow for that, however what happens is someone gains a significant advantage chasing some avenue and the budget cap then acts a limit for other teams. To pivot their development in another direction isnât going to yield âquickâ results under the budget cap scheme. Mercedes struggle with just removing sidepods and some floor differences.
I believe in more open regulations, but the budget cap is designed not to allow for it. Itâs in combination with limited regulations. They want limited development and limited spending so the racing is âcloseâ and the teams become worth billions.
What the FIA/Liberty, or whoever come up with these regs, didnât expect is the level RBR were able to attain.
