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 ‘in’ 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 ‘event.’
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 don’t spend the money. But I get what you’re saying. That’s a good point. All I really care about is the racing in the end, whatever happens off track doesn’t 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 it’s history, and the marketing side. Vegas seemed a bit out of balance.
Roger that!
And speaking of that, Pato O’Ward (McLaren Indy Car driver) took Bruce McLaren’s 1969 F1 car for a spin around Sears Point “Big respect to the guys that pushed this.”
Nope. Again doesn’t look like a fool. Looks like a principled person. The fools are the everyone else.
Also, what Max earns is irrelevant. We know he’d driver for free. How do we know? His borderline obsessive simming.
F1 isn’t a business. It’s 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. He’s had significant support.
There’s more than enough people who only care about the racing to fund the sport. Max wasn’t totally against dressing the sport up, he is against being treated like a clown at a circus.
I know myself it’s 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… that’s when it starts to fall off. Max’s 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. It’s essentially a one-lane track with these modern cars.
I started watching F1 in the mid 70’s 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 (can’t 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 you’re saying. I think I have to agree with you.
Only thing I’d 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 could’ve been stated differently
F1 doesn’t need purists to fund the sport. It’s the defacto #1 thus has inherent credibility that other seires do nor. As long as it doesn’t get legislated out of existence it’ll always be a multi-million dollar entity. I am not automatically against making events fun etc… but like all things it’s 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. You’ll 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. There’s a lot going on here that people haven’t quite caught onto yet.
Also, I think Liberty are dancing the line of decline. There’s a lot of discontent out there.
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. I’d think they’d need to work with Pirelli though to make a tire that isn’t 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 magazine…and so on…those 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 business…they tried this 20 years ago…paid a bunch of actors to attend the race in charlotte…hired Danica even though she could not drive. It worked for 2 years…and then they left and havent been back. The true fans felt like they sold out…a lot of those aren’t 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 don’t win races, or even podium during their careers… but at the end of the day they beat 1000’s of “better” 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 isn’t going to yield ‘quick’ 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. It’s in combination with limited regulations. They want limited development and limited spending so the racing is ‘close’ and the teams become worth billions.
What the FIA/Liberty, or whoever come up with these regs, didn’t expect is the level RBR were able to attain.
