mickdw wrote: » To be fair, Williams have branched out and perhaps that is their saviour right now. A business that is a struggling f1 team will fold whereas a group that has a struggling f1 team might survive. McLaren are too strong to stay at the back. They still have the ability to fund huge numbers of staff, still have the deep pockets and the name to attract top drivers. I don't think this years car is going to be so bad and if Renault give them a fair package, they might go well.
Jordan 199 wrote: » McLaren are no longer attractive to top drivers. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are. Same with Renault. Three factory teams and a team with factory power units. McLaren are a midfield team, and they will continue to be for quite sometime.
mickdw wrote: » It's McLaren and all possibilities are there considering the facilities etc. Customer engine is a problem but they won alot of races with mercedes power while mercedes were on the grid with the works team.
El_Duderino 09 wrote: » I don't think McLaren won many races while Mercedes was on the grid as a works team. McLaren was the works Mercedes team until 2014. Mercedes owned a share of the team.
Peyton Lively Tiller wrote: » Between 2010 - 2014 McLaren bought back Mercedes 40% share in the team.
El_Duderino 09 wrote: » That's what I was trying to say except you actually had the correct information. So McLaren won some races between 2010-14. Fair enough
Harika wrote: » Williams say chief technical officer Paddy Lowe “is taking a leave of absence from the business for personal reasons”. Comes after the car was not ready for testing, missing 2.5 days, and was slow when it ran
Cool_CM wrote: » Autosport are reporting that Paddy Lowe has taken a "leave of absence". Have to feel for the guy.https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/141929/lowe-takes-leave-from-troubled-williams-team
El_Duderino 09 wrote: » Completely agree. F1 is the cutting edge of technology and it would naturally appeal to younger people who are probably more likely to care about the future and green technologies. But it's focused on the older market and people who can afford sky spirts f1. I started watching in 1997/8 because the lads were all talking about it in school on Monday morning. They watched it because it was on RTE and ITV and I watched it because it was popular and easy to watch, and easy to find people to chat about it. Now it's not popular, not easy to watch and not easy to find people to chat with. Do the fans are getting older and want less change and tend to prefer the good old days and the sport is on a path that would appeal to younger people who aren't exposed to it.
Peyton Lively Tiller wrote: » Liberty have already confirmed that the deal Sky got from Bernie (Exclusivity) won't be renewed when it ends in 2024. I fear the damage will have already been well and truly done before that though
AMKC wrote: » Peyton Lively Tiller wrote: » Liberty have already confirmed that the deal Sky got from Bernie (Exclusivity) won't be renewed when it ends in 2024. I fear the damage will have already been well and truly done before that though Same here. It might be too little too late. Is there no clause in the deal that if Sky can't keep the viewing numbers at a certain level maybe or get it up that it can be cancelled? I wonder have Liberty gone all over the deal to see is there anyway to get out of it. Maybe if viewing figures get really bad the teams will get worried about it to and also look for Sky to drop the deal. We can hope.
Harika wrote: » Unfortunately the deal is not linked to viewers but annual fees that increasing annually, as long as SkySportsF1 deems that acceptable there is no leverage. The best outcome for us would be that sky allows the official F1 online service to be released in the UK and Ireland. Won't happen as long as now TV is here.
dublinman1990 wrote: » Lewis Hamilton has made a lot of sense here about the new TV rights deal with Sky. If new young fans want to watch all of the 21 races of the sport live on TV in the UK & Ireland; they now have to contend by getting a Sky subscription in which for many of those fans are now potentially out of their reach. I'm a young fan in my late 20's which is in that same position right now as many others who cannot afford or cannot bear having the Sky subscription at all. I have Channel 4 HD for the current highlights & British Grand Prix which is fine. I would rather have it back at the old arrangement with the 10 live races and the rest of them being available on a highlights package on a new extended rights deal with Channel 4 lasting 5 years. But I know that will never happen because, as ourselves have been hearing for the past few years, this new current deal with Sky has a lot of limitations attached to it. I cannot see it getting scrapped in the short to medium term.
AMKC wrote: » Same here. It might be too little too late. Is there no clause in the deal that if Sky can't keep the viewing numbers at a certain level maybe or get it up that it can be cancelled? I wonder have Liberty gone all over the deal to see is there anyway to get out of it. Maybe if viewing figures get really bad the teams will get worried about it to and also look for Sky to drop the deal. We can hope.
