F1 2022 News/Misc.

It’s insane that track design standards go out the window depending on how much money there is to be made. 170 MPH into concrete walls because they didn’t think a car could or would find a way to hit one at that speed and somehow it got Grade 1 certification. And the whole thing was built in less than a year and certified like a week before the race in December.

Factor in everything else going on at/around the place and it’s simply lunacy.
money.gif
 
Lol.

A lot of the European fans are complaining about it and the possible start times.

Welcome to our world.😁
Got to think about that Western Hemisphere audience
 
Lol.

A lot of the European fans are complaining about it and the possible start times.

Welcome to our world.😁
It wasn’t too long ago that both China and Malaysia were still around together and we had four races a year starting between 1 and 3 AM here.

I’ll be curious to see if they really picked Thanksgiving. Between Rivalry Week for college football, Feast Week for college basketball, and the NFL it’s a weekend you can get lost in pretty easily plus not much programming space available on the ESPN networks. But considering the locales the US races are in there aren’t many scheduling options to place a GP where the fans won’t be sweltering/melting.
 
Lol.

A lot of the European fans are complaining about it and the possible start times.

Welcome to our world.😁
Well they moved the starting times of European races to 3pm some years ago so Americans don't have to get up early.
I'm used to getting up in the middle of the night for NASCAR races so this isn't much of a problem for me.
 
Well they moved the starting times of European races to 3pm some years ago so Americans don't have to get up early.
I'm used to getting up in the middle of the night for NASCAR races so this isn't much of a problem for me.
It turns out the race is going to start at 1 AM here anyways, 10 PM local.
 
Red Bull boss Helmut Marko on Mercedes, Ferrari and the 2022 F1 season to date. Sounds like he's pretty much written off Mercedes as their primary competitor this year.

 
Knew this was going to happen:


Enjoy the coverage as is for now...
A higher rights fee will result in some trade-offs, of course. U.S. TV networks would have to start inserting commercials into races for a bigger rights fee. ESPN has carried F1 races ad-free since 2018. During its coverage of the Australian Grand Prix that year, ESPN was criticized heavily for trying to put commercials into its telecast of the Sky Sports feed, which resulted in abrupt commercial breaks, sometimes interrupting commentators.
 
Knew this was going to happen:


Enjoy the coverage as is for now...

F1 may want that but I’m not sure they’ll get it. NBC was paying $4M annually, then offered just shy of $6M/year before they pulled out on ‘18, and now ESPN pays $5M/year. They’ll get more, but 15x more?

Someone’s going to have to budge on F1 TV too, that’s why NBC bailed last time they were involved. Worst-case scenario is one broadcaster offers more money for them to geoblock F1 TV in the States.
 
The growth and young demographics are eye popping, and in conjunction with three US races starting next year, F1 has the attention of the American sports media world. What is required for a large rights fee is a real bidding war, and I think they may have that between ESPN and NBC. I don't see Fox being a real player, but maybe I'm wrong.

I think they are more likely to get between $50-100 million annually than not. I think increased advertising is inevitable, though I believe this calls for far more creativity with presenting sponsors and in-race partial screen ads than anything we've seen previously. There needs to be an evolution beyond "side-by-side" in which the race coverage goes silent.

Still, way worse than commercial breaks would be an American network trying its own on-air team and production again. I hope the raves for Sky coverage are loud enough that none of them would go there.
 
Also, I wonder what the long-term contractual situation is with Drive to Survive. I don't believe Netflix outright owns the property. If it comes up for renewal eventually, I imagine that either Disney / ESPN or Comcast / NBC would love to have the rights to the races and the show for ESPN+ or Peacock.
 
Also, I wonder what the long-term contractual situation is with Drive to Survive. I don't believe Netflix outright owns the property. If it comes up for renewal eventually, I imagine that either Disney / ESPN or Comcast / NBC would love to have the rights to the races and the show for ESPN+ or Peacock.

Great point. I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of a package deal.

Edited to add, I also wouldn't be surprised to see Amazon make a move. They have been bidding to add live sports recently and they have money to throw around.
 
F1 may want that but I’m not sure they’ll get it. NBC was paying $4M annually, then offered just shy of $6M/year before they pulled out on ‘18, and now ESPN pays $5M/year. They’ll get more, but 15x more?

Someone’s going to have to budge on F1 TV too, that’s why NBC bailed last time they were involved. Worst-case scenario is one broadcaster offers more money for them to geoblock F1 TV in the States.
F1 is banking on consistent growth, but how long does growth occur until the bubble bursts? With three races in the US and now six races between North and South America, just how will this be managed? Three races here in the US is more than enough.

I'm all for the motorsports rebirth in the US, but we need to find ways of giving not only the presented sponsors of teams the respected airwave time, but also do it in a way the broadcast is not disturbed or muted. If F1 has ways to solve that during the next contract, I hope NASCAR and IndyCar can learn fron it.
 
The growth and young demographics are eye popping, and in conjunction with three US races starting next year, F1 has the attention of the American sports media world. What is required for a large rights fee is a real bidding war, and I think they may have that between ESPN and NBC. I don't see Fox being a real player, but maybe I'm wrong.

I think they are more likely to get between $50-100 million annually than not. I think increased advertising is inevitable, though I believe this calls for far more creativity with presenting sponsors and in-race partial screen ads than anything we've seen previously. There needs to be an evolution beyond "side-by-side" in which the race coverage goes silent.

Still, way worse than commercial breaks would be an American network trying its own on-air team and production again. I hope the raves for Sky coverage are loud enough that none of them would go there.
The growth has been extremely good but I think a large part of that asking fee being described as “fantasy” is due to how hard it would be to commercialize the broadcasts without nuking a good portion of the fan base you’ve just built. It would require a lot of creativity for sure.
 
In the article below Grüner says Kyalami is likely to return to the schedule for 2024.
Le Castellet is very likely out after this year (won't miss it), other races that don't have a contract for 2023 yet include Monaco, Spa, Zandvoort and Mexico.
Of these tracks, only Zandvoort is basically guaranteed to get a renewal, even Monaco isn't 100% safe. Spa seems to be in serious jeopardy.
Not impressed with this, Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, Monza and Suzuka should be untouchable and remain in the schedule under all circumstances.

The article also mentions that it's 50/50 between Singapore and Qatar on which race will replace Sochi this year. There is also a tiny possibility that it could be a race in Germany instead.
 
In the article below Grüner says Kyalami is likely to return to the schedule for 2024.
Le Castellet is very likely out after this year (won't miss it), other races that don't have a contract for 2023 yet include Monaco, Spa, Zandvoort and Mexico.
Of these tracks, only Zandvoort is basically guaranteed to get a renewal, even Monaco isn't 100% safe. Spa seems to be in serious jeopardy.
Not impressed with this, Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, Monza and Suzuka should be untouchable and remain in the schedule under all circumstances.

The article also mentions that it's 50/50 between Singapore and Qatar on which race will replace Sochi this year. There is also a tiny possibility that it could be a race in Germany instead.
Scheduling expanding like Violet Beauregarde but they’ll find a way to remove another historic event or two. F1 are speedrunning the late ‘90’s/early ‘00’s NASCAR bubble phase.
 
Back
Top Bottom