Any F1 fans?
- Thread starter Hicko
- Start date
I’ve worked in F1 for 25 years. Left Red Bull 3 years ago because I was fed up with it. I was the sole Composite Production Engineer for the team for 10 years and set all the production processes for all of the A class components. Since I left they have employed 4 people to do my old job.
Its relentless and stressful now. Way too many races. The sport has lost its quality. Just about money making.
Would love to go back to the Schumacher era again.
Its relentless and stressful now. Way too many races. The sport has lost its quality. Just about money making.
Would love to go back to the Schumacher era again.
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RumbleandSway
Totally Hooked
F1 not what it was: audiences down 10% YoY, despite Drive-to-Survive and Vegas.
Without DtS and LV, F1 would be dead-in-the-water; Industry insiders predict a 50% decline in audiences [and sponsor interest (money drives the sport)] if MvS and Red Bull continue to dominate.
F1 has forgotten it’s roots: “race on Sunday, sell on Monday”.
I.e. F1’s role should be [and once was] the pre-eminent testing ground for new technology and innovation: ideas and concepts that percolated through to cars we buy and drive.
We need the 10% lighter, faster, cheaper ethos of the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s if we are going to address today and tomorrows mobility and sustainability challenges. If F1 is constrained by red tape, ceases to be the environment where boundaries are broken it’s just World Wresting Federation for the road.
Sadly this is what it’s become, a fabricated pantomime while WEC is reminding audiences what motor racing is about. Lots of manufacturers [including some we can relate to] competing on near equal terms. [btw imo Toyota was robbed in 2023, the last minute handicap gifting LeMans to Ferrari].
Liberty [ComCast] spent $4.4B acquiring F1 so inevitably all the PR noise is positive, yet F1 is clearly losing ground to more engaging content like SailGP, MotoGp, WRC, BTC and WEC, all of which deliver more compelling competition in a world shifting from Satellite, Cable and PayPerView to Streaming and Social.
Wait for the the impact Paris 2024 [Olympics] and Euro 2024 [Football] has on audiences this summer; if F1 interest is waning now it’ll be nothing compared to what we’ll see by the end of the year. [assuming nothing changes]
Fundamentally it’s all about competition and entertainment and sadly F1 isn’t delivering.
The “Cost Cap” was meant to address disparities in team budgets [might work in other sports] but the FIA and F1 failed to understand something fundamental when they set the parameters of the Cap: they didn’t consider the different trajectories and velocities of the teams as they entered this new era.
Red Bull had so much more insight [getting away with their wind-tunnel-testing-time infringement in 2021] that their lead was [and is] unassailable - the data advantage they enjoy, in combination with the shift to simulators and the power of artificial intelligence means they can’t be caught and something has to change.
F1 needs to return to a simpler rule set: constrained dimensions. constrained weight, constrained fuel. Other than that, “anything goes and money no object”.
Now that’s something I’d pay-per-view
GRistopher
Totally Hooked
- Oct 23, 2023
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Just to clarify, they had a 1.6% budget overspend, not a breach of breach wind-tunnel time.
They claimed it was for for hospitality spending such as free meals for their employees which they excluded from their original submission. Whether this is true or not they should have built in more of a margin. The punishment was a further 10% reduction in ATR.
GRistopher
Totally Hooked
- Oct 23, 2023
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when I used to frequent 350Z-UK in the early 2010s I'm sure there was someone on the forum who worked in composite production for Red Bull. Small world.
GRistopher
Totally Hooked
- Oct 23, 2023
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double post 
