Do we have too many categories?
As 2006 looms ever closer, I have been
rather taken aback by the plethora of single seater
categories, most trying hard to be the next ‘stepping
stone’ to Formula 1. Start counting – there’s A1GP,
there’s the GP Masters (for the past use by date drivers),
there’s GP2 (where Nico Rosberg came from), Formula Nippon,
Formula Renault (where Raikkonen came from before he had his
personality surgically removed), Formula Ford, F3, Formula
BMW, Indycar and so it goes on. All of them cost a king’s
ransom and all of them need drivers with personal fortunes, or
managers that can scam the money out of sponsors, that being
an art form in itself.
GP
Master
Probably the first thing we have to get our
heads around is that, like it or hate it, F1 is still the top
rung, the pinnacle. It may have stupid rules at times, it may
have certain groups making blind fortunes out of it, but it is
still the top category (even if some of the drivers are not).
Being a dyed in the wool racer, I admit I
will watch anything going round and round, even if it has a
lawn mower engine (and there is a class for them too) but
every class out there really dilutes the chance of TV
coverage. It is this single item that I believe determines
whether any particular class will be a success in the world
market.
I had great hopes for A1GP, but its
hopeless TV coverage has meant that the F1 TV crowd sniffed at
it, but have drifted away. Not only was the telecasting poor,
but to offer the viewers the Sunday race on Monday night …
forget it. And they have!
I would like to see the GP Masters on the
flickering box too, but any telecasts of this group seem to be
closely guarded secrets. Sure, there were a few column
centimeters in the print media, but for sporting events,
nothing beats live film (TV) action.
Knowing a little about international
telecasting, it runs like this. The TV channels all try to
outbid each other to snaffle the rights from the ‘eager to
jack up the price’ promoters. If it is marketable, then the
price goes up. And up. So eventually only major sponsors can
grab some air time. Like Coca-Cola, so Fred’s body shop can
forget it. The promoter makes money, the TV channel sells the
advertising time and makes money, while the competitor is
totally forgotten in the mad scramble for the dollars by
people who I consider “hangers on” in motor sport.
This is where I believe the FIA has let us
all down. Instead of working on a master plan to channel the
cream of the drivers into F1, without the clotted cream buying
their drives, the FIA has allowed this plethora of classes to
expand, and as the FIA gets money from them, that means the
drivers have to cough up again!
For example, when I received my first
international racing license, I found it was several times
more expensive than my ‘national’ license. Why? No real
reason other than it was another opportunity for the FIA to
get its hands into my wallet. If I wanted to move up the
ladder, I would have to pay for the privilege! The FIA had
spoken.
So how can we reverse this cycle? Probably
start by making the FIA the promoters, and not people like
Bernie E. Have an FIA master plan and have drivers follow the
progression in increasingly faster cars, with the top echelon
moving upwards, while the also-rans remain at the level they
are best in. Reserve TV coverage rights for F1 and perhaps one
or two other categories only. And control the TV coverage, so
that it is current and high quality. Quality TV coverage of
quality drivers will ensure the popularity of motor sport
continues and grows.
Michelin
spits the rubber dummy
Very shortly after the FIA announced that
there would be one tyre manufacturer only in 2008, Michelin
announced its withdrawal from F1 at the end of the 2006
season.
Despite being the tyre used by the
championship winners Renault, Michelin will best be remembered
as having reduced the US Grand Prix to a French farce when it
supplied tyres that would not withstand the rigors of the
banked turns found at the Indy circuit. This resulted in 14
cars withdrawing and putting the entire future of F1 racing in
America back by several years.
Those
difficulties prompted criticism from Max Mosley, president of
the FIA, which Michelin did not appreciate, but were forced to
eat humble pie. However, when the FIA announced the plans for
a single tyre supplier, which by the way, all the F1 teams
agreed to, Michelin could see the ‘get out of jail free’
card and announced its retirement.
Chief executive Edouard Michelin said,
“This decision is the result of profound differences between
Michelin’s long-standing sporting philosophy and the way
Formula 1 is managed by the regulating authorities, which no
longer provide a clear and sustainable environment to justify
long-term investments … For Michelin, leaving Formula 1 in
no way represents abandoning motorsports, to which the
Michelin brand has been committed for 117 years.”
This leaves Honda, Red Bull, Renault,
McLaren and Scuderia Toro Rosso (or is that Scuderia Tosso
Roro?) to negotiate a deal with Bridgestone for 2007, as
Williams and Toyota both ‘defected’ at the end of the 2005
season to use Bridgestone for 2006. Did they know something
the others did not?
Formula BMW World Final
After probably the most complicated way of
finding a champion, with several heats, re-heats, pre-final
and a final, the Formula BMW World Final was (finally)
completed with Marco Holzer (AM-Holzer Motorsport) the winner
of the first ever Formula BMW World Final and now has a test
in a BMW Sauber F1 Team car to look forward to. The 17 year
old, who raced in the 2005 Formula BMW ADAC Championship, had
the perfect weekend winning all his heats, the Pre-Final and
then the all important World Final. Second was Sebastien Buemi
(ASL Team Mcke-Motorsport) and third Nicolas
Hlkenberg (Josef Kaufmann Racing).
“I
cannot find the words to describe how I feel at the moment. I
came to Bahrain and my goal was to finish in the top ten. I
have won every race I competed in and now I have the
opportunity to test the BMW Sauber F1 Team car! This result is
unbelievable and I have realised the greatest dream of my
life. I just want to thank my team and BMW for making this
dream come true,” said a delighted Marco Holzer.
The event, however, finished on a
controversial note as it was Hlkenberg who was first
on the road after leading the final from lap one to the
finish. Following the race he was given a ten second penalty
that dropped him down to third. This was due to an incident at
the end of lap ten when the Safety Car pulled off the track.
The Stewards ruled he was in breach of the regulation stating,
“Following the withdrawal of the Safety Car and prior to
passing the green flag, the race leader will maintain the pace
previously held by the Safety Car” by reducing his speed. So
the youngsters have already learned the complexities of the
FIA rule book!
The highest placed driver from the Formula
BMW Asia group was Thailand’s representative Robert Boughey
who came 15
th
after starting 23rd
on the grid for the final. Another stand-out driver from the
back was Robert Wickens from Canada who came 6th
from 27th on the
grid.
Remember the names Holzer, Hulkenberg,
Buemi and Wickens, you will hear more of them in a few years.
BMW are to be congratulated for having
persevered with this category, and I sincerely hope that local
boy James Grunwell might be given the opportunity to race in
this category in 2006.
The “If Only” syndrome
Flicking through a copy of Classic and
Sports Car (a beautiful magazine if you are interested in the
older category of cars), and they had a comparison in prices
in some (these days) delectable motor cars. Did you know that
after WW II you could buy a 1937 Mercedes Benz 540 K for just
over 70,000 baht and it is now worth 49 million! Getting a
little more recent, you could buy a Jaguar XK-SS in 1964 for
350,000 baht and now it is worth 46 million baht. In 1953 you
could buy lots of old pre-war Bentleys for 13,000 baht. Yes,
that’s what a 1927 Bentley fetched in 1953. Today? Well try
getting one for under six million!
Jaguar
XK-SS
Of coursed, not all those cars from
yesterday appreciated like those mentioned above. People
bought Jaguar XJ-S types in 1990 for 2.4 million baht, and
today that car is worth 7,000 baht. Yes, you read that
correctly, seven thousand baht only! And if you really wanted
to lose money in a hurry, in 1994 you bought a Rolls-Royce
Silver Spur. To put it in your garage, you then spent 5.6
million baht. Today you opened the garage doors to find it is
now worth a little over half a million baht. That’s right,
about the price of a Honda Jazz, with no extras!
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned that steel and
aluminium construction in bodies and chassis is looked upon as
something new in the vehicle builders art, but this is not
correct. A steel and aluminium chassis and aluminium mudguards
first came out on a production car in 1900. I asked, what was
it? The answer was a Lanchester.
So to this week. In the 1950’s the big
Humber Super Snipes were known for their quiet opulence. Not
quite a Rolls-Royce, but eminently affordable. However, the
manufacturer then decided to get into the fuel miser stakes
and fitted a diesel engine. Who made the diesel?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
