The introduction of the £40 million budget cap poses serious problems for half of the F1 teams and the idea of a two-tier system is an issue for everyone.
The reaction I have had today from ringing around the teams is that the independents welcome the move to a budget cap and are pretty happy [...]
Archive for April, 2009
Reaction to the budget cap
Posted in Discussion, tagged budget cap, F1 on April 30, 2009 | 31 Comments »
FIA confirms £40 million budget cap for F1
Posted in Discussion, tagged budget cap, F1 on April 30, 2009 | 59 Comments »
The details of the Budget cap have been released by the FIA.
It will start next season. The level has been set at £40 million with no ‘glide path’ from a higher figure to a lower one. It will present teams with an obligation to lay off a significant number of people quickly, which in [...]
Good week/Bad week
Posted in Discussion, Uncategorized, tagged F1 on April 30, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Good week for:
Kimi Raikkonen – the 2007 champion has bought a £20 million dream home on the outskirts of Zurich, where he can shut the door behind him and not give another thought to slow Ferraris, KERS or the media. Ice cream anyone?
Honda – Despite seeing the car it paid for [...]
Today we get the real F1 story
Posted in Uncategorized on April 30, 2009 | 35 Comments »
Yesterday’s news from the FIA world council was the appetiser, but today comes the main dish, the real story; the announcement of the full budget cap plan, which is set to redraw the business model of Formula 1.
It will be the first time in the sport’s history that the amount a team can spend [...]
Reaction to McLaren verdict
Posted in McLaren, Uncategorized, tagged F1, McLaren on April 29, 2009 | 80 Comments »
Today’s verdict by the World Motor Sport Council to issue a three race ban for McLaren, but to suspend it for 12 months has received a fairly balanced reaction.
Given the original incident, where Trulli was allowed to pass Hamilton behind the safety car in Melbourne, what happened in the stewards’ room there and in Kuala [...]
McLaren race on as ban is suspended
Posted in McLaren, tagged F1, McLaren on April 29, 2009 | 29 Comments »
The FIA World Motor Sport Council announced at lunchtime today after a brief hearing in Paris that McLaren will not be forced to miss any races this season, nor will it lose any constructors’ championship points. Instead it has decided to suspend the sentence it planned to hand down, namely a three race ban.
Interestingly, given [...]
Will Branson put real money into Brawn?
Posted in BrawnGP, tagged Brawn, F1 on April 29, 2009 | 19 Comments »
There seems to be a division of opinion about what is going on between Brawn GP and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
There are stories that a deal has been done for this year and next, while there are strong suggestions coming out of the team that other parties are interested and Branson should pony up [...]
Bad news from Mercedes ahead of crucial day
Posted in Discussion, tagged F1, Ferrari, McLaren on April 28, 2009 | 45 Comments »
Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes Benz has today announced a £1.1 billion loss for the first quarter of 2009. Last year in the same period it made a profit of £1 billion.
This frightening result is partly as a result of writing off a large sum from its failed investment in Chrysler. But it is [...]
Alex Wurz’s new mission – to make roads safe
Posted in Discussion, tagged F1 on April 28, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Alex Wurz has reinvented himself as a pioneer of road safety, rather like Michael Schumacher. The difference is that Wurz has set up a company called Test and Training International, to set up road safety training centres and he has been commissioned by the Egyptian government to build a massive new site new Cairo.
Wurz was [...]
