Whitmarsh: F1 TV must stay free-to-air

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: FOTA president Martin Whitmarsh says the teams need F1 to stay free-to-air.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Turkish GP – conference 2 (FIA)

Martin Whitmarsh: “I think it’s clear that the business model of all the teams relies on free-to-air. We’re selling a large, broad, media exposure. That’s the business model and I’m sure that that’s the business model of all the Formula One teams will require going forward.”

Speed to make Indy 500 debut with Dragon (Indycar)

“[Scott] Speed has partnered with Dragon Racing in an attempt to qualify for the 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500. If successful in securing one of the 33 spots, Speed would join Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve as the only drivers to have competed in the Indy 500, Brickyard 400 (NASCAR) and United States Grand Prix (Formula 1).”

F1 Fanatic will cover the 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 later this month on F1 Fanatic Live.

Top F1 Teams To Hold German Summit (Sky)

“Executives from Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull Racing will meet in Stuttgart during the next ten days to hold discussions about the sport’s ownership, forthcoming negotiations about a new commercial rights agreement as well as a range of technical sporting issues.”

Alonso says he would miss Turkish Grand Prix if it’s gone (Hurriyet Daily News)

“We are all happy to be here and I will be very sad if Istanbul is taken off the Formula One calendar. There are a lot of fans [here]; they are passionate about the sport. We are very happy to be here. The circuit is one of the best and we all enjoy it here. Hopefully we’ll stay.”

Max Mosley’s offer to help victims of News Corp phone-hacking also an attempt to derail F1 bid? (Daily Telegraph)

“Max Mosley – the erstwhile boss of F1’s governing body – is now using his own money to fund phone-hacking lawsuits against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.”

Jaguar and Williams F1 to Build C-X75 Hybrid Supercar (Williams)

“Jaguar C-X75 will become the British marque’s most advanced model to date. It will offer performance on a par with the fastest production cars on the market, while adopting cutting-edge technology that offers remarkably economical running. Jaguar expects this hybrid supercar to deliver incredibly low CO2 emissions of less than 99g/km while being able to achieve in excess of 200mph.”

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

DaveBlanc called it dead right after Vettel’s crash in first practice:

I’m not so sure. That was a big impact at high speed and it damaged three of the four corners of the car. I’d be surprised if they get him out for the start of second practice.
DaveBlanc

Predictions Championship

There’s F1 races tickets, DVDs and more to be won. Play for free by guessing the top five in the Turkish Grand Prix before qualifying starts today:

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    22 comments on “Whitmarsh: F1 TV must stay free-to-air”

    1. Good to see something about the potential take-over from someone other than Bernie Ecclestone. I hope Whitmarsh is right. F1 is all about exposure. Surely they make make more money from sponsorship exposure than TV rights. Seen as TV is key for exposure it doesn’t take a genius to see the most sensible way forward.

      Oh and agreed with Alonso. I know Istanbul Park has a terrible turn-out but still…it’s a good circuit!

    2. i am very enthusiastic about the possibility of major teams taking ownership of f1.

      i was surprised to learn of fom’s restrictions on banner and split-screen ads. i like the idea of protecting the value of the show, but i’d rather have a split-screen instead of a commercial break (which speed absolutely hammers you with). the indy races are carried on versus, and have used banners and split-screens for a while.

      keith, you might want to add the “F1 Round-up” caption to the link

      1. I’d rather have a split-screen instead of a commercial break

        MotoGP has it, but whilst the ads in F1 last for ten seconds, in MotoGP they last for over a minute, with a minuscule square where the race is on, where you can’t see anything.

    3. IF Istanbul was removed from the calendar, it should be made number 1 testing spot in the winter.

      As I said before, Barcelona would no longer seem tired and overused, there would be less of a saturation of testing within Spain, the climate is just as dry (I’m turning a blind eye to the recent rain!) and it would prevent the circuit from falling into disrepair.

      The infamous Turn 8 would provide teams with a fabulous amount of data for downforce, meaning we could see a shift in power away from Red Bull in the high speed corners.

      I hope it stays to be honest, there are worse circuits out there that we should get shot of before this one.

      1. That’s actually a pretty good idea. The only problem I can foresee is that temperatures are a lot lower there during testing season.

    4. Absolutely agree with Whitmarsh. Be interesting to see what Ferrari’s position on this all is. I’ve heard some say Ferrari think they own F1 already.. not my opinion of course!

      Have to say, I’m growing in admiration for Whitmarsh, he’s a well balanced charactor who loves McLaren, loves his sport.. which is absolutely what McLaren, and by extension F1 need. What a great asset to the institution.

    5. I haven’t read the full article but I think it’s worth mentioning that after the whole nazi prostitute debacle Mosley has been very outspoken on privacy laws, and the fact that it was (if I remember correctly) the Scum of the…I mean News of the World that uncovered his shenanigans, he has a personal interest in seeing them burn, even without taking F1 into account.

      1. Ok, it does cover it in the article, the headline is a bit misleading though. It’s quite nostalgic to have Mad Max and the Burnmeister working together again, hopefully they will chop News Crap up and have them for breakfast.

    6. I can’t believe people ever thought the teams would simply let News Corporation in and do whatever the hell they wanted with the sport.

      1. please add guns please add guns please add guns

      2. I don’t recall anyone saying it was ever a case of “let”.

        1. It was implied. When news first broke that Murdoch was looking at making a bid for the sport, the blog lit up with comments about how the sport was doomed because once Murdoch had his foot in the door, there would be nothing to stop him bleeding the sport dry for the sake of his own personal bottom line. It never occurred to anyone that the teams might have something to say about this – they simply assumed the worst without stopping and thinking about it. Just as they did with the DRS, or with any change to the sport be it new circuits or new engine regulations or whatever.

          Typical.

          1. The teams have nowhere near enough money to purchase a significant stake in F1. Add to the fact that previously they made no attempt to buy into F1 and only now are apparently interested, it’s no wonder there was concern across the board (emphasis as the other matters have divided opinion, in other words, please drop the “last sane man” stuff)

            1. Aw, nuts.

            2. The teams have nowhere near enough money to purchase a significant stake in F1.

              No, they don’t have enough money – but what they do have is bargaining power. The Concorde Agreement is up for renewal soon, and if the News Corporation buy-out goes ahead, they’ll have to negotiate with the teams. If news Corporation want to make Formula 1 a pay-per-view sport, and the teams want it to remain on free-to-air, do you really think a Concorde Agreement is going to be signed? Without the teams to compete, the commercial rights to the sport are worthless.

            3. Notices people happily talking about the demise of my F1…..

              -.-

          2. Exactly. That’s been my view point as well. FOTA have to be respected in all this.

    7. I do agree with Martin.
      Turkey will be missed by all,it is a wonderful circuit which showed us some good racing.

      1. And Massa is good at it.

    8. F1 free-to-air? it isn’t now right? But I agree, it should! Don’t want one of those crappy major american tv-company jerks taking it over and making it all NASCAR

      1. Yes it is now, it isn’t broadcast on a pay-per-view satellite tv.

        1. in some markets, like north america, f1 is on a pay channel.

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