Silverstone, 2019

London Grand Prix should be a one-off – Horner

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says he would like to see a street race in London as a one-off event.

What they say

I think you know London would need to be a one-off event. It’s not the type of venue that would be there every year. But if ever it was a if ever it was possible I still think it’d be fantastic to see a Formula 1 car race around the streets of London. But it would mean it would be an additional race to Silverstone, which is the natural home of Formula 1.

If it’s another fantastic venue and circuit that adds to a 21-race calendar, if we’re fortunate enough that two of those are in this country then I’d certainly take it. And hopefully now with it’s been an amazing crowd here this weekend. Huge support. Hopefully now with the investment that Silverstone will be able to make with the longevity of their deal we’ll start to see more fans getting closer to the pits in the infield here.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

After yet another mistake, should Sebastian Vettel consider retiring from F1?

I have never been his biggest fan but even I am starting to feel sorry for him. You don’t win four championships by being an average driver but evidence seems to suggest that he has been on the decline since 2014.

With Leclerc starting to prove the more dependable driver I think – and I’m going to stick out my neck on this one – that he should genuinely consider quitting at the end of the season.

The past two years haven’t done Vettel’s stock much good. Imagine if the same continues to happen this year and next. It would be sad if history was to look back on him in a negative light because I genuinely believe that he deserves to be up there despite the past two-and-a-half years.
@Blazzz

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to JV and Ridzki!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

  • 30 years ago today Ayrton Senna put his McLaren on pole position for the British Grand Prix

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

35 comments on “London Grand Prix should be a one-off – Horner”

  1. To me, the most interesting bit of info in the Rich Energy tweet are the sums quoted – roughly £15 million annually. If I’m reading it right, the wording indicates that those are the amounts that would have anyway been paid, indicating it is the sponsorship amount (and not just a penalty amount).

    In turn, that is likely indicative of the size of the title sponsorships for other midfield teams like Rokit Williams or BWT Racing Point.

    While I don’t have decades of F1 viewing history behind me, these sums do appear small, and are likely indicative of how important – and hard – it is for the smaller teams to retain and grow their sponsors.

    And Storey does have a point, the letter is dated 11-July. Unless we don’t have the entire timeline, and it is after this letter was received by Rich that the other shareholders reached out to Haas to state the sponsorship was still on.

    Or, Haas decided that the best payback was to have their cars wipe out, although judging from Steiner’s ire, that’s unlikely to be the case.

    1. In claiming that HAAS agreed to terminate the agreement, Storey is either twisting the truth or not able to read a legal document (which is what I assume).
      Just to be clear about what is said in that letter in non legal terms.

      ” Hi Mr Storey, We will happily cancel this sponsorship agreement the minute you pay us the rest of the agreed amounts of money for this year and the following years. You have 14 days to front with the money or we will see you in court.”

      This hardly makes HAAS liers in this situation. Quite the opposite actually.

      Cancellation and full payment of the contract as proposed would be an absolute gem of a win for HAAS who will get paid for the space for the next 2 years and also be able to sell that same space again.

      1. Did you see the tweet Haas racing team had posted yesterday? It showed a bus painted in Haas team colours being driven by Rich Storey. Seems like whatever has happened between the two parties, relations have become sour and taken a turn for worse. Also at this point Gorsjean and Magnussen are least of worries for Steiner.

        1. Sorry Rich energy not Haas Team. Here is the link to said tweet:

          Great start boys@HaasF1Team #BritishGP #HaasF1 #richenergy #milkfloat pic.twitter.com/19zDwusVYj— Rich Energy (@rich_energy) July 14, 2019

        2. That was posted by Rich Energy presumably by Storey being his usual clown self, NOT by Haas. They are remaining professional.

          And it was a milk float not a bus.

          Bearded fool is a joke, one wonders if he genuinely has some kind of mental issue.

    2. I think I’ve figured it out. Rich Energy (aka Will Storey) never intended to hand over any cash– they drew up a contract with Haas, gets Haas to spend money on advertising Rich Energy, and then cancels the contract citing performance concerns (because Haas was never going to seriously compete with Red Bull or Ferrari under the current rules).

      It’s almost brilliant, except I think they’ve misread Gene Haas’s character.

      But it confirms that Rich Energy is a scam. I wonder if the so-called share holders gave any money to Storey?

  2. I’ve said it countless times and I’m staying it again. The TV director sucks big time.

    1. @fer-no65 Both my hands automatically flew into the air in an aggressive I-can’t-believe-this shrug.

      There was one race this year where practically every overtake was shown on replay not live. There was another race where we saw a pit stop live and then a slow-mo replay about 20 seconds later. And cutting away to a picture of a driver in the middle of the action – and pausing on that picture for soooo looong – what the hell is that about? Shockingly awful quality and incredibly frustrating.

      The TV director has time and time again ruined good races by providing awful coverage. It’s time to get some fresh blood into that all-important position. The TV director position is one of the most important roles in the whole of F1 sport. Because if you’re watching in front of the tv, the efforts of thousands of personnel to bring the spectacle to the audience can be ruined by this one person.

      1. I honestly thought they were giving a trainee director some time during practice. I watched all three and can’t even recall seeing one hot lap. They couldn’t seem to work out what was a preparatory lap, slow down lap, or fast lap. Invariably they would show the whole of the preparatory lap, and as soon as the hot lap started, switch to slow mo’s of the the slow laps! When Hamilton started his first hot lap in P2 they switched to looking into the Renault garage; where absolutely nothing was happening, and stayed there until switching back to Hamilton as he was going through Stowe. The coverage was so bad I was eventually convinced it wasn’t incompetence, but deliberate.

        I have noticed since Liberty took over we get a lot more lingering shots of crowds, garages, etc. And the on-screen track time has been cut right back.

        All this talk about improving F1. The first thing we need is a director who can stay on the action and if they are any good tell us the story of the race in pictures. And when is someone in Liberty going to insist that the cameras are placed where it captures the action, and not placed to capture lingering shots of the advising hoardings. Hopefully if the press are throwing their hands in the air over the coverage, we may eventually get some answers.

        I’d love to pay good money to watch F1 whilst listening to commentators better my understanding with informed comment and insights into F1. The current presentation as sold is abysmal.

        1. @riptide Regarding your third paragraph:
          ”I have noticed since Liberty took over we get a lot more lingering shots of crowds, garages, etc. And the on-screen track time has been cut right back.”
          – I haven’t noticed it any different compared to how it was during the BE/CVC era. There was the same amount of shots of crowds, and garages before as well, not any less nor more compared to today.

          1. Should have made that clearer. I was referring to FP. The hot lap periods during all three practices were essential viewing for me. Now its hardly followed at all and you have to rely on watching the live timing or a commentator spotting it.
            As for the race, I don’t remember too many occasions where the director has deliberately cut away during a battle for the lead to show a crowd shot.
            I wonder how long we will have to wait until we end up with a split screen showing the race leader on one and his WAG on the other as they do in some other series?

          2. Indeed, I remember them showing Erja Hakkinen all the time about 20 years ago.

      2. @shimks i’ve mentioned before that F1 would be a lot, lot better if it was shown properly. A lot of overtakes these days are not even shown on replays, only on social media AFTER the race. And at this particular time, I guess the director forgot that the action on track is the most important thing, not a crowd cheering which could be replayed at any time.

    2. The direction is awful but I’d like to know whose idea it was to focus in on one or two specific cars at the first corners of the race. I want to see the entire pack navigate the start and yet every shot was zooming in on Hamilton chilling in second. As a result we have to wait until the replays minutes later to see whether anything actually happened behind.

    3. pastaman (@)
      15th July 2019, 14:57

      I think there was a collective howl across the globe when the shot cut over to the crowd. I was half expecting a cut over to will.i.am after that for good measure

      1. bennie johnston
        15th July 2019, 18:28

        Who does the onscreen information? Cause that has been awful since liberty took over.

        I can never tell if it’s showing times between cars or times from the leader during a race.

        Then theres that highlighting of the driver in the drop zone during qualifying, when any of the drivers could drop down. And by highlighting the driver they remove the most important thing… the time he set!

    4. I tried to shatter the director’s eardrums by yelling at my tv.

      Sadly, I was unsuccessful.

  3. If we don’t see a new pair of HAAS drivers next year then I will have absolutely no sympathy for Steiner at all when this happens again. Same old story… How many points has the team lost purely through their drivers unforced errors over the years?

    “It’s not acceptable, I will fix it.” He was sternly saying to Haas in Drive to Survive last year… Well, did he? Or is the same old thing happening again. It’s one thing to have a tough demeanor, another to back that up with tough decisions.

  4. “Howls of disapproval in the media centre as the @F1 television director cuts away from the @LewisHamilton/@ValtteriBottas battle to a shot of the crowd. #F1 #BritishGP

    47
    15:19 – 14 Jul 2019″

    This. Director should be sacked. Battle for the lead, wheel to wheel overtake about to be done and director cuts away to the crowd.

    Maybe they need someone who is used to seeing racing. We don’t need crowd reaction to make the race exciting to watch, if the race is exciting.

    1. Indeed. If they want to have reaction shots with the action, they could position a few cameras in the grandstands and show the battle from there, instead of showing, well, just the crowd.

    2. @jureo
      @kaiie

      The crowd response is tough for F1. It really adds a lot to events like football and basketball. But in F1 the crowd is separated from the race.

      But they need to get the main event live. It was silly to cut away for so long during the pass.

      I really enjoy watching fan videos shot on phones because the wide angle takes in the crowd. So I like the idea of cameras imbedded in the crowd. They could show those images on replay.

      They could use Picture In Picture tech too. But they would have to be smart about where to position the main action on screen. I’m not sure they are up to it.

  5. “The best that our drivers could bring to the battle was a shovel – to dig the hole we’re in even deeper.”

    I think Guenther Steiner deserves COTD

    1. Absolutely agree!

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      15th July 2019, 19:33

      Ha-ha did he really say that? Epic stuff!

  6. F1 journalists talk to us, they should also talk for us. You all have some contact with LM/FOM, we don’t. The dire TV direction needs fixing, fixing quickly, because it’s gone beyond a joke. Us viewers suffered the worse F1 broadcast in living memory yesterday. Ross Brawn and the other bosses at LM need to sit down and watch yesterday’s race, from start to finish. They cannot fail to see what a complete mess it was. Even the Ch4 commentator complained when the director switched from the action to show the crowd.

    Apparently the spectators at Silverstone had big screens to watch the action. At times they found themselves watching themselves, missing the race. How daft is that.

    For a media company, LM are failing dismally. They need to get the basics right, before playing silly idiots with the Amazon and other nonsense they’ve become obsessed with.

  7. ”The best that our drivers could bring to the battle was a shovel – to dig the hole we’re in even deeper.”
    – LOL. He’s one of the best team principles ever in F1.

    Regarding the COTD: Yes, maybe he should start pondering about that on his own despite the ongoing contract if he’s to keep on performing like this for the remainder of the season. He just hasn’t been the same most recently.

  8. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, is not to stand next to Hulkenberg during a thunderstorm.

  9. London and Silverstone? Yeah right, because what we need is another two GPs out of Europe

    1. You do realise the UK will still be in Europe right?

      1. @paulipedia why haven’t come and joined me in this beautiful world of non-nonsensical sarcasm. You could have shared some many laughs together

        but no, you had to come and spoil the fun

        1. well my English skills appear to have done a brexit of their own

          you got the point right? Right?

          1. @johnmilk: Yes, got the point. Hope it didn’t race by others.

          2. @jimmi-cynic is that a SportPesa RP reference?

          3. @johnmilk: You know… if the pun fits, spit it out. Quick!

  10. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    15th July 2019, 19:35

    What on earth is up with Hulk? You’re killing me buddy!!! It’s so painful to look at the standings during the race and see him out of the points…

Comments are closed.