Bernie gone

[Paul Gibney - Lancashire AO]

Liberty Media completes its $8bn takeover of Formula 1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38723001

 

[Thrustyjust]

Thank god. Vile little dwarf.....................

[XTR2Turbo]

he may have stayed on too long but still pretty incredible what he achieved overall for the sport and business

[John K]

3 hours ago, paul gibney said:

Liberty Media completes its $8bn takeover of Formula 1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38723001

 

Whoop, whoop..!

[jeff oakley]

It will be interesting to see what happens now. Will teams actually want to change things to support lower ones like manor? Or will the likes of Ferrari still want to have everything handed on a plate to them.

I hope that this new lot will work to making racing more about drivers and less technically driven than it has become. Where overtaking becomes possible without DRS and other gimmicks. And that they will not price good historic venues out of contention to squeeze a few more bucks out of some dodgy regime.

[Andy (Sycho)]

9 hours ago, Thrustyjust said:

Thank god. Vile little dwarf.....................

Agree that's the way he came a cross but I reserve judgment, I think that was the game he played to get his own way!

Which must be difficult with teams wanting different thinks.

 

 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

Done a tremendous amount to raise the sport to the levels it's at. But he did stay too long in my opinion, emphasising too much on "the business" rather than the sport.

Interesting to see if F1 gets radically 'mericanised. They do know how to put on a show at nascar etc and is very accessible to the fans.

[XTR2Turbo]

Dictators may not always be pleasant but they can sometimes be very difficult to replace.  F1 could easily get much worse before it gets better.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

At least they've got one of the best in the business to look after the technical side in Ross Brawn.

[John K]

I have no idea if this is a fair article or not, but it was an interesting read for me...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38721123

[DonPeffers]

From 2004 article http://www.eurosport.co.uk/formula-1/imola-to-bow-out-of-f1_sto540966/story.shtml Bernie was quoted as saying "Believe me, in the next 10 years, Europe will slide down to the level of the third world in economic terms.

Was he correct?

GB national debt £850Bn 6 years ago, now more than doubled and politicians only talk about the yearly over-spend (deficit); no idea how to tackle the debt, fund social care or the NHS or get the economy moving.

See http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/

[DamperMan]

I used to like a bit of F1 on a Sunday afternoon.   Some drama, Murry walker, some over taking, some crashes..  The few times I have watched it in the last few years have been as a result of a hang over and and avoiding doing anything useful.    For me its just dull.. I love cars, I love motor sport,   If the likes of me don't watch it then there is something wrong, its supposed to be the pinnacle of Motorsport.  I'd rather watch the tour de france and men in lycra!....  I'm not sure what they need to do to it to make it exciting to watch etc.   There are so many possibilities with technology now.   How about racing with the pros real time on the playstation...   I even think shorter races or make it a series of knockouts has to be better then hours or cars driving around in circles and barely overtaking.      Nascar is as dull in concept as you can get but folk watch it and enjoy it.      

[XTR2Turbo]

For me F1 was great the last year of BBC coverage with Brundle and Coulthard etc. 

It died once you couldn't watch all the races if you wanted without taking Sky.

[tisme]

Hopefully with Ross Brawn as technical director we'll see some positive changes that I suspect even the teams will want to see (with perhaps the exception of the usual red car ones).

I know F1 has pushed the boundaries of technical innovation, and it's been used as the excuse for the mess it's in today - car manufactures develop new ideas more from political pressure (fuel prices, car tax, emissions etc) - I'm sure they will carry on doing regardless but F1 should revert back to being a sport and not a test bed for German car makers.

Let's see normally aspirated V8's, V10's etc, more basic aerodynamics and far, far less in the way of electronic engine / gearbox / chassis and driver aids. Let's see the skill of the driver rather than the skills of the software programmers

And get it back on the BBC - pay to view is a no no and adverts at every opportunity gives me every opportunity to get up and do something else and not come back.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I used to be a life long fan. I'd consume everything that was broadcast, from practice sessions to the races, to programs on the engineering and/or the people involved.

i would try really hard to not miss a race, on the rare occasions I did from the nineties onwards, I'd video the race and watch it back whole, (rather than the highlights show).

Then it went subscription, which I won't pay for, just for F1. And I found myself forced to miss lots, coinciding with for me, a big downturn in interesting racing. I found myself slowly drifting away, first being forced to miss live races, then sometimes just not bothering when they were on. Last year I didn't watch anything on F1, it took over forty years, but the b******ds finally killed it for me. I miss it, but don't even know what it would take to get me back now...

Real racing for a start though. "Charismatic" cars would help too.