I'm Adam Hay-Nicholls, global F1 correspondent for Metro International, and I'll be using this blog to keep you informed of the latest F1 news, gossip and opinion - and give you the chance to voice yours.
Shortly I'll fill you in on which teams are looking good, and why the cars look so radically different this year.
Of course, part of the reason for the latter is F1's drive
to remain sustainable despite the economic slump. Last week the FIA announced
its intention to push through a £30 million budget cap per team in 2010. In
2008, the budget of top teams was in excess of £350 million.
Personally, I support the idea as the cut in spending
won't make a difference to the racing spectacle. You can only see where the
other £320 million went if you're a physicist with access to a CFD
supercomputer. However, that £30 million doesn't include the marketing budget,
which is a good thing because it's essential F1 maintains its high-profile
glamorous image. The last thing F1 should do, in my view, is pull back on
throwing parties, inviting celebrities and having multi-story motorhomes as its
great for the image.
However, the cap is going to be very difficult to police
and I'll be fascinated to see how they do it. For instance, this budget is meant
to include driver salaries. At least one team (Ferrari) pays more than £30
million on driver salaries alone at the moment. The FIA say the team may pay
the driver in dividends instead. I think it's much more likely that the
sponsors will pay the drivers direct. In fact, a lot of expenditure like this
can be done through the sponsors books.
But what is good for the health of the sport is that by
reducing costs while maintaining the TV and sponsorship revenues, teams will
actually be big revenue generators, and it's likely that more independent teams
will sign up. And be competitive. That's what Max and Bernie want. FOTA, being
made up of manufacturers and independent teams, have differing interests and
part of the reason for this sudden budget cap announcement is political. The
FIA want to destabilize FOTA before it gets too powerful, by creating a wedge
between the car giants and the indys.
Speaking of independent teams, what about Brawn GP? Are
they really as fast as they appeared in testing? And is their diffuser legal?
The diffuser is a shaped section of the car's underbelly
which is used to suck the car to the ground at high-speed, increasing grip and,
in addition, creating wake turbulence that makes the car harder to overtake.
Brawn, along with Williams and Toyota, are being closely
scrutinized for having a diffuser that links to the floor, which generates
extra downforce. My understanding is that this is within the letter of the
rules but not, Flavio Briatore complains, within the spirit.
So, some designers have
read those rules more cleverly than others. They should be free to race
shouldn't they? Well, I would say yes, but when has F1 ever been fair? If those
cars are quick this weekend, there WILL be a protest (there's another rule -
don't ask me why - which dictates that a protest can only be lodged on a race
weekend, not before, meaning that F1 makes sure there's 100 million people
watching before it airs its dirty laundry) but it probably won't reach the FIA
court before F1 returns to Europe at the end of April.
And that gives Jenson plenty of time to get some results.
How exciting!
The other big debate at the moment is whether the drivers'
championship should be measured by points or wins. The FIA announced, less than
a fortnight ahead of the first race, that the winner of the 2009 championship
would be the man to score the most victories. Under these rules Felipe Massa
would have beaten Lewis Hamilton last season. The theory is that this would be
an extra motivation for the guy in second place to make a do-or-die move late
in the race. Personally, I think it would be more sensible to follow FOTA's
suggestion and create a new points system: 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1.
FOTA didn't much fancy the FIA's plan and revolted. The
rules dictate that for the FIA to make a change in the regulations like this
they need the support of all the teams. And they didn't have it. So the FIA
were forced to backtrack and 'postpone' their plans. This is confusing to me -
that the teams needed to sign-off on this decision was widely known. Max Mosley
is a clever guy and this is out of character. I smell something fishy... my
conclusion is that the whole thing was just a smoke screen. Distract people
with the emotive points issue while trying to push through the far more
revolutionary plan of imposing a very low budget cap.
This is a classic Mosley ploy - come in with a figure as
low as £30 million and the teams will feel relieved when a compromise figure
of, say, £60 million is then put on the table.
And on the subject of budgets, and it's not just the teams
that have been affected this year. Last year in Melbourne I was staying in a 5
Star hotel with beluga on the room service menu. This year I'm sleeping on the
floor of a mate's student gaff above a funeral parlour on the wrong side of
town. It's fun, but the smell of embalming fluid will take a little while to
get used to. I'll post a video of my digs in the next day or two.
Hopefully the sport's cost-cutting measures will work, F1
will return as a land of opportunity, and I'll have caviar on speed-dial
again.
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