Category: Formula One

“I’m proud of the business that I built over the past 40 years and all that I have achieved with Formula 1. I would like to thank all of the promoters, teams, sponsors and television companies that I have worked with.

“I’m very pleased that the business has been acquired by Liberty and that it intends to invest in the future of F1. I am sure that Chase will execute his role in a way that will benefit the sport.”

After 40 years in the sport, Bernie Ecclestone stepped down from his role as a chief executive in the Formula 1 Group and replaced by Chase Carey. Liberty Media signed former Mercedes and Ferrari chief, Ross Brawn, as motorsport managing director. Ross Brawn returns to Formula 1 after three years of absence.

Furthermore, the ex-ESPN executive Sean Bratches will be responsible for the commercial part of the sport.

Bernie Ecclestone played a significant role in the recognition of the sport and it was his decisions which boost the publicity of Formula 1. In the last few years, the British were not as famous as he used to be, and the fans were tired of his decisions and the ideas which he proposed in order to make the sport attractive.

How everything started

 

Ecclestone’s enrolment with the motorsport started after the World War II, Bernie was driving in the Formula 3 series, but his career as a driver didn’t last for long. After his short career as a driver, he became Stuart Lewis-Evans manager but the British F1 driver died at the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix.

In the late 1960s, Bernie was the manager of the Austrian Jochen Rindt and a partial owner of Lotus Formula 2 team. Jochen was killed in a crash at the Italian Grand Prix, but he was awarded the championship after his death.

In 1971 Bernie made his first steps as an owner of an F1 team, the British had a talk with Ron Tauranac, the owner of the Brabham team and offered him £100k for the acquisition of the Brabham team. Tauranac accepted the deal and remained in the team as a designer. The Australian didn’t manage to work with Bernie and in 1972 decided to leave the team. Despite some positive results and podium finishes, Ecclestone had to wait until 1981 to celebrate his first Formula 1 title as a team owner. Nelson Piquet won the championship in 1981 and two years later, he became the first driver who won the F1 championship with a turbo-powered car.

During Ecclestone’s final season as an F1 team owner, Brabham scored only eight points. In 1987 made a deal with the Swiss businessman Joachim Luthi and sold Brabham for around $5m.

His role as a Formula 1 Executive

Bernie Ecclestone had a bigger picture for Formula 1 in his mind, as long as he was Brabham’s team owner he also formed the Formula One Constructors Association (a.k.a FOCA). He transformed the F1 from a low publicity motorsport to one of the most competitive and expensive sports.

His basic idea was to increase F1’s exposure on television, at that time the television companies had signed deals with some circuits and even those deals were not permanent. Ecclestone, decided to change that and made deals with the companies and sold the Formula 1 TV rights as a package. Hence, by the 1980s, F1 had become a global sport and almost every race was shown live on TV. A key role in F1’s popularity growth played some famous drivers such as Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna.

In the late 1990s, Bernie Ecclestone made a deal with his friend Max Mosley, who at that time was the president of FIA. This deal led to huge profit for Bernie’s company as he took the control of Formula 1 rights from the teams.

Another deal which shocked the F1 community was in 2000 when Mosley sold F1’s commercial rights to Ecclestone until the end of 2110 for a one-off fee of $360m. This led to a domino, as a German TV company bought the rights to F1 but then collapsed and banks took the assets. Finally, in 2006 the German bank BayernLV sold its 47% stake in F1 to a company known as CVC Capital Partners.

For the last ten years, CVC had F1’s TV rights and Ecclestone was the chief executive of the company, hence no one could stop him as he was the one who was responsible for Formula 1 future.

Bernie Ecclestone was accused of bribery by the German authorities and forced to pay $100m to the German courts in order to buy his innocence.

In the last few years, Ecclestone’s publicity is decreasing, that is happening mainly because the British suggested some ideas which aimed to increase the popularity of F1.

In 2014 he suggested a double-points at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi and at the beginning of 2016 suggested to change the format of the qualification session. Finally, Ecclestone was criticized by the Formula 1 fans because he added countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain in F1’s calendar which secured high fees for CVC.

Even if I personally didn’t like and agree with Bernie’s ideas in the past the past few years I have to admit that Formula 1 would not be the same without him, he raised the price of the product to $8bn.

A new era begins for Formula 1 as Liberty took control of the sport and we have to wait to see what Brawn, Carey and Bratches can do in order to improve the quality of the sport and bring the fans back to the circuits.

Victor Archakis

Twitter: @FP_Passion

Almost three years have passed since the announcement of the deal between McLaren and Honda. A very promising deal between two major motorsport teams/engine suppliers, McLaren is one of the most historical teams in Formula 1 and Honda had participated in Formula 1 from various roles. From 2006 to 2008 Honda had its own team, between 2000 and 2005 they supplied BAR and Jordan with engines and from 2015 they signed a deal with McLaren and since then McLaren’s official engine supplier is Honda.

The partnership did not start as well as the majority of the fans was hoped for. In 2015 the two drivers, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, faced several technical issues and forced to retire twelve times in total. Furthermore, in Bahrain Jenson Button did not even start the race as McLaren announced that his car suffered from electrical problems, in Monza Fernando Alonso was penalised with 10 place grid penalty, because his mechanics changed for the ninth time his ICU, Button was also penalised for the same reason, but the British received a five-place grid penalty. The Spaniard retired on lap 50 of the race due to loss of power.

Despite the bad results and the poor engine performance, the two drivers managed to collect 27 points combined. Jenson Button finished four times in the top-10 and scored 16 points, while his team-mate Fernando Alonso scored 11 points and finished two times in the top-10, the first was in Silverstone and the second time was in Hungary where he finished fifth.

McLaren did not set the bar too high for the 2016 season, although the results were positive and showed that the endless work at Woking is paying off. There were still some technical issues which did not allow to the team and to the drivers to score more points and be as competitive as they wanted but made it clear to everyone that McLaren-Honda made huge steps of improvements.

McLaren-Honda completed the season in the sixth place in the construction standings ahead of Toro Rosso and collected 76 points in total, 49 more than the previous season.

Fernando Alonso scored the majority of the points, 54 points in total and finished 10th ahead of the Brazilian driver Felipe Massa. The Spaniard retired at the first race of the season in Australia, but despite the bad start he managed to recover in the following races. Fernando, finished nine times in the top 10, he finished two times in the fifth place. The two best races for Alonso were in Monaco and in the USA.

From the other hand, Fernando’s team-mate, Jenson Button collected 21 points and finished 15th in the driver standings. The Brit champion finished seven times in the top-10 and his best result was in the sixth place in Austrian Grand Prix.

In the upcoming season, McLaren will run with a fully restructured Honda engine and they hope that they will return to the top.

“For 2017, the Honda engine architecture and layout have been altered to serve both for performance and packaging needs,” said McLaren-Honda technical director Tim Goss.

“The new power unit takes much of the learning from the past two seasons, but has been specifically redesigned for this season. This season’s changes rank as some of the most significant we’ve ever had in the sport. That’s likely to change the competition order, because it’s such a big disturbance.” Goss added.

McLaren-Honda is hoping that the new regulations will allow them to close the gap with the other teams and especially with the top three teams and catch Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Personally, I believe that it is an achievable aim and it will be very positive for Formula 1 to see one of the most historical teams to return to the top and fight for a place on the podium.

Jenson Button will not be able to race with the new McLaren, but I am sure that Vandoorne will cover Jenson’s gap with his passion and his driving skills.

The exact date of the 2017 car launch is not known yet, but it will be before the first test in Barcelona.

Victor Archakis F1 Editor
Follow on Twitter: @FP_Passion

(Image courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)

It’s almost Christmas, so I decided to send a letter to my dear friend Santa Claus! Enjoy!

Dear Santa (a.k.a. Bernie)

I was a good editor this season and I hope that this Christmas you will visit my desk at the crew towers.

I don’t want something expensive or very complicated for present this year, I wish to bring me a more interesting and exciting 2017 F1 season.

Next year, many new rules will be applied in Formula 1. The aesthetics of the cars will be different, more aggressive, the wings will be wider, the cars will become lighter and the tyres will also be wider than this years.

FIA believes that next year’s cars will be faster by three seconds and that it won’t be necessary to increase my TV’s or laptop’s volume in order to hear the noise of the F1 cars.

I agree that all these changes will improve the sport, but Santa the fans want to see wheel to wheel battles, different winners in almost every race and at least three or four different drivers ready to fight for the title until the end of the season.

By changing the rules doesn’t mean that F1 will become as it used to be. Formula 1 is not the sport that only one team dominates and win 19 of the 21 races of the season and where only two drivers from the same team fight for the title.

Please, Santa can you bring back the sport which we loved?

P.S. I was wondering if Channel 4 or Sky could hire Button, Massa and Rosberg as commentators.

Yours sincerely,

Victor Archakis

(Image Courtesy of North Pole)

Abu Dhabi was the final pit-stop for the Formula 1 teams and fans. After a very long season, the longest in Formula 1 history, and 21 races, the 2016 season belongs to the past. After a dramatic finale, Lewis Hamilton took the last chequered flag of the season, but Nico Rosberg was the big winner.

The German finished second and celebrated his first world title, but he decided to retire a few days after the race. Rosberg’s decision to retire from Formula 1 surprised the majority of the fans and the press. Nico decided to retire from F1, before the final race, but he kept it secret between him and his family.

How did everything start

As I said earlier, 2016 was a long season, we saw the five lights for 21 times and some of these races were very dramatic and emotional. From the beginning it was clear the Mercedes will dominate once again, hence the title would be decided between Hamilton and Rosberg.

The odds were with the Brit, as he won the 2014 and 2015 title and he was in a top form, whilst Nico didn’t seem able to challenge him.

Everything changed in the kangaroos’ land, at the Australian Grand Prix Nico Rosberg made a strong and a very promising start, but he didn’t stop there. The German won the first four Grands Prix, whilst at the same time Lewis Hamilton had to fight for points due to mechanical issues.

In Russia, Hamilton had a problem with the MGU-H unit in Q2 and he qualified tenth. Despite the problems that Lewis faced, he managed to climb up to the second position and finish ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

After the Russian Grand Prix Mercedes’ drivers scored 157 scored combined, Nico Rosberg was leading with 100 points and Hamilton scored only 57 points.

Max Verstappen, The magic Dutch

Rosberg’s winning streak stopped in Spain, a collision between him and Hamilton on the opening lap, forced both drivers to retire and allowed to Max Verstappen to shine and become the youngest driver who wins an F1 race.

The Dutch had been promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing after the Russian Grand Prix, and he had the pleasure to win his first Grand Prix in F1 in his debut with Red Bull. After a thrilling racing, Max showed a very mature side of his personality and with his great driving skills, he managed to stay ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and take the chequered flag in Spain.

After Spain, Hamilton made his first attempt to comeback in the championship. The Brit won two consecutive races in Monaco and in Canada respectively. Nico Rosberg struggled in Monaco and the heavy rain allowed him to finish only seventh.

In Baku, it was Rosberg’s turn to take the chequered flag and win the European Grand Prix, whilst Hamilton made a mistake on the qualifying session and started the race from tenth place and finished fifth. That gave the chance to Nico to increase his gap in the championship.

Hammertime

In Baku, Hamilton released his hammer and he won the four remaining races before the summer break. Lewis won in Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, and Germany. After an amazing comeback, the three times world champion had the chance to enjoy his summer holidays as he was now leading the championship. The scores were Hamilton 217 and Rosberg 198 points.

In Spa, Hamilton started from the back of the grid, after massive grid penalties, but he managed to recover and finished third, while Rosberg had a quiet evening and took the chequered flag.

The German won in Monza and in Singapore as well, these results moved him up to the first place in the championship, just eight points ahead of his team-mate.

In Malaysia everything was under control for Lewis Hamilton, he was leading for 40 laps, but on the 41st lap, his engine suffered a bearing failure and had to retire the race.

That was a big hit for Hamilton’s chances to win the title. Daniel Ricciardo took advantage of Hamilton’s retirement and won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The final countdown

 

In Japan, Rosberg won for the last time in 2016. After a thrilling race and a bad start from Hamilton, Nico increased his championship lead to 33 points. Max Verstappen finished second, behind the German followed by Lewis Hamilton.

The scores after the Japanese Grand Prix were: 313 for Rosberg and 280 for Hamilton.

The German had the upper hand and the only thing that he had to do in the four remaining races was to finish in the top 3. That was what exactly happened, Lewis Hamilton won in USA, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

That was not enough as Nico Rosberg finished second in all these races and celebrated his first world title in Formula 1.

Get Ready for 2017

A few days after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix the world champion decided to retire and focus on his family. Now Mercedes are looking for Hamilton’s new team-mate, which will probably be Wehrlein.

The 2016 season was not very exciting, the sure thing is that 2017 will not be the same. Massa, Button and Rosberg will be watching the new season from their sofa or from their ex-teams paddocks.

The new regulations will shake the things up, wider tires, more downforce, and fastest cars will make the 2017 season more interesting and fascinating.

Enjoy the break and wish you Merry Christmas.

Victor Archakis – @FP_Passion

(Images Courtesy of Pirelli F1 Media)