Dear forumists,
We've got another juicy article for you to get your teeth into this weekend, and it's a little bit different to anything we've had before.
As some of you know (or are sick of me mentioning), I was on World Series FV8 3.5 duties the other weekend at Silverstone, and I collected various quotes from teams, drivers and the series management team about the World Series and its future.
As one of the various single-seater feeder categories (which has given us the likes of Magnussen, Ricciardo and Vettel, as well as Will Stevens, Roberto Merhi and very nearly Bertie Breadstick), I thought it would be fair to work those quotes into a piece, giving World Series a bit of attention.
Originally, this was going to be written for elsewhere, but due to time constraints on my end I duly passed the quotes on to their editorial team for them to work into an article. I found a bit of time to finish it this week, and so hopefully it holds up okay! You can read it HERE.
I hope you enjoy it!
And now for something *slightly* different...
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And now for something *slightly* different...
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Re: And now for something *slightly* different...
Thanks for the article; some interesting points you've got in there, but I suppose that for me the big one is about who funds drivers these days at levels below F1. The economy isnt too bad worldwide, but F2/GP2 doesnt fill the grid, GP3 doesnt have the same interest as before, Euro F3's grid has shrunk ( and not wholly by 'design') , and FV8 3.5 is nowhere near a 'full' grid.
Above F4 in single seaters it gets too expensive for most 'family businesses'/friends/family etc to support someone for a season and in the absence of big enough sponsors this leaves the junior F1 programmes. These programmes combined still dont support whole fields of cars ( or even half a field). I suppose advertising on cars at these levels doesnt give the value such that they'll supply enough money to run the cars and I dont think the series get enough TV money to fund the teams. Without big independent sponsors , with too few F1/manufacturer supported drivers ( there are fewer Red Bull drivers these days it seems, for example) , and without enough TV money , they are struggling . I dont see an easy answer, but I do think some of the issue stems from the limited number of F1 places. Drivers and sponsors used to aspire to a chance of getting in F1, but now the costs are too high for sponsors and drivers know that without manufacturer/junior F1 scheme support its almost too difficult to make it. So its harder to justify doing everything to get an F2 season together (to get beaten by well -supported Prema team drivers..) etc.
Possibly an answer is to see some of these categories for what they are; fantastic racing events in themselves, with really good drivers and teams , and very fast cars, and then appreciate them for that, and sell them to TV and advertisers as such .?
Any thoughts?
Above F4 in single seaters it gets too expensive for most 'family businesses'/friends/family etc to support someone for a season and in the absence of big enough sponsors this leaves the junior F1 programmes. These programmes combined still dont support whole fields of cars ( or even half a field). I suppose advertising on cars at these levels doesnt give the value such that they'll supply enough money to run the cars and I dont think the series get enough TV money to fund the teams. Without big independent sponsors , with too few F1/manufacturer supported drivers ( there are fewer Red Bull drivers these days it seems, for example) , and without enough TV money , they are struggling . I dont see an easy answer, but I do think some of the issue stems from the limited number of F1 places. Drivers and sponsors used to aspire to a chance of getting in F1, but now the costs are too high for sponsors and drivers know that without manufacturer/junior F1 scheme support its almost too difficult to make it. So its harder to justify doing everything to get an F2 season together (to get beaten by well -supported Prema team drivers..) etc.
Possibly an answer is to see some of these categories for what they are; fantastic racing events in themselves, with really good drivers and teams , and very fast cars, and then appreciate them for that, and sell them to TV and advertisers as such .?
Any thoughts?
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