View Full Version : Europe 'finished'
SurfaceUnits
11-29-11, 02:16 PM
as Formula One's spiritual home - Ecclestone
European races are a dying breed on the Formula One calendar, Bernie Ecclestone said on Tuesday.
At present, there are eight European rounds on the 20-event 2012 schedule, with the majority of the season therefore taking place throughout Asia, the Far and Middle East and the Americas.
And Europe should prepare to shed even more events in the future, said Ecclestone, with the F1 chief executive telling Spain's Marca that the continent - currently gripped in a worsening economic crisis - is "finished".
"I think in the next few years Europe will be left with only five races," he said.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-europe-finished-as-formula-one-s-spiritual-home-ecclestone/
Trevor Longman
11-29-11, 02:23 PM
:flame: :flame:
Why can't he just die already?
Spicoli
11-29-11, 02:34 PM
He's a douche bag.
He can't live much longer.
I hope.
Hey I just did a haiku.:tony:
TrueBrit
11-29-11, 06:15 PM
:flame: :flame:
Why can't he just die already?
That's a big :thumbup:....I thought I could never despise anyone as much in F-1 as I despised Jean-Marie Ballestre back in the day, and then along came Max the Brownshirt Mosley and his little toady side-kick Bernie Ecclestone...Max the perv is gone, thank dog, but his poisoned dwarf remains...
I hate that mucking fidget with a white-hot passion...he has destroyed F-1 and turned it into nothing more than a money-making machine for himself...He has no idea what F-1 was about, he cares nothing for it's heritage, and he would make each GP pay-per-view if he could...
He's an evil little troll whom I wouldn't cross the road to piss on if he was on fire...I only wish there was a hell so that he could be sent there...but I fear that Satan wouldn't want the competition...
:flame::mad::flame::mad:
miatanut
11-29-11, 11:57 PM
That's a big :thumbup:....I thought I could never despise anyone as much in F-1 as I despised Jean-Marie Ballestre back in the day, and then along came Max the Brownshirt Mosley and his little toady side-kick Bernie Ecclestone...
Me too. The last few years I've just been saying to myself "What the hell! How is this even possible?" :confused:
Rocketdoc
11-30-11, 12:05 AM
He's a douche bag.
He can't live much longer.
I hope.
Hey I just did a haiku.:tony:
Bernie has been a douche bag since he was a tire carrier on the Brabham team.
Apparently he's been a bag-O-duche since birth.
opinionated ow
11-30-11, 01:48 AM
The stupid little troll fails to see the reality of it. There are no fans in asia (Japan excepted) and the Middle East. The only people at Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Singapore are expat Europeans. The money has to be in Europe. The fans are in Europe. The sponsors for the most part are going to sell their products to Europeans. The drivers are Europeans. The manufacturers involved are ALL European. It's completely insane to race in areas where nobody cares. Global reach is great but surely television would suffice in those areas where nobody cares enough to GO TO THE RACE!
Spicoli
11-30-11, 04:07 AM
The stupid little troll fails to see the reality of it. There are no fans in asia (Japan excepted) and the Middle East. The only people at Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Singapore are expat Europeans. The money has to be in Europe. The fans are in Europe. The sponsors for the most part are going to sell their products to Europeans. The drivers are Europeans. The manufacturers involved are ALL European. It's completely insane to race in areas where nobody cares. Global reach is great but surely television would suffice in those areas where nobody cares enough to GO TO THE RACE!
Not sure I a gee with your assessment of the markets. In fact, I don't.
The stupid little troll fails to see the reality of it. There are no fans in asia (Japan excepted) and the Middle East. The only people at Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Singapore are expat Europeans. The money has to be in Europe. The fans are in Europe. The sponsors for the most part are going to sell their products to Europeans. The drivers are Europeans. The manufacturers involved are ALL European. It's completely insane to race in areas where nobody cares. Global reach is great but surely television would suffice in those areas where nobody cares enough to GO TO THE RACE!
No, you are wrong. The Middle East and Asia are all growing markets.
All that matters is the money. Bernie is just a greedy troll like the TARP bankers or the CEO who closes all his domestic plants to make products with slave labor overseas.
The difference is this is a product we care about. But once it is captured by the bankers and the corporations, there is no way out. It has to keep growing to meet investor expectations, so it will by necessity be bastardized to the point of just not being the same thing anymore.
Based on recent years I think we saw the last decent racing some time ago, and it will only go down from here. Maybe next year is the one where I will lose all interest.
The heart and soul of F1 is Europe, bernie on the other hand, has no soul. His weekend cottage is F1 and he wants plush elegant venues to spend his weekends in...."bernie palaces". He flys in, then out and counts his money. That's all he cares about. As long as the global TV ratings are good and the money rolls in, he'll continue to pit venue against venue to maximize his profit.
Next year, Indy? BEATchya!!:)
opinionated ow
11-30-11, 11:31 PM
Not sure I a gee with your assessment of the markets. In fact, I don't.
No, you are wrong. The Middle East and Asia are all growing markets.
You are both quite right and rereading that none of it makes the least bit of sense. They are growing markets but not in motor sport.
The problem is this obsession with thinking formula 1 is a business or entertainment. It isn't and shouldn't be either. It is a sport. The best sports flourish because they provide their events in places where people care. That's why the Rugby World Cup isn't held in the USA. It's why the Baseball World Series is held in the USA and not Abu Dhabi (despite their money).
Sport is not just about money. Sport has historical pretexts to everything. Formula 1 is based on a European history of motor racing; it's a history that contains challenging venues and challenging cars for the drivers. It has historic grands prix (British, Monegasque, French, Italian, Swiss, Belgian, Spanish, Dutch, Argentine, Australian, American, Portuguese, New Zealand, Canadian, South African, Mexican). It doesn't always have massive grids and until the last few years it was (and rightfully so) about building the best car from the best components (bespoke or otherwise) that you could. It's meant to be the epitome of the sport. A series running in the middle of nowhere at expensive gin palaces populated by 16 camels and a sheep are not the pinnacle of anything except extravagance. And the further you disconnect from your fanbase the further you drive yourself into irrelevance.
If you have no fans, you will have no sponsors. If you have no sponsors, you have no races. If you try to change your races to appeal to the lowest common denominator (e.g. push to pass, reverse grid, kers with daft limits, drs) you will lose your fans. Motorsport fans aren't stupid and will not fall for a gimmick. I work in a very mixed European workplace and everyone just about is a formula one fan and nobody has a kind word to say about racing on rubbish circuits in Bahrain or KERS or DRS.
If Europe is finished, Formula 1 is finished. Simple as that
Spicoli
11-30-11, 11:47 PM
yeah cuse people don't travel to races. :rolleyes:
Look, I don't like some of those races, but some are cool and stuff. And I would travel. But face it, most sports money comes from tv.
Nice try.
cameraman
12-01-11, 01:03 AM
So you consider Singapore to be the middle of nowhere and you think that race is a commercial failure and that manufacturers/sponsors don't care about Singapore?
That's just plain daft.
Wrong, again. Renault and Mecedes Benz have been using racing to sell their cars since the 1890's. It's a business.
That is half the population of the world you are dismissing as "16 camels and a sheep." Even if they can't afford to go to a F1 race they can watch it on tv.
And race is no barrier to what people like or dislike. People are people no matter where they are from. If they are driving cars then they will want to race them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_sponsorship_liveries
Every team in F1 has at least one sponsor from Asia or the Middle East, or a sponsor that wants to do business in Asia and the Middle East. Renault is in China for a start.
Oh, by the way, the USA has more registered Rugby players than Australia does...
Growing Markets. They are everywhere.
If they REALLY wanted to increase or at least solidify interest in Europe they should take the great European tracks and de-Tilke-ize them. Rebuild them all to be exactly as they were at their respective peaks, with original corners and contours, and without the chicanes.
Napoleon
12-01-11, 11:47 AM
Oh, by the way, the USA has more registered Rugby players than Australia does...
You need to register to be a Rugby player? Do you have to take a test where you eat a vegamite sandwich and chase it with a Fosters?
Spicoli
12-01-11, 01:23 PM
You need to register to be a Rugby player? Do you have to take a test where you eat a vegamite sandwich and chase it with a Fosters?
:tony: talk about a backwoods mentality. Stereotype much?
:D
astinus4
12-03-11, 10:09 PM
You need to register to be a Rugby player? Do you have to take a test where you eat a vegamite sandwich and chase it with a Fosters?
We don't actually drink Fosters. It's purely an export. Vegemite rocks though ;)
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