Formula 1 - the post Schumacher era

[D-Angle]

Schumacher has certainly left his mark on how F1 racing operates, as well as how it is perceived. For those of us who remember F1 before his ascendancy, they will know there is a marked difference between now and then. I think we will see a similar change now he, and the major figure that created him, are leaving the sport. But what will change?

Racing - using pit stops to gain position became the main racing technique under Schumacher. I think this will change, and whilst it will still happen, it won't be the main crux of the racing. Some fo the teams are much closer to each other than they were, and won't be able to rely on this as much.

Drivers - I'm looking forward to a return to the Prost/Senna/Mansell era, when there was more than one driver you could genuinely see winning this weekend's race. MS was a very overbearing personality(because he won everything) and no-one else had a chance to shine through.

Dominant teams - Ferrari were the Man Utd of motorsport for a long time, and it got boring. I think they will still be at the front, but other teams are finally coming good, and they will have more than Renault to cope with next year. I also think that the 'B-Teams' will become more and more important, and it's only a matter of time before someone gets a telling-off for basically running a four car team

Money - the fag money is finally gone, and seems to be getting replaced by technology and financial institutions. The tobacco companies threw so much money at F1 because there was barely anywhere else they could put it marketing-wise. I think F1 teams will have to justify their sponsorship income a lot more, i.e. why spend it on F1 when they could spend it on football. Also if the efforts to reduce budgets work out(which unfortunately I doubt), I would like it to produce a return to the days when we had lots of small independent teams that make it interesting, as well as give lots more deserving drivers their chance to race in F1. Drivers come and go a lot slower in F1 these days, and it makes it much more difficult for good drivers to even get a test driver role. With the old structure of teams, I think we would have seen Anthony Davidson and Gary Paffett racing for a couple of years by now.

Overall, I think the difference pre-Schumacher was that there wasn't one team and driver who had such an all-encompassing dominance over the sport, both on the grid and in people's sensibilities. Post-Schumacher, I think we may see this return.

What do you think?

Edited by D-Angle on Sunday 22 October 20:55

[kevin ritson]

I'm really looking forward to next year, it's going to be fascinating to see how it pans out. Sure, Alonso has proved to be a worthy inheritor of Schuey's mantle but he's going to a different team, one that has much work to do over the winter.

Then there are the new generation - Kubica, Hamilton, Kovalinen amongst them, that will be asserting their authority.

Finally, with so many driver/team changes, will this favour stable line-ups, such as Honda with Button, for example? Or will we see a genuine battle between a few drivers? There really is no way to tell until the first testing skirmishes with the '07 cars, expected around late January. One things for sure...it'll be a long winter

[flemke]

D-Angle said:

Money - the fag money is finally gone, and seems to be getting replaced by technology and financial institutions.

D-Angle,

Thanks for the thoughtful opening post.

Strictly speaking, at least for the Italians the fag money shall continue to flow in abundance.
About a year ago Philip Morris signed a new multi-year deal with Ferrari, which was so substantial and gave PM so much control over the livery of the car that Vodafone took their £40M/year elsewhere.
It was widely reported that, when there appeared to be the chance for Ferrari both to sign Raikkonen and to retain Schumacher, PM offered to increase their sponsorship subsidy commensurate with the increased salaries. (Not sure how close to the mark this was, as subsequently it has seemed that KR had already been signed for nearly a year and was being medacious about his status.)

We'll continue to see, at the least, the same sort of "Marlboro" suggestion that was featured on the Ferraris at Brazil.
It has even been said that PM will turn things on their head. According to this speculation, should the regulators be too limiting about how obvious the Marlboro hints may be on the side of the race car, PM might begin to feature Ferrari logos on its fag packets.
If so, let's hope that that discourages a few people from smoking!

[D-Angle]

flemke said:

Strictly speaking, at least for the Italians the fag money shall continue to flow in abundance.
About a year ago Philip Morris signed a new multi-year deal with Ferrari, which was so substantial and gave PM so much control over the livery of the car that Vodafone took their £40M/year elsewhere.
It was widely reported that, when there appeared to be the chance for Ferrari both to sign Raikkonen and to retain Schumacher, PM offered to increase their sponsorship subsidy commensurate with the increased salaries. (Not sure how close to the mark this was, as subsequently it has seemed that KR had already been signed for nearly a year and was being medacious about his status.)

We'll continue to see, at the least, the same sort of "Marlboro" suggestion that was featured on the Ferraris at Brazil.
It has even been said that PM will turn things on their head. According to this speculation, should the regulators be too limiting about how obvious the Marlboro hints may be on the side of the race car, PM might begin to feature Ferrari logos on its fag packets.

That's very interesting flemke, I had heard that Ferrari and Marlboro were going to try and continue somehow, but I can't believe that they are going to try the approach that it is simply 'understood' that they are involved with the team. I'm sure it will work with more long-standing followers of F1, but from what I know of Marlboro they tend to target young, new smokers, so I wonder how effective it is going to be. At least before these changes, they could reveal the car at the beginning of the season, and show their logo at certain Grands Prix, and still get coverage in countries where tobacco advertising is restricted through coverage from the world's media. They don't even have that now, so I wonder how much value they will get out of this arrangement, and how long they will continue with it. After all, if they put Ferrari logos on their cigarette packets, doesn't having the Ferrari logo on their car then become advertising a tobacco brand? Whatever I may think of Marlboro, you have to admire their commitment to motorsport sponsorship - if they sold anything else it would make me a customer.

I think the FIA could possible review ther rule that both cars must run the same livery. If a team could charge say, two thirds of what it costs to sponsor both cars, just to sponsor one, it could help smaller teams raise some more cash, as well as make F1 sponsorship more accessible and make the grid more interesting to look at as well. Remember the dual liveries BAR wanted to run before the FIA stopped them?

Edited by D-Angle on Sunday 22 October 23:12

[flemke]

D-Angle said:

Whatever I may think of Marlboro, you have to admire their commitment to motorsport sponsorship - if they sold anything else it would make me a customer.

Well, it wouldn't make me a customer if Marlboro sold Ferraris!


From The Times, Dec, '05:

Now Ferrari have felt the hot breath of Vodafone’s commercial realism after their worst year in Formula One in almost a decade. It is understood that Vodafone wanted the reward of title sponsor for its annual payment of about £36 million, only to be blocked by Philip Morris, the tobacco giant, which dominates Ferrari with its Marlboro brand. Marlboro has a long-term contract with Ferrari worth almost $1 billion (about £ 564 million) over the next decade, but that gives the cigarette-maker first call on which logos are put on the cars. In addition, Schumacher’s contract with Ferrari runs out next year and there are rumours that he will either retire or move to another team, possibly Red Bull.

Ferrari without their seven-times champion are suddenly a less appealing prospect and Vodafone started the search for a more accommodating partner. McLaren parted company with West, the German cigarette company, this year in response to European Union demands for sports sponsorships involving tobacco brands to end — a ruling Philip Morris has ignored — allowing Vodafone to fill the void.

[heebeegeetee]

Lets not forget that whatever the budget, Ferrari haven't won the championship for the last couple of years.

Renault have, using nothing more than plain old damn good management.

[Jungles]

Which teams in F1 will continue using fag money? I'm aware that Williams, Toyota, Super Aguri, and McLaren are fag-free. RBR, STR, and Spyker seem to be fag-free as well, but I'm not sure. Renault, Ferrari, and Honda ran with fags this year, so are they going to continue with fags next year?

(PS: Pun fully intended. Not that there is anything wrong with the other kind of fags!)

[rubystone]

Whilst Phillip Morris may not be able to advertise their brand anywhere around F1 next year, what's to stop them using the link outside of that?...A Marlboro advert in a well chosen publication featuring a Ferrari F1 car ought to make the link pretty clear. From there on, anyone who sees a Ferrari F1 car will assocaiate it with Marlboro.

I'm not aware of any team on the grid for next season aside from Ferari that will derive any of its income from tobacco, but could be wrong - or are Skoal Bandit RAM still running

[D-Angle]

Jungles said:

Renault, Ferrari, and Honda ran with fags this year, so are they going to continue with fags next year?

Renault are being sponsored by Dutch finance group ING, Honda have parted company with BAT as title sponsor, new sponsor to be announced.

Latest rumour is that Hyundai are interested in starting their own F1 team in time for the first South Korean GP. These daft engine rules make it difficult - now a team can only use an engine that was used this season, which makes it more difficult for new teams to get started. It will certainly put off manufacturers, who will want to use their own engine to showcase their technical expertise. Maybe it will give Cosworth a route back onto the grid?

[rubystone]

I'm pretty sure David Richards was heavily rumoured to be courting Hyundai for the Prodrive effort - talk of Hyundai badged Mercedes or Renault engines...I understand the sticking point was the S Koreans' insistence on Prodrive equipping the car with a hideous front end - reminiscient, they insisted, of the Santa Fe SUV...

[stevieb]

I think Dave Richards is more than likely to source engines from Mercedes, as IIRC they are the only manufacturer not supplying engines to another outfit.

Mclaren Mercedes
Ferrari Ferarri
Renault Renault
Toyota Toyota
Honda Honda
William Toyota
BMW BMW
Redbull Ferrari/Renault
Torro Rosso Ferrari/Renault
Spyker Ferrari
Super Aguri Honda

Prodrive Mercedes


For things to even up BMW and Mercedes need to supply engines to other teams. Fro this i think 2008 Torro Rosso will have a BMW engine then all manuafacturers have to supply 2 teams

Steve