Discussion
rallycross said:
I dont want to side track this good thread is about Williams I might start a new thread.
That figure of 220k was people who pay for Sky F1, does not include people buying weekend or month passes from Sky via My TV, the old legacy 'inclusive' F1 with Sky Sport package - those old contracts are mostly gone now. The info came from one of Joe Saward's articles.
Then Joe's got it very, very wrong. BARB's own figures show 4 times that number watched the race on Sky Sports F1 alone. That figure of 220k was people who pay for Sky F1, does not include people buying weekend or month passes from Sky via My TV, the old legacy 'inclusive' F1 with Sky Sport package - those old contracts are mostly gone now. The info came from one of Joe Saward's articles.
The only time 220,000 appears on his site is in as the number of Formula E spectators in 2017 ( https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/22679 )
Viewing figures for 2018 (which exclude NowTV & on demand services) show that the figure you mention can't be accurate too - https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/2018/12/13/skys...
rscott said:
rallycross said:
I dont want to side track this good thread is about Williams I might start a new thread.
That figure of 220k was people who pay for Sky F1, does not include people buying weekend or month passes from Sky via My TV, the old legacy 'inclusive' F1 with Sky Sport package - those old contracts are mostly gone now. The info came from one of Joe Saward's articles.
Then Joe's got it very, very wrong. BARB's own figures show 4 times that number watched the race on Sky Sports F1 alone. That figure of 220k was people who pay for Sky F1, does not include people buying weekend or month passes from Sky via My TV, the old legacy 'inclusive' F1 with Sky Sport package - those old contracts are mostly gone now. The info came from one of Joe Saward's articles.
The only time 220,000 appears on his site is in as the number of Formula E spectators in 2017 ( https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/22679 )
Viewing figures for 2018 (which exclude NowTV & on demand services) show that the figure you mention can't be accurate too - https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/2018/12/13/skys...
That aside, project Dovetail was incepted to be as accurate as possible for understanding the national TV appetite. BARB is about as definitive as you can get.
@rallycross - I don’t think you’re sidetracking the thread at all. We got here because we’re talking about Williams and their viability as a business and org fit for the current F1 terms. Revenue, wherever that is derived, is key to that.
F1 is the nexus of so many varied interests, political, economic, sporting, so harder to find a topic that doesn’t diverge as much. That’s what makes it interesting!
davidd said:
Telegraph today https://apple.news/At2lKWaRTQZuAYKNKskRhgw
Oh great. She's leading a war against male dominance in the sport by being the only woman with a top job, and also, the worst performing. Inspirational...I would have thought she had other things to be focused on.
A good result for both drivers yesterday. Kubica had a great start https://twitter.com/CODEXERR/status/11326704704054... It's a shame Giovinazzi spun him around - there's every chance he could have finished ahead of Russell on merit without that. Still, good pace at a driver's track is something he can hopefully build on.
As was announced last December, Latifi will do 6 FP1s this year - the first being in Kubica's car in Canada, then Russell's in France. I don't think the next 4 have been announced yet.
As was announced last December, Latifi will do 6 FP1s this year - the first being in Kubica's car in Canada, then Russell's in France. I don't think the next 4 have been announced yet.
TheDeuce said:
Oh great. She's leading a war against male dominance in the sport by being the only woman with a top job, and also, the worst performing. Inspirational...
I would have thought she had other things to be focused on.
Yes, you would. She just keeps on digging. I would have thought she had other things to be focused on.
To quote what is quite a ‘friendly’ interview:
“but the two drivers are schlepping around the back of the field like seven-hour marathon stragglers”.
She really doesn’t see the wood for the trees.
I don't really ever read much of the Torygraph, but that's an awful article. Claire is a smart woman, her background is journalism, so of course she's going to go out and do an article like this to make sure that people know the problems Williams have isn't totally down to Williams as a company, more being strung along by people they're brought in.
sgtBerbatov said:
I don't really ever read much of the Torygraph, but that's an awful article. Claire is a smart woman, her background is journalism, so of course she's going to go out and do an article like this to make sure that people know the problems Williams have isn't totally down to Williams as a company, more being strung along by people they're brought in.
OK, she's set out to prove that the problem is that she/the management are easily strung along. Whatever her reasoning or explanations/excuses for each season, it's patently obvious the team are completely noncompetitive now - and as a result can't attract any reasonable level of sponsorship to develop a competitive car AND meet the running costs of the huge operation they have becomes. I'd like to see her own the situation a little more personally - I think potential sponsors/investors would too. The people signing cheques for tens of millions really won't be interested in how she tries to spin or soften reality for the media, they will want to see signs of her understanding the issues and finding a real, tangible path forwards.
Williams essentially need enough 'extra' money to pay all their bills and develop a competitive car for a couple of seasons, in order to attract future sponsorship momentum. They need major capital investment to kick-start the process and return to competitiveness. I can't see that happening until they have a team principal in place that could give investors something to really believe in. Excuses won't cut it.
TheDeuce said:
sgtBerbatov said:
I don't really ever read much of the Torygraph, but that's an awful article. Claire is a smart woman, her background is journalism, so of course she's going to go out and do an article like this to make sure that people know the problems Williams have isn't totally down to Williams as a company, more being strung along by people they're brought in.
OK, she's set out to prove that the problem is that she/the management are easily strung along. Whatever her reasoning or explanations/excuses for each season, it's patently obvious the team are completely noncompetitive now - and as a result can't attract any reasonable level of sponsorship to develop a competitive car AND meet the running costs of the huge operation they have becomes. I'd like to see her own the situation a little more personally - I think potential sponsors/investors would too. The people signing cheques for tens of millions really won't be interested in how she tries to spin or soften reality for the media, they will want to see signs of her understanding the issues and finding a real, tangible path forwards.
Williams essentially need enough 'extra' money to pay all their bills and develop a competitive car for a couple of seasons, in order to attract future sponsorship momentum. They need major capital investment to kick-start the process and return to competitiveness. I can't see that happening until they have a team principal in place that could give investors something to really believe in. Excuses won't cut it.
DanielSan said:
The Beyond the Grid podcast with Massa is a good listen from last week, when asked about Paddy Lowe going to Williams his response was more polite than anything else saying that he expected a lot more from Lowe...
Yeah I listened to that. He was not impressed when he said that, and I think that was the nicest thing he could say about Lowe at the time. I would say off the record he'd have used his best anglo saxon english to describe just how bad the situation at Williams with Lowe was. Big Robbo said:
There is quite a good piece on the plight of Williams in this month's Motor Sport magazine by Mark Hughes.
She still comes across clueless however
Thanks for the heads up. Fired up the Readly App and promptly read it! She still comes across clueless however
One thing that I noticed about the article was continued references to Lowe. We all know he’s gone, or whatever the euphemism is. But...even though the article chimes with much of the thinking put across in this thread, I’m not sure how right it is for an interview with Claire Williams to be free to comment on his time there when they’re either still wrangling through the divorce settlement or it’s still fresh business.
I guess he’s likely under some form of NDA or non-compete too and strikes me as classless that his efforts can be brought up yet he probably doesn’t have similar ability to set his side of the story. For now.
Best to just have left the matter with a simple statement.
It’s not hard to believe that he was the wrong guy at the wrong time. But which dummy didn’t think it through enough in the first place and went and hired the guy?
And then for CW to whine towards the end of the piece, that “...I’ve done some good things too...”, she broadcasts so well the point that she just can’t pull off being the figurehead for Williams even if you wrote the word on a post-it note and slapped it on her forehead.
sgtBerbatov said:
Yeah I listened to that. He was not impressed when he said that, and I think that was the nicest thing he could say about Lowe at the time. I would say off the record he'd have used his best anglo saxon english to describe just how bad the situation at Williams with Lowe was.
The other thing to take away from Massa's story is that CW has learnt one thing from Frank, how to really piss drivers off and treat them pretty poorly. She's being deluded again...
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.william...
Celebrating the 15th place finish is just silly. The fastest Williams was 6 tenths off the pace of the p18 car in qualifying, that's the reality - and as such is no closer to p18 than before. The other cars just couldn't get past - all credit to Russell for ensuring they couldn't but c'mon... That's just him being a good and sensible driver, not exactly a sign of progress with the car.
By any meaningful metric, the Williams were the slowest cars at Monaco - any other TP would acknowledge that, rather than be seen to be giving relevance to a frankly irrelevant result.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.william...
Celebrating the 15th place finish is just silly. The fastest Williams was 6 tenths off the pace of the p18 car in qualifying, that's the reality - and as such is no closer to p18 than before. The other cars just couldn't get past - all credit to Russell for ensuring they couldn't but c'mon... That's just him being a good and sensible driver, not exactly a sign of progress with the car.
By any meaningful metric, the Williams were the slowest cars at Monaco - any other TP would acknowledge that, rather than be seen to be giving relevance to a frankly irrelevant result.
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