The Official F1 2023 silly season *contains speculation*
Discussion
Deesee said:
Pflanzgarten said:
What time will the Vegas race start at uk time? I was hoping for a Saturday night extravaganza on the cimema screen with plenty of drinks and friends but I’m guessing it might be early Sunday morning is it?
Lights out 6am at present.. 10pm local
The beer will help the post race ranting on these boards no end too.
I've never been to Vegas, despite having been in the US for most of the last 23 years. The story about it that always amuses me is that when F1 went there for the GP in the early 1980s Gordon Murray apparently despised the place so much that he refused to come out of his hotel room for the whole weekend!
paulguitar said:
I've never been to Vegas, despite having been in the US for most of the last 23 years. The story about it that always amuses me is that when F1 went there for the GP in the early 1980s Gordon Murray apparently despised the place so much that he refused to come out of his hotel room for the whole weekend!
LOL. You would think his wardrobe would fit in nicely there. Now that Otmar Szafnauer is out from Alpine, does he take BWT with him, now or at the end of the season? While he's been involved with F1 he's brought BWT along with him to whichever team he was a part of. The pink on the cars hasn't been a good look whether it was Racing Point, Aston Martin or Alpine. I'm not wishing unemployment on him, but wherever he turns up next in F1 or somewhere else, just back off on the BWT sponsorship and pink paint.
ajprice said:
Now that Otmar Szafnauer is out from Alpine, does he take BWT with him, now or at the end of the season? While he's been involved with F1 he's brought BWT along with him to whichever team he was a part of. The pink on the cars hasn't been a good look whether it was Racing Point, Aston Martin or Alpine. I'm not wishing unemployment on him, but wherever he turns up next in F1 or somewhere else, just back off on the BWT sponsorship and pink paint.
I thought they mixed a trick by not getting in on the Barbie film promotion.entropy said:
Heard Ottmar on the BTG podcast at the weekend saying Enstone needs updating and its resources aren't up to scratch and along with Williams are of 5 teams looking to raise the capital expenditure cap. Also said F1 teams needs to be able to run with minimal politics...
Alpine have just got $200m of capital investment via R Reynolds and chums though. Deesee said:
Pflanzgarten said:
What time will the Vegas race start at uk time? I was hoping for a Saturday night extravaganza on the cimema screen with plenty of drinks and friends but I’m guessing it might be early Sunday morning is it?
Lights out 6am at present.. 10pm localSmollet said:
entropy said:
Heard Ottmar on the BTG podcast at the weekend saying Enstone needs updating and its resources aren't up to scratch and along with Williams are of 5 teams looking to raise the capital expenditure cap. Also said F1 teams needs to be able to run with minimal politics...
Alpine have just got $200m of capital investment via R Reynolds and chums though. An interesting Beyond the grid recent with James Vowles was saying something similar ref Willams, they need investment due to all the ageing equipment and resources but cannot invest due to the cost cap, so along with a few other teams, they are looking at some kind of dispensation to enable this to happen but of course it's all political and needs the agreement from all other teams.
tight fart said:
I thought a big chunk of capital expenditure was outside the cost cap.
There’s a formula for capex based on depreciation of equipment. So as a hypothetical example you can spend $100m on a new wind tunnel, and depreciate it at $10m per year for a decade. But the $10m is still inside the cost cap. What might work, is if perhaps teams were allowed to carry forward an historical underspend, for capex use. So if Williams spent $80m last year, on a $100m cap, they can spend $120m this year, so long as the $20m extra is on capital equipment rather than operational expenditure.
So in the hypothetical example above they could pay $20m off their tunnel and depreciate the remaining $80m at $8m per year - which gives them an extra $2m annual budget inside the cost cap.
The problem is that there’s been a decade of under-investment in the factory at Williams. They probably want new autoclaves, rapid prototyping machines, and machine tools, all as soon as possible. Vowels is right, that it shouldn’t be beyond the sport to come up with a sensible way forward.
liner33 said:
Has the cost cap delivered on closer racing though ? I think the whole thing needs reviewing
Certainly has for qualifying, some insanely close grids this year. Race pace - yes I think it is closer and you will start to get more convergence in design for 2024, which is probably the place to evaluate it.Deesee said:
Pflanzgarten said:
What time will the Vegas race start at uk time? I was hoping for a Saturday night extravaganza on the cimema screen with plenty of drinks and friends but I’m guessing it might be early Sunday morning is it?
Lights out 6am at present.. 10pm localGassing Station | Formula 1 | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff