Chase for Viewers Puts Sport at Crossroads
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FT SPECIAL REPORT The Business of Formula One Friday November 1 2013 www.ft.com/reports | @ftreports Chase for Inside » Team order is the talking point Kimi Räikkönen viewers puts says Ferrari return will be clean slate Page 2 sport at Sport embraces green agenda Engine switch has the potential to boost appeal crossroads Page 2 Funding race is on for 2014 start Mexico City is set One dominant driver, technical false starts and to host F1 races a shrinking television audience are concerns for once again Page 3 next season, write Roger Blitz and James Allen Victorious: Sebastian Vettel’s win at last weekend’s Indian Grand Prix gave the German his fourth consecutive world title AP Financing tight he Formula One season has weekend, and the US and Brazil later McLaren and Mercedes all left trailing Is F1 sleepwalking into stagnation? laps, and for the teams to fit their come to resemble a car at the in the month, will be processional – of in the Austrian team’s wake. Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s commercial cars with an adjustable rear wing for feeder series back of the grid: fast-moving interest only as historical footnotes Vettel’s relentless supremacy supremo, has been acutely aware of (drag reduction system, or DRS) to Junior event offers but prone to technical prob- and likely to hit audience ratings. prompted rival driver Lewis Hamilton the risk of “sameness” damaging pub- improve their overtaking capability. lems and in need of some- In terms of sustained sporting inter- to comment that this season had lic interest in the sport. The idea backfired for two reasons: chance to spot next Tthing new and exciting. est, 2013 has been a write-off in F1. reminded him of watching the start of Yet Ecclestone has also talked up in many races, DRS made overtaking world champion Any big sporting competition hopes Vettel had already mounted the win- Schumacher’s races when he was a Vettel’s achievements, describing him too easy, undermining in the eyes of to sustain interest up to and including ner’s podium nine times before his child: “Going to sleep, then waking up as probably better than Ayrton Senna, many one of the fundamental skills of Page 3 a season finale. While F1 has had its victory in India, leading the drivers’ when it ended because I already knew the Brazilian driver. being an F1 driver; and tyre failures share of tension-packed denouements championship from the second race what would happen.” “People complain about [Vettel] plagued the first half of the season, in the past, that is not the case this and rarely looking back. The 26-year- winning everything,” Ecclestone told the worst instance coming at the Brit- Contender adds year. old is as dominant as his compatriot news agency Bloomberg. “But the rac- ish Grand Prix in June when six cars Sebastian Vettel’s victory at last Michael Schumacher was for a decade ing is good.” suffered blowouts. to FIA broadside weekend’s Indian Grand Prix sealed a from the mid-1990s, turning F1 into a Bernie Ecclestone has been That will not stop Ecclestone and The issue became a political battle- David Ward wants fourth consecutive drivers’ champion- sport of dull predictability. his F1 colleagues trying to find ways ground. Pirelli’s desire to revert to the ship for the German, elevating him Vettel and his Red Bull Racing team acutely aware of the risk of to address the lack of competition. 2012 design featuring Kevlar instead complete overhaul to equal third in the list of multiple are as symbiotic as Schumacher and The latest wheezes to spice up the of steel was blocked by the better-per- of governing body title winners. Yet the much-predicted Ferrari, and equally potent. This is ’sameness’ damaging show were to get Pirelli, tyre provider forming teams, only to be enforced by outcome also means the final three Red Bull’s fourth consecutive con- public interest in the sport to all the teams in the sport, to make Page 3 races of the season, in Abu Dhabi this structors’ championship, with Ferrari, tyres that had to be changed every 20 Continued on Page 2 2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1 2013 The Business of Formula One Hybrid power fits with greener agenda Ferrari’s Shell deal highlights attitudes and engineering “The downside is...we pinnacle of technology,” legal – as is the way in F1.” Technology direction of the wider auto- have been throughamajor says Andy Cowell, manag- Energy recovery systems motive industry. world recession, which has ing director of Mercedes’ have been overhauled, as F1 fresh approach Engine switch has Few motor manufacturers made it difcult for the high performance power- acts asasort of high-speed potential to boost make gas-guzzling V8 teams to embark on such a trains division. “We are research and development engines any more. Instead, big project. But we have going from archaic engines laboratory for road cars. appeal, reports the hybrid turbo engines managed to do it and we to new technology that The new engines will Commercial partners “When we started out James Allen will take F1 inanew direc- need to make sure we capi- breaks new boundaries. We recover energy when the working with Enzo Ferrari tion, sending out a mes- talise on it.” could see more ofadiffer- cars brake and from the [the carmaker’s founder] it sage that the sport is It has been a few years ence across the different heat energy left in their It is no longer just was sponsorship. Now it is The new breed of Formula responding to environmen- since engines were perform- power units – more of a exhaust stream. about the branding, a technical partnership. One cars that line up for tal concerns. ance differentiators in F1. spread in reliability and “The two sources of This isakey part of our the start of the 2014 season But not everyone is in The V8s have become performance capability.” energy will be stored in a writes James Allen research and development in Melbourne in March will favour.Bernie Ecclestone, largely standardised – with It is not just in the battery pack that has 10 programme,” says John be very different to those F1’s commercial supremo, power outputs of about engines where the 2014 cars times the capacity of those Bullock, executive vice- that race around the Yas has opposed the switch, 760bhp–to the point where will differ from the 2013 we are using today. It will In planning meetings over president responsible for Marina circuit in Abu partly on nancial grounds there is little to choose models. contribute over two seconds the past 18 months with the Shell’s retail business. Dhabi this weekend. The and partly because he says F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone between a Mercedes and The aerodynamic rules o ap time,” says Cowell. Fédération Internationale Bullock points out that task of building the next the cars will not sound Renault engine, for exam- are changing too, with stiff Although such innova- de l’Automobile, motor- Shell’s Helix range o ubri- generation of cars has been right. He even tried to delay ple, but that will change regulations designed to cut tions are expensive to intro- sport’s governing body, cants, for example, made the biggest change to F1 the introduction of the world economy are emerg- next year. the amount of downforce duce, many in F1 believe teams’ representatives their debut in F1. “For us technical regulations for engines, but Jean Todt, ing from recession and Fuel economy has become the cars can generate. The they are just what F1 needs noticed Ferrari was asking and Ferrari, it is about how decades. president of governing body sponsorship income is hard a priority for teams. While front wing will be narrower, to reinvigorate its appeal a lot of questions. you take this technology on Out will go the 2.4-litre V8 the Fédération Internation- to nd. this season’s F1 cars use the rear wing will be after four seasons domi- In particular, the Italian the road. [F1] is the best engines, to be replaced by ale de l’Automobile (FIA), This has not only put the about 150kg of fuel over a smaller, there will be no nated by Red Bull Racing’s team wanted to know what test lab we could have [and] small-capacity 1.6-litre V6 held rm. squeeze on teams but has 300km race, there will be a lower beam wing and the Sebastian Vettel. was and was not permissi- it has global exposure.” hybrid turbo units, which While Ecclestone’s aural also helped to price Cos- limit of 100kg next year. chassis will be closer to the “I think we will see a ble with fuel ahead of the Domenicali cautions will generateafar larger concerns are a matter of worth out of the market. Mercedes, which as well ground. really exciting season, par- introduction of new hybrid against the sport being too proportion of power from taste, his economic argu- The UK-based company, as running their own team “There are dramatic rule ticularly at the beginning,” turbo engines into Formula drawn into discussions of energy regeneration. As ment isapowerful one. which supplies the Marus- will next year make engines changes on the chassis and says Mark Gillan, head of One in 2014. technical wizardry at the well as harvesting energy Teams currently each spend sia team, will not make F1 for the McLaren, Williams you have to hope your R&D for MTS,asupplier of Teams began to suspect expense o ts core appeal.