OVER 4-MILLION F1 FANS ATTENDED RACES IN 2018

F1 Media
21 December, 2018




Formula 1 have released figures relating to live attendance at the 21 Grand Prix races that made up the 2018 world championship calendar, with over 4-million people passing through the turnstiles during the course of the season.

Press Release:

Once again, Formula 1 is pleased to publish spectator attendance figures for the 2018 season, based on data supplied by all the race promoters.

Over four million spectators (4,093,305) attended at least one of the 21 Grands Prix on the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar, with an average attendance of almost 200,000 per weekend (194,919).

Seven Grands Prix, a third of all events, attracted crowds of over 200,000: Great Britain (340,000), Mexico (334,946), Australia (295,000), USA (263,160), Singapore (263,000), Belgium (250,000) and Hungary (210,000). The average attendance per race weekend was up over the 2017 figures by 2.7%, while four events saw an increase of over 10%: Azerbaijan (+31.6%), Austria (+27.6%), Japan (+20.4%) and Canada (+11.4%.)

Isolating the Sunday figures, overall attendance was 1,702,959. On average, 81,093 spectators applauded the skills of Lewis Hamilton and the other 19 drivers this year. Once again, it was Silverstone that led the way, where 140,500 spectators watched Sebastian Vettel win, while 135,407 celebrated Hamilton take his fifth world Championship title at the Mexican Grand Prix.

The USA Grand Prix drew an estimated crowd of 111,580 on race day with six tracks posting a double figure increase over the previous year: Azerbaijan (+29.1%)*, Austria (+25.2%)*, Bahrain (+22.1%)*, Canada (+21.4), Japan (+19.1%) and Hungary (+10.1%).

The two races added to the calendar in 2018, France and Germany, drew a total crowd of 315,000 – 150,000 at Le Castellet and 165,000 at Hockenheim, more than making up for the 110,604 lost with the disappearance of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

According for the adjustments made to certain 2017 attendance figures subsequent to the release of last year’s attendance results and the increase from 20 to 21 to the total number of events, the overall increase in attendance from 2017 to 2018 is 7.83% in absolute terms.

Sean Bratches, Managing Director, Commercial Operations, Formula 1 said: “With nearly 200,000 spectators at each Grand Prix, and more than 80,000 packing the grandstands for Sunday’s races across the season, it demonstrates that these big numbers compare favourably with other major sporting events, thus confirming a trend for growth.”

“We are particularly pleased with the results and research carried out through the season regarding satisfaction levels of spectators, as they prove that our efforts to engage fans are working well. The whole show of a Grand Prix weekend – the Formula 1 race, all the support series and the activities around the track – constitutes a great experience for the fans, as the attendance and research figures confirm.”

“We strongly believe that Formula 1 has great potential which still hasn’t been fully exploited and we are fully committed to improving the fan experience in the future.”

The 81,093 spectators for each Sunday raceday is almost double the number of those who watched the Bundesliga (average per match 44,657) and the Champions League (av. 46,630) in their 2017/18 season.

Formula 1 race days had a better average attendance even when compared to the NFL, which registered an average game crowd of 67,405 in 2017/18, and the most important sports event this year, the Football World Cup in Russia, which averaged 47,371 per game with a peak of 78,011 for the final in Moscow.

In conjunction with Netfluential, over 50,000 spectators were canvassed in 2018, before and after they had attended a Grand Prix. Over one hundred in-depth interviews were carried out and over three hundred comments were received via a special app. A large amount of data was exhaustively analysed by Formula 1’s Research Department looking at satisfaction levels of spectators who attended a Grand Prix.

In 15 of the 16 events where the research took place, 70% of the spectators judged the experience ‘very enjoyable,’ with a peak of 90% at the British Grand Prix and 85% in Austria. These two races, along with those in Belgium, Hungary and Italy produced the sharpest increase in spectator satisfaction, rising between 4 to 14% compared to last year.

The research also confirmed that an average of 65% (+3% compared to 2017) of the spectators felt that the experience provided during a race weekend was ‘very or quite good value for money’. The race at the Red Bull Ring showed the biggest increase over last year in terms of value for money, with an increase of 25%, while for Monza it was up significantly, by 11%, and at Spa-Francorchamps it increased by 8%.

* Race day attendance extrapolated from total weekend attendance figures.

JUST WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG FOR MCLAREN?

By: Alan Paterson

One of my favourite teams is somewhat in the doldrums at the moment, so what’s gone wrong? Let’s try and break it down, but first a bit of background. OK, a lot of background!

Any errors are mine and mine only, mainly down to poor research or a hazy memory, probably both.

Way back in 1995, McLaren agreed a deal with Mercedes-Benz, who back then were an engine supplier only, for engines. Over time Mercedes-Benz’s involvement meant a 40% stake in the team by 2011 and over the next few years McLaren were very much a front-running team and one of MB’s prime partners, almost to the point of being a works team, much like Red Bull when Renault didn’t have a team of their own.

Honda had their own team after taking over the BAR team in September 2005, continuing with Lucky Strike sponsorship at the time. The car wasn’t fantastic but was developed as the season went on and started to become more competitive later in the season and Jenson Button won his first race at the Hungarian Grand Prix despite starting the race in 14th.

Rules outlawing tobacco sponsorship stopped the BAT money train but in what would become a rather fortuitous appointment, ex Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn was recruited as team Principal in November 2007.

The Honda ‘Earth’ car again performed poorly in 2008, only getting on the Podium once in the hands of Rubens Barrichello at a wet British GP when he changed to Wet tyres at just the right time. Honda switched development to the 2009 car by mid-season, knowing that a fundamental change in regulations was coming.

Then the Global Economic Crisis happened and Motorsport activities from many manufacturers around the world were curtailed by falling car sales and rising budgets. Honda, apparently spending $300-million a season on the F1 program, which by now had 700 staff, decided it couldn’t continue and axed it’s F1 program, stating falling global sales as the reason and gave little to no notice in November 2008.

“But what does all this have to do with McLaren?” I hear you ask. I’m coming to that, don’t worry.

Now, McLaren during this time were still headed by Ron Dennis who bought the McLaren racing team, originally founded by New Zealand racing driver Bruce McLaren way back in 1963.

In 1981, Ron Dennis’s Project Four Racing and the McLaren team merged and knowing the history of the McLaren name, that was the name that was kept, although every car since has had the designation MP, for McLaren Project until the MP4- naming protocol was dropped for the return of Honda power in 2015. Ron quickly bought out all the original shareholders and had full control of the team by 1982.

This was some of McLaren’s most successful periods with both John Barnard who created the first Carbon Fibre chassis in 1980 and Adrian Newey from 1997 to 2005 designing some of the most iconic and successful F1 cars ever with engine partners Porsche (branded as TAG. Yes that TAG in the back of the Red Bull as a TAG-Heuer, although now two separate companies), Mercedes-Benz and Honda.

Many believe the first signs of McLaren’s impending fall started here when Ron wouldn’t consider giving Adrian Newey a shareholding in the team and, some say, tried to low-ball him when the next contract was due. Many of Ron’s quirks regarding his fastidious nature and demand for perfection frustrated Newey as well who once proclaimed Grey was Ron’s favourite colour.

Newey then signed up with Red Bull in 2006 and has been there ever since, winning multiple Constructors championships and guiding Sebastian Vettel to four Drivers championships in a row, from 2010 through 2014.

Honda withdrew from F1 at the end of 1992 and McLaren had some success after signing with Ford for 1993 with Ayrton Senna, but paired him with Michael Andretti, who, putting it politely, had a somewhat less successful season.

McLaren flirted with a Lamborghini V12 for 1994 but eventually partnered with Peugeot. McLaren fans don’t like talking about the 1994 season. Then in 1995 they signed a deal for a Mercedes-Benz branded Ilmor engine.

By this time Ron Dennis and his long time business partner and friend Mansour Ojjeh (Boss of TAG) both owned considerable stakes in the team along with the Bahraini Sovereign Wealth fund Mumtalakat but they fell out after nearly 30 years of friendship, mainly over control of McLaren.

Rumours of Ron’s wife having ‘meetings’ with Ojjeh were, of course, never confirmed by anyone I’ve read or heard from so remain just that, rumour. Ron and his wife Lisa divorced soon after and Lisa Dennis and Ojjeh are apparently still good friends afterwards as well which upset Ron even further.

The main issue though was around the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix. Being that the team was partially owned by Mumtalakat, the Bahraini Sovereign Wealth fund, the discussions of the Bahrain Grand Peix being cancelled due to civil unrest (put down roughly, swiftly and without much care for anyone getting hurt by the Bahraini Royal Family and the Army & Police), there was apparently a vote on whether McLaren should race and Ojjeh and the Mumtalakat representatives voted yes but Dennis voted no, one of the few times Dennis and Ojjeh voted differently.

The GP eventually went ahead without issue but Ojjeh and Mumtalakat were upset at the seeming lack of support and endorsement of the Bahrain GP from Ron himself, causing friction between the main shareholders.

Around this time Ojjeh started to suffer from a deteriorating lung disease which ended up with him getting a double Lung transplant in late 2013. It’s again rumoured that while Ojjeh was recovering from this major surgery, and possibly even while he was still in hospital, Dennis attempted to take full control over McLaren after courting Chinese investors for many months under the guise of investment which eventually ended up being an attempted takeover.

This incensed Ojjeh even more and the two fell out for good and rarely talked except in board meetings. This was the beginning of the end for Ron & McLaren.

A few years before this Dennis stepped down as head of the McLaren F1 team to pay more attention to the fledgeling Road car department and Martin Whitmarsh became Team Principal in 2009. McLaren didn’t do as well as they’ve historically done while Whitmarsh was in charge although Lewis Hamilton was in mathematical contention for the 2010 WDC, being only 24 points behind Fernando Alonso going into the last race.


Whitmarsh was ousted by Dennis, despite being recommended by him, at the end of 2013 and Dennis became head of the F1 team again. Whitmarsh and Ojjeh were good friends which annoyed Ojjeh even more.

There was, of course a huge scandal regarding Nigel Stepney, his good friend and McLaren designer Mike Coughlan and leaked Ferrari plans being supplied by the former to the latter but rather than go through the whole sorry tale, you should click here to read this excellent article about it here>>>

Whitmarsh does have a bigger role to play in the McLaren saga though. After Honda withdrew they agreed to sell the whole team to Ross Brawn, by then Team Principal for a nominal fee, such was the respect Honda had for him, creating Brawn GP. But they had no engine! Brawn, being well known and respected around the Paddock for many years, was desperate for an Engine, any Engine!

Whitmarsh, who by now was also head of the Formula One Teams Association offered to facilitate a deal between Mercedes Benz and Brawn GP and a deal was duly signed a few weeks later. No one, except perhaps some at Honda/Brawn GP knew what was about to happen and the car had to be redesigned to accept the new MB Engine.

Of course as we all know, the BGP001 was far ahead of the field thanks to the millions spent on development by Honda since the middle of 2008 prior to their withdrawal and a loophole in the rules being identified by an unknown Honda Engineer in Japan which allowed a ‘double Diffuser’ at the rear of the car, massively increasing downforce but with little drag, something missed by everyone other than Williams and Toyota.

The MB engine being one of the most powerful certainly helped though and the car was streets ahead of the rest of the field, lapping as much as a second faster in the first pre-season test.

Towards the end of 2009, despite teams with more money catching them Jenson Button won the World Drivers championship for Brawn GP, one of the biggest underdog stories in F1 history. Mercedes were paying attention though and it was announced in November 2009 that Mercedes Benz in partnership with Aabar investments purchased a controlling 75.1% share in Brawn GP and a factory Mercedes team was back in F1 for the first time since 1955. This could perhaps be seen as McLaren playing a part in their own downfall, but should be seen as Whitmarsh putting the sport first, as he should as head of FOTA.

So, rather a lot of backstory about Honda, McLaren and Mercedes Benz.

McLaren continued with MB power as a customer team until 2015 when they announced that with the new Hybrid engine regulations and being unhappy at paying for their Engines as customer team, they entered into a ten-year deal with Honda who were returning to F1 again as an engine supplier. Ron had been quoted as saying ‘You can’t win in F1 as a customer team’ which was somewhat true.

Designing a car around an engine was much better than designing a car and then having to change it to make the engine work. Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were signed when apparently Ron Dennis wanted McLaren Young Driver Kevin Magnussen as Alonso’s partner and Ojjeh wanted Button.

Ojjeh won. As it happened though Magnussen raced in the first GP of the season when Alonso suffered a concussion during pre-season testing in Barcelona but was yet another wedge between Ojjeh and Dennis.

The Honda relationship started out, for want of a better word, as disastrous. The car was woefully unreliable in pre-season testing and at the opening Australian Grand Prix Button’s car was lapped twice and finished last in what was the cars longest uninterrupted running time so far.

The team were given multiple grid penalties for replacing components throughout the season including a 105 place grid penalty at Spa! The car had gradual improvements as time went on but was never troubling the top teams. A similar story with slightly improved results was the case in 2016.

This seemed to stem from McLaren’s insistence on as small an engine as possible, the so called ‘size zero’ engine demand governed by aerodynamics which prompted the layout that Honda ran with for the first two years with the Turbo and MGU-H in the V of the Engine.

Honda said they could make Mercedes levels of power with this layout but proved to cause packaging problems and prevented major changes to the size of the MGU-H which, according to the regulations, could supply an unlimited amount of power back into the engine, something Mercedes managed to great effect.

Vibrations and issues with oil tank design causing oil starvation were also apparent and eventually were overcome, but the ‘flawed’ engine layout remained and thanks to the Engine Homologation regulations couldn’t be fixed until the end of the season.

A further attempt to redesign the engine layout while keeping the ‘size zero’ approach brought improvements, but again the layout prevented major improvements in power and drivability. Eventually, after two years of frustration of teeth McLaren agreed with Honda’s requests and allowed a larger engine and to design the car around this for the start of 2017.

This then allowed Honda to facilitate an almost completely new engine design, matching Mercedes in splitting the Turbocharger and Compressor with a shaft running up the middle of the V linking the two with a much larger MGU-H at the compressor end taking power from, and able to supply power to, the shaft connecting the turbocharger and compressor.

This was fundamentally different to a standard road car turbocharger and compressor arrangement where the shaft is measured in centimetres as they’re often part of the same housing.

Ron Dennis was finally ousted by Ojjeh and Mumtalakat at the end of 2016 and despite Dennis even going to court the decision to remove him from the race team stuck and he resigned his position and sold his remaining shares soon after.

Eric Boullier and Zak Brown were hired, Boullier as Team Principal and Brown as head of Marketing. Brown eventually took over as the head of the F1 team midway through 2017, something some found unusual as he has no F1 knowledge or history at all.

He was a professional race driver though and actually won a Formula Ford race at Donington Park and came 2nd in the GT2 category at the renowned Daytona 24 Hour race in 1998, 2nd in the 12h of Sebring and 3rd at Road Atlanta in a factory Porsche 911.

It was then that he created United Autosports, mainly focussed on Endurance racing which the team enjoyed success, including running McLaren MP4-12C’s in the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2012.

In September 2017 it was announced in what was at the time the biggest known secret in the F1 Paddock that Honda and McLaren were to split, less than three years into a ten year agreement. McLaren orchestrated an agreement with Toro Rosso and Renault to swap their Honda engines for the Renault Engines being run by Toro Rosso and Honda would make Toro Rosso their default factory team, the first time they’d had full factory support in their history.

McLaren’s troubles didn’t seem to end there though. Even with Renault power the car underperformed compared to where they were supposed to be, if you believed Brown and Boullier’s talk all through 2017 that McLaren had the best Chassis on the grid.

Alonso scraped a 5th place finish at the Australian Grand Prix thanks to five DNF’s and various other cars with teething troubles and mechanical issues. More top ten finishes for Alonso and Vandoorne occurred but the car was still well behind fellow Renault runners Red Bull and the works Renault team, their only true benchmarks.

The car was low on downforce, high on drag and the Renault engine was, by now, no more powerful than the Honda that McLaren rejected, now in the back of the Toro Rosso and still well behind the Mercedes and Ferrari engines.

On ‘power’ tracks like Canada and Azerbaijan the car was very slow on the straights and at the most recent French GP at Paul Ricard the car was well off the pace with Alonso retiring and Vandoorne finishing a lap down.

The team then admitted that they were experiencing a very poor correlation between the wind tunnel testing and results on the track leaving them grasping at straws and conducting aero testing at every track in the practice sessions rather than dialling the car into the track as normally happens.

Toro Rosso’s partner team Red Bull, having run with Renault Power for many years, and now having ‘inside’ information about the Honda powerplant, then signed an agreement with Honda to become their works partner for the 2019 and 2020 seasons with new and apparently cheaper engine regulations expected to be announced soon for the 2021 season.

Then, on the 4th of July 2018 McLaren announced that Eric Boullier had resigned (despite saying only a few days earlier he has no intention of resigning), seemingly taking the blame for McLaren’s poor performance.

Andrea Stella, who was previously Alonso’s Race Engineer when they were both at Ferrari, was promoted from Head of Race Operations to Performance Director and a new Sporting Director role has been created for Gil de Ferran, ex-Champ Car (the forerunner to Indycar) champion in 2000 and 2001. Simon Roberts, Chief Operating Office of McLaren Racing will now oversee Production, Engineering and Logistics.

I’m still not 100% convinced that Zak Brown, someone with oodles of commercial experience but no engineering experience at all is the right person to lead them, but time will tell.

So where did it all go wrong?

This part is my opinion rather than mostly fact above. Anyway, where I believe McLaren made a mistake is believing what was essentially a brand new ICE, MGU-H, MGU-K and battery store for the 2017 season would be reliable and powerful straight away.

It was at the start of it’s development cycle whereas Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault had anything from 3 to 5 years of development time to ascertain the optimal setup, fine tune it and make it powerful and reliable. All without being publicly criticised by Eric Boullier, Zak Brown and an wildly popular but angry Spaniard on international TV every two weeks.

Honda came in a year earlier than planned on McLaren’s suggestion, were handicapped by McLaren’s demands and the ridiculous and ill-thought out ‘Token’ system limiting upgrades throughout the 2015 season meant Honda were permanently on the back foot until at least the back end of 2016. McLaren expected too much, and now, I suspect, they’ll watch the Red Bull AND the Toro Rosso beat them with the engine they used to have. And be an estimated £100-million down a season for the privilege.

Also in the latest McLaren company filings is a few surprising pieces of information but the main one is that McLaren have sold a number of their historic cars rumoured to be in part to pay of Ron Dennis’s pay off form the board for his shares and you can find out what’s been sold here>>>

The filings also show that the McLaren Group has seen it’s total revenue fall by 3% to £871-million and a £1.3-million profit in 2016 turned into a £66-million pre-tax loss for 2017. Of course this is only my conjecture, but I’d imagine a lot of that is down to cancelling the Honda deal, paying Alonso themselves when it’s believed Honda paid him directly for 2015, ’16 and ’17 and paying for engines from Renault.

McLaren were talking all through 2017 that they had one of the best chassis on the grid and certainly times, when Alonso got fastest lap at the Hungarian GP after stopping for fresh tyres, seemed to confirm this and they constantly threw Honda under the bus claiming if they had Mercedes power they’d be winning races.

I was a huge McLaren fan, still am to a certain extent, but their demise has pained me greatly recently. They need fundamental change, a full root and branch cull and re-energisation from new staff, but I can’t see it happening while the board and owners are too worried about saving face and boasting when they need to take a cold, hard look at themselves.

Indeed Williams struggles haven’t made anywhere near the waves McLaren’s have, I suspect because Williams know they are struggling and freely admit it. Being humble goes a long way.

WHAT IF F1 POINTS SYSTEM WAS DIFFERENT…

Source: Dr. Symanski

Murray Walker always says that F1 is IF backwards. So what if drivers were scored all the way to 20th place? What if we could somehow erase the DNFs from the season?

One of the problems with the current scoring system is that only half the starting grid can get points. Whilst this is far superior and preferable to the older system where only 6 cars would score, it does make it difficult to compare drivers in the mid-field and lower. Especially when sometimes one of the cars would just occasionally limp into the points!

Why not score all positions?

The scoring system does reward top place finishes disproportionally higher than the midfield, so any reworking of the points system should follow the same. This is fairly easily achieved by doubling the number of points, stretching this out to all places, and then interpolating the gaps missed.

Next is working through their finishing position and reallocating points. Retired and Disqualified both score zero. Then we have the next problem of a higher number of points making comparison difficult! A problem easily solved by normalising back to the leader’s total. What we result with is the graph below:

Lewis is the leader, so no points changes and Vettel would still be second, but Bottas is now third.

Next, we look at DNFs, and this is definitely pseudo-analysis! Because for absolute simplicity no assumption that if a driver did finish he’d be taking points away from another driver is made. Using the standard points system again, rather than the extended, this is just simply to find out what if they scored in every race?

In this analysis we simply take both Retirements and Disqualifications as the same; they didn’t complete the race. Total up the points they got from completed races, take the average number of points from those races, and then multiply by the number of races in a season. For example, Lewis didn’t complete one race, but with this analysis, he now gets a little bit more points to cover his DNF.

Looking further down and Perez would ahead of Hulkenberg. The new finishing orders would be:

First four position and no change, but Ricciardo would now be fifth. You can see how his DNFs significantly affected his points total as he was the poorest finisher at only 13 races, with Hulkenberg managing one better. Alonso and Ocon would both overtake Perez, a three-place improvement.

In conclusion, this is definitely an “IF” analysis, but it does serve to show rankings of some of the drivers. Leaders are still leading, those catching up at the rear still straggling. But in the midfield, there’s a couple of surprises where a driver does outperform their teammate with this extended scoring system.

DNFs have a huge impact on the number of points a driver can accumulate if the car is generally fast enough to score points. Care should be taken when looking at this to rate drivers because a higher finisher would put downward pressure on the point totals for other drivers.

MCLAREN PAYING HIGH PRICE FOR BAD DECISIONS

By: Paul Valesco

It is no secret that McLaren’s decision to ditch Honda works Formula 1 engines for Renault customer units cost the Woking outfit $100-million, but the reality is that the team did not reach the heights they expected and one wonders if the change to Renault has been a total failure.

McLaren Group chairman Bahrain’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa, boss of Mumtalakat investment fund which is the majority and controlling shareholder of the Woking organisation, told BBC of the Honda split, “It was an expensive decision” but added it was “in the long-term interests of the company.”

McLaren are going through the worst patch in their history. Performance is woeful, not even Fernando Alonso could do much with the MCL33 – probably the worst car ever built at Woking.

Preseason talk by members of the team who were bullish in predicting they could take on Red Bull with Renault power is now laughable. They believed their own calculations and claimed they had the best chassis in F1 last year! Broken calculator?

Since taking over team chief Zak Brown has not delivered on the sponsorship front which was meant to be his forte. The change to Renault engines (and success) would mean more sponsors it was trumpeted, wrong again.

On the management front, several heads rolled. Brown sent blameless Eric Boullier packing in July to be replaced by (pal?) Gil de Ferran, whose F1 experience is limited but had hovered in the background since the team’s foray to the Indy 500 last year. The intent now clear to all.

In retrospect, the Brazilian made no difference whatsoever to the team’s performance on track but then tech is not his domain, his role was supposed to “help” their drivers but his input made no difference to Stoffel Vandoorne’s form, while it is highly unlikely Alonso would be tapping into him for advice regarding F1.

What he has done for highly hyped rookie Lando Norris and will do for new boy Carlos Sainz remains to be seen.

Facts are, by coincidence or not, McLaren have gone backwards since De Ferran took over the role that Boullier once occupied. The team scored 44 points in the first nine races of the season with the Frenchman in the hot seat. Since his departure, under his successor, they have scored only 18 points.

The team finished sixth in this year’s championship mostly due to Alonso’s gutsy efforts. The Spaniard hauled in 50 points of the 62 points they scored this season.

With a lesser mortal in the car McLaren would have been lucky to score 20 or 25 all season. Without the ‘Fernando-factor’ they would have been ninth and only better than Williams, another once mega-force now reduced to a bottom-feeder in the Formula 1 bog.

Next year, thanks to McLaren, Honda will power the four Red Bull cars (Toro Rosso included) and only time will tell if they will be able to win races with the Japanese manufacturer.

The first year of the Toro Rosso-Honda was not entirely convincing on track in a season which was essentially test-lab for next year’s effort. But can Honda build a package to help Red Bull challenge the dominance of Mercedes or at least match Ferrari? We can only know in February…

As much as everyone at Red Bull are super motivated by the change, predictions of grandeur prevail, there is a smug confidence within the camp suggesting they know something we don’t.

But we have heard and seen this all before, not long ago, when so much was expected of the second coming of McLaren-Honda – we know how that ended.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Khalifa is wary of the possibility that Honda and Red Bull co-operative will succeed but is adamant his organisation and the Japanese company were in a failed partnership which could not be salvaged.

He explained, “On the one hand, frustrating. On the other, we are committed to this. The way we were heading, the change was bound to come. Tremendous respect for Honda but the relationship wasn’t working and so we had a civilised discussion and we decided to part ways.”

“We will see this through. Frustrating, because we are racers at heart, but you just have to power through,” added Sheikh Khalifa could learn from the Toyota F1 disaster a decade ago, which proved that throwing mega-money at a grossly mismanaged team does not buy success, instead it burns a serious hole in the pocket.

Big Question: Are McLaren paying a high price for bad decisions?

LAWRENCE STROLL: HOPEFULLY WE CAN FIGHT FOR THIRD PLACE

Source: Reuters

Force India can become a profitable Formula 1 team fighting for a place in the top three in the championship, according to new owner Lawrence Stroll.

The Canadian billionaire, who rescued the British-based team from administration in August, told the New York Times in an interview that he saw Force India as a good business opportunity as opposed to a whim to provide his son with a competitive Formula 1 package.

Stroll’s 20-year-old son Lance was confirmed on Friday as one of the drivers and the takeover has been seen as a move to provide him with a more competitive seat than he had at struggling Williams.

“I’m not in this for ego. I’m not in this to lose money. I’m in this for the long term, as I have been with every other business I’ve owned, be it Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors or whoever,” said Stroll senior.

The Montreal-based Canadian, who made his fortune by investing in global fashion brands, bought the Mont Tremblant circuit in Quebec 18 years ago and has been closely involved in his son’s career.

His Force India consortium includes Canadian entrepreneur Andre Desmarais, Jonathan Dudman, John Idol, telecoms investor John McCaw Jr, Michael de Picciotto and Stroll’s business partner Silas Chou.

Stroll said in the interview, carried out at the season’s penultimate race in Brazil in early November, that he had looked at the numbers and assessed where the sport was going under U.S.-based owners Liberty Media.

Stroll Senior: No reason we shouldn’t have high expectations, to hopefully be fighting for that third place

“It’s no secret there’s going to be some sort of a budget cap and better cash distribution to the smaller teams,” said Stroll.

“That is still to be clarified how well that works out, but there are all the right rumblings, and I’ve had enough conversations with (F1 chairman) Chase (Carey) to understand that is the direction they want and need to take the business. For me, that spells financial opportunity, and looking at 2021 onwards, a profitable business opportunity.”

Liberty has said it wants a more sustainable sport with a fairer distribution of revenues and a budget cap to ensure a more level playing field.

“With the right funding, the right leadership, the right motivation, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have high expectations and be able to punch even higher above our weight, to hopefully be fighting for that third place,” said Stroll.

Force India finished fourth overall in 2016 and 2017, the best of the rest in a sport dominated by Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

They ended up seventh this year, with the season finishing in Abu Dhabi last weekend, after starting again from scratch following the takeover. Stroll junior will partner Sergio Perez in the 2019 lineup.

MARKO: USELESS NEW FRONT WING COST US €15-MILLION

Next year’s revised Formula 1 front wing regulations have cost Red Bull €15-million to develop according to the team’s consultant Helmut Marko who is very bullish about next year’s prospects with Honda powering Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.

Next year’s front wing changes are meant to reduce the turbulence behind the current generation F1 cars in an effort to improve close racing and overtaking, but not everyone is convinced it will work and it comes at a hefty price tag according to Marko.

He explained to Auto Motor und Sport, “We plan to complete the car early like last year, but now came the useless regulation change to the front wing, which costs us around €15-million.”

“But it is a waste as far as limiting downforce is concerned, we are already more or less at the current level and the overtaking problem remains, it had no effect. We should not talk about budget caps when we make such decisions.”

While Red Bull technical boss Adrian Newey and his team work hard on next year’s RB15, Marko is adamant that Honda are also ticking all the boxes ahead of the new era for the team.

“We are targeting the title,” decalred Marko. “The Honda engine already has more horsepower than the Renault, and what’s coming should be enough so that we can race on our own at the front.”

Big talk from the Doc in the aftermath of yet another underwhelming season by Honda. Sure they improved but by how much is the question?

Newey traditionally delivers handy race cars which have punched above their weight despite the power deficit, now Honda need to deliver on two fronts, namely power and reliability, if they seek to take on Mercedes and Ferrari, while beating Renault should be a given, on paper that is.

Renault is now a thing of the past for the energy drinks team but despite the animosity and open bickering that prevailed in the last five years between management, the parting of ways appears to have been cordial.

“We parted on good terms. On Saturday we had a farewell party in Abu Dhabi,” added Marko.

Source: Paul Valesco

Lewis Hamilton crashed a Yamaha-R1 motorcycle

Five-time Formula 1 World Championship Lewis Hamilton crashed a Yamaha-R1 motorcycle he was riding anonymously at Jerez on Friday, the Mercedes driver was not hurt and continued riding after the incident.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Hamilton was riding a Yamaha-R1 wearing a black suit and black helmet, accompanied by a group of trusted friends, during a motorcycle track test day at the MotoGP venue in southern Spain

Without fanfare or special privileges, Hamilton went out on track followed by Superbike rider and instructor Alex Lowes on one of the most powerful versions of the bike, which recently enjoyed success at Brno.

Hamilton is said to have suffered a crash through turn five, a fast right-hander onto the back straight which wrecked the Yamaha, but this did not deter the Mercedes F1 driver who arranged another mount and was continued to ride during the scheduled 20-minute open track stints for the riders.

It was noted that Hamilton got no special favours and was seen wrapping tyres in tyre warmers, cleaning the bike and his helmet between his sessions on track.

Hamilton’s love for motorcycles is well known, he is brand ambassador for MV Augusta, and has said of his two-wheel passion, “I love bikes – I don’t really ride too much off-track, I tend to ride my MV Agusta bikes around.”

“The sense of freedom you get is amazing when it’s just you and the bike. But racing one would be a whole different proposition,” added the Briton.

Despite a minor spill five-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed on Twitter that he had a great time riding ‘incognito’ during a motorcycle test day at Jerez and reaffirmed his respect and admiration for the two-wheel brigade.

The Mercedes F1 driver did sessions on track as part of the daily track schedule, riding a Yamaha YZF-R1 with World Superbike riders Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark in his slipstream.

Hamilton wrote on Instagram, “Good morning! Woke up feeling great today. Miss riding the superbike already. FYI I’ve always loved two wheels more than four.

“Always wanted a motorbike since I was a kid however I am super grateful my dad got me a kart. But current new love is out on track on my bike.

“I have the highest regard and respect for these motorbike riders. It’s a much different discipline however, require some of the same basics such as time, patience, fearlessness, focus, agility and risk taking – all of which make a sport exciting.

“And yes, I’d love to race bikes, but these guys are on another level so I think I’ll just enjoy riding and testing the limits on track.”

“Valentino Rossi I need to come to the ranch asap,” wrote Hamilton inclosing, with reference to the MotoGP legend’s VR46-MotoRanch in Tavulli

To which Rossi replied, “Hamilton is a big bikes fan. He follows the races and is always texting me. He exaggerates a bit, as he praises bike riders saying we are the ones taking real risks. He has to come to the ranch one day.”

While Lowes, who shadowed the F1 World Champion on track at Jerez, added, “Very quick and impressive. Top bloke and genuine 2 wheel fan.”

ALONSO A MCLAREN LEGEND ?

2 December, 2018 

By: Paul Velasco

As many readers of this site may know, I always had a soft spot McLaren, you could put me among their fans who are disgruntled by the manner in which this once mighty team has fallen, reducing it to the back of the grid embarrassment, something unthinkable in the team’s glorious heyday.

For me growing up with the sport it was easy to admire the Ron Dennis led McLaren team, here was the mechanic who made his mark in Formula 2 with his Project 4 operation.

The story after that is well told: he progressed to Formula 1 taking over the underperforming Teddy Mayer led, Marlboro backed operation in the late seventies.

Under Dennis, the team rose from what were near ashes to become the incredible force it was in the eighties and nineties – a truly remarkable story, with so many distinguished drivers winning races and titles for the team. Not to mention the spawning and establishing of a sportscar manufacturer with huge potential.

So the point of this tale: this morning when reading an interview with Carlos Sainz I was piqued by the following question put to the Spaniard by the McLaren media office or whoever conducted the Q&A:

You’re following in the footsteps of Hunt, Senna, Prost, Häkkinen, Alonso… what does this mean to you?

Reading the names of a few of the McLaren greats and finding Alonso in there, triggered my annoyance.

Call me pedantic, but when you are writing history, from a team’s perspective (in this case McLaren) it is wise to be very careful, because what is presented as ‘fact’ lives on the internet indefinitely thus incorrect associations such as this can distort how history is perceived not only now but also in the future.

Before wielding the hammer at the Alonso-McLaren myth, with regards to Fernando I am in the camp that regards him as one of the greats of his era, a true fighter, gutsy and with a fire in the belly that I admire in drivers. We have celebrated his accomplishments in many, many posts on this site.

His boss Zak Brown summed up the Spaniard as a “racing monster” and I buy into that theory. Enormous plaudits for the young guy for what he did at Renault in 2005 and 2006, inspiring Spain with his success. His Ferrari adventure was amazing but cruelly no titles for his efforts in red.

In other words big respect and admiration for him, but as a McLaren fan… Alonso is NOT one of the great McLaren drivers and should be not be mentioned as one, in fact, stats show (and this is what they will be looking at in 50 years or more from now) compared to what he achieved with Renault and Ferrari, he seriously underachieved at Woking.

In 94 starts with the team, he scored 241 points at an average of 2.56 points per race, winning only four times. His average at Ferrari was 12.4 points per race, and with Renault 4.46 per geepee.

In terms of average points scored by McLaren drivers, he is 17th on the list, tied with Pedro de la Rosa!

Of the 20 drivers that have won grands prix for the team, he is 13th on the list with his four triumphs in the team’s colours.

Furthermore, the most damning aspect of his time at Woking is what he cost the team, using simple maths with official figures freely available on the web, the ballpark figure is outright staggering.

Let’s start with the $100-million fine that McLaren received after that tumultuous 2007 season when he partnered rookie Lewis Hamilton. For those who forgot about ‘Spygate’ or ‘Stepneygate’.

As Reuters reported at the time: “Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso expects McLaren to continue backing his title push despite his role in providing key evidence against the team in a spying controversy.”

It was a bitter period for all concerned, Fernando left at the end of that season back to the sanctuary of Renault run by mentor Flavio Briatore at the time.

Fast forward a decade, Fernando returns to McLaren (unbelievably) coaxed back to the team by Dennis himself, on a mega-bucks deal said to be worth $40-million per year, which will have netted him a cool $160-million to date.

But the greatest cost to the team was the loss of Honda, orchestrated by Alonso whose moaning about the Japanese manufacturer captured headlines until inevitably ‘poof’ went the deal at a cost of a reported $75-million per year to the McLaren coffers.

When a Sheikh states publically that the Honda deal “was expensive” believe me, it was damn expensive!

After trashing Honda, Alonso convinced Zak, and his noobs, that Renault power was the solution to get them winning again at $15-million per season for the ‘privilege’ of being a customer team.

So doing some simple maths on a napkin, I calculate that the bill McLaren has footed and will foot until 2020 for Alonso’s shenanigans amounts to over a staggering billion dollars plus.

More simple maths: every point he scored for the team cost them over $2-million…

For the sake of comparison, consider that in five years with Mercedes, Hamilton bagged 2105 points at an average of 17.69 in 119 starts with the team, which works out at a cost of $71,000 per point scored by the Briton.

To end the rant of a disgruntled fan watching McLaren history being tampered with by a media release that distorts reality in a subtle way and at the same time does a severe injustice to the team’s true great drivers.

So when Media Guy (or whoever) was asking the question to young Carlos, it should have gone like this:

You’re following in the footsteps of Fittipaldi, Hunt, Lauda, Senna, Prost, Berger, Häkkinen, Button, Hamilton, Coulthard, Raikkonen, … what does this mean to you?

There is absolutely no place among those McLaren greats for Alonso, the legend that he is, and I also believe there was no reason he should be feted and celebrated as the team did ad nauseam since his departure was announced months ago.

My McLaren would have allowed him to walk away into the distance with no special livery or big fuss, just as they did with their real greats in the past.

If anything Fernando deserved that type of hyped-up farewell and thank you tribute from Renault, after all he is their first and only F1 world champion as a works team, his great legacy lies there.

ABU DHABI TEST DAY 1: DRIVER & TEAM REPORTS

Best time of the day, compared to Q3 Race Results

Mercedes

Valtteri completed 120 laps of the Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday at the wheel of the championship-winning Mercedes-AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+. The team returned to the venue of last weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, testing Pirelli’s new range of tyres for 2019.
The Finn set the second fastest time of the day, a 1:37.231, on the HyperSoft tyre
He completed 120 untroubled laps of the Yas Marina Circuit (666.480 km)
The main focus of the day was collecting data on the 2019 tyre compounds

Valtteri Bottas: “Overall, a good day of testing here in Abu Dhabi. We completed our programme without any issues and we were able to do some long and short runs on a mix of the new Pirelli compounds. We can see some differences to this year’s tyres but we have all winter to work on understanding the new tyres from all the knowledge we are gaining from this test. I’m sure Pirelli will learn a lot from these two days of testing as well. We’ll be back on track tomorrow for the final time this year.”

Andrew Shovlin: “Today was about gathering data on the 2019 tyres and understanding how they differ to the 2018 tyres we’ve used this year. We’ll continue our programme with Valtteri tomorrow with more of a focus on the performance and degradation of each of the compounds. This work is important as we need to select tyres for the early races based on the information we find at this test. It was a good day of running and the car ran without any issues.”

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel’s racing year came to an end today as he completed 68 laps of the Abu Dhabi track, with a best time of 1:36.812, which came courtesy of a fresh set of 2018-spec Hypersoft tyres. Tomorrow, for the second and last day of tyre testing, Charles Leclerc will take over from Seb with a similar programme.

Sebastian Vettel: “The purpose of this test is primarily to get a first feeling of the new tyres, with the impressions of the last weekend of racing still fresh in our minds, which gave us the possibility to compare. Unfortunately, today we lost some track time to repair work, but overall I think there were no major surprises as these tyres seem to work and to be fairly similar to the ones we used this season. Now we’ll see how the new regulations for 2019 affect the speed of all cars and how they work in combination with the tyres, also depending on the compound choices at the various tracks.”

Haas

Tuesday began with Pietro Fittipaldi making his Formula 1 debut representing Haas F1 Team. All 10 teams that competed in the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship were present.

Fittipaldi logged 56 laps around the 5.554-kilometre (3.451-mile), 21-turn track. His quickest time was a 1:39.201, earned on his 41st lap on a set of Pirelli P Zero Pink hypersoft tires. It placed him eighth among the 12 drivers who participated.

Fittipaldi wasted little time getting onto the track when it opened at 9 a.m. local time, making his installation lap on the Purple ultrasoft tire. A 17-lap wake-up run on the same compound followed. The morning program then stopped abruptly due to an electrical power unit issue as Fittipaldi began his next out-lap shortly before 11 a.m.

After an extended stay in the garage for a power unit change, Fittipaldi returned to the track just after 4 p.m. He quickly cycled through back-to-back comparison runs utilizing Pirelli’s 2018 and 2019 soft and hypersoft rubber. He totalled 38 laps to close a productive final two hours of track time.

Pietro Fittipaldi: “It was an amazing day. I’m very happy to have had my first drive in a Formula One car. The braking power of the car, the acceleration, the speeds you carry through the corners, it was just insane. The car is so fast. It’s just stuck to the ground. The amount of downforce it has is unbelievable. We had small issues at the beginning of the day, but the team got them sorted. They really did a fantastic job to get back out there, and then in the afternoon we worked through the plan we had. We compared the 2018 tires to the 2019s from Pirelli. I tried to give the engineers my best feedback so they can start working on that information. The team has given me a huge opportunity to be testing with them next year. I’ll learn as much as I can, but also help them with developing the car for 2019 and throughout the season. It was a really good test.”

McLaren

Lando Norris got behind the wheel of the McLaren MCL33 for the first time since the first free practice session on Friday morning in Brazil. He completed 136 laps and set the sixth-fastest time of the day.

As these two days post the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix are dedicated to tyre testing of Pirelli compounds for 2019 only, car development is naturally limited. However, there is much still to be learned ahead of the 2019 season – not only tyre degradation, but also useful driver-specific procedures and processes.

Lando Norris: “I think this was the most laps I’ve ever done in a day, so it was good. I got through a lot of the things I needed to, such as longer runs – which I haven’t done much of so far – so considering all that, I don’t feel too bad. I haven’t really felt the degradation of the tyres before, so that was one of the biggest things I wanted to get through.”

“I’ll have a bit more experience for next year now, of tyre drop-off and things like that. I also wanted to put a few other things together, such as practice starts and giving feedback.”

“It did feel a bit different today, realising that a lot of the stuff we did was for my own good and things that will really benefit me a lot next year. I’m now trying to get everything based around me rather than the other drivers like in the past as Test Driver, so it definitely did feel a bit different. I really wanted to focus on trying to make it the best I could for me, so it was useful.”

Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: “For us, today was the first day of our 2019 programme successfully completed. We had a clean day and accomplished all of our objectives, including several longer runs. Our focus was not only collecting tyre information, but for the first time the programme was geared towards Lando as our main priority, rather than the supporting role he has played as Test and Reserve Driver so far.

“We’re looking forward to having Carlos drive our car for the first time tomorrow.”

Sauber

The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team has concluded the first day of testing at Abu Dhabi with Kimi Räikkönen in the cockpit of the Sauber C37. The Finnish driver completed a total of 102 laps throughout the day, becoming familiar with the car and the team’s operating systems.

The programme was focused on tyre testing – running the 2019 tyre casing, as well as different compounds from the current selection. With Räikkönen’s feedback and the collected data, the team has obtained a good reference in preparation for the upcoming season.

In the final run, the team finished just a few minutes ahead of schedule, without compromising the test programme. The causes are still under investigation.

Tomorrow it will be Antonio Giovinazzi’s turn to drive for day two of the test at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Liberty Media Corp Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call

By: Paul Valesco

Here is me thinking being a ‘Formula 1 Supremo’ entailed barking orders, his way or the highway feared by all, wheel-and-deal, raking in billions, answerable to no one… How wrong I was!

After decades of Formula 1 dictatorship under Bernie Ecclestone’s reign as Supremo I must admit I thought that’s what was on the job description.

So when Chase Carey and his two lieutenants took over at the hem, my thinking as a business dummy was: cool these three guys will call the shots with the buck stopping with the man with the big moustache. Wrong again!

Now that the honeymoon is over, the reality has just dawned on me: Chase is just a captain and above him are brigadiers, generals etc. But more than anything he is answerable to a board, and members don’t give two hoots about Formula 1, the passion, the history – show me the money is the name of the game way above Carey’s head.

And that’s where the pressure is. While fans bicker about Max shoving Esteban, or Fernando’s Indy foray, or Mercedes dominance, a week ago the real business was happening off-track where Carey faced tough questions during the Liberty Media earnings conference call.

This is a week old transcript freely availableon the web, but I felt that it has so much good info in it – among the inexplicable mumbo-jumbo where you are forced to try and read between the lines –  shedding light on exactly the pressure that Carey is under as just another brick in the Liberty Media wall.

How different to the Ecclestone era when the small man made the big decisions, answerable to no one for most of his tenure at the helm.

Reading through this intriguing transcript, it is quite clear that the pressure on The Three Amigos is intense, with the Big Amigo (Chase) having to deliver not just for the fans, but for the investors who are now expecting returns but concerned by the lack of progress in their investment almost two years down the road.

This is a long read – often totally incomprehensible and ether ‘auto-transcribe’ gone wrong or a ‘drunk transcriber’ or (unlikely) a drunk Chase Carey but if you persevere it gives an idea of where the land lies in Formula 1, the way forward, the expectations, the deadlines… read on! Or decipher on!

Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:FWONA) Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call November 8, 2018 11:00 AM ET

Executives

Courtnee Chun – Senior Vice President of Investor Relations

Greg Maffei – President and Chief Executive Officer

Mark Carleton – Chief Financial Officer

Chase Carey – Chairman and CEO, Formula One

Analysts

Ben Swinburne – Morgan Stanley

David Karnovsky – J.P. Morgan

Vijay Jayant – Evercore

Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research

Bryan Kraft – Deutsche Bank

Amy Yong – Macquarie

Jason Bazinet – Citi

Brandon Ross – BTIG

Below are extracts from the transcript related to questions on Formula 1 that took place during the conference call.

[Warning: As mentioned at times the transcript is incomprehensible, difficult to tell if it was transcriber messing up or speakers getting tongue tied or both… ]

Greg Maffei: Looking at Formula One Group, great 2018 with exciting outcomes, Lewis Hamilton securities 5th Championship. We still have 2 more to go, and we expect excitement because the constructors’ championship is still on the line. In sponsorship, we signed data rights deal during the quarter with ISG to produce live Formula One betting offering. As we’ve mentioned many times before, this business is hard to compare on a quarterly basis, this quarter we had 8 races versus 6 in a comparable period in 2017. So we might just take a longer-term look. With that in mind, we are revving for an exciting 2000 season and are quite excited.

Mark Carleton: Thank you, Greg. At quarter end, Formula One Group had attributed cash and liquid investments of $106 million excluding $45 million of cash at F1. Formula One Group has attributed public market securities with a market value of approximately $4.4 billion as of August 7, including the inter-group interest in the Braves Group and our stake in Live Nation, with $2 billion of attributed debt excluding the debt at F1.

Braves Group had attributed cash and liquid investments of $78 million. At quarter end Liberty SiriusXM Group had attributed the principal amount of debt of $7.6 billion, includes $6.6 million of debt at SiriusXM. Formula One group had attributed principal amount of debt of $5 billion which includes $2.9 billion of debt at F1 and Braves Group had an attributed principal amount of debt of $626 million.

F1’s total net debt-to-covenant OIBDA ratio was defined in their credit facilities calculations was approximately 6.5 times, as of September 30, as compared to a maximum allowable leverage ratio of 8.75 times.

Carleton: Race calendar variances between 2017 and 2018 resulted in income from 22 races falling in the trailing twelve months

At the calendar, race calendar variances between 2017 and 2018 resulted in income from 22 races falling in the trailing twelve months in the covenant calculation income from only 21 races will be captured in the trailing twelve months for the year-ended 2018. So we expect the reported leverage ratio will increase accordingly at year-end based on the race accounts.

We’ve set a target total net leverage ratio for Formula One up of 5 to 6 times, bank covenant OIBDA, please note that these leverage ratios are for the Formula One business and not for the Formula One Group overall.

So with that, I will turn over to Chase Carey to talk a little bit at Formula One.

Chase Carey: Thank you, Mark. Lewis Hamilton secured his 5th World Championship at the Mexico Grand Prix at the end of October, an outstanding achievement which puts him on par with Formula One legend Juan Manuel Fangio and now only behind Michael Schumacher in the all-time list of championship titles. Congratulations to Lewis. We still have two more races in the 2018 season, in Brazil this weekend and then Abu Dhabi during Thanksgiving, and we expect to see continued excitement and drama among the drivers and the teams will be focused on securing final placing in the constructors’ championship.

To-date the 2018 season continues to impress in a number of areas. Live attendance in aggregate is up 3% year-on-year at the 16 tracks with comparable data from 2017. And we’ve had a great response to the enhancements such as the fans owns, merchandising, track tours, hot laps, champions club, paddock compatible club. Television viewing on race day on year-on-year on year is down 5%, however that is largely due to our move from free to Pay TV.

Carey: We’re especially pleased with our performance in our two key growth markets the U.S. and China where viewing figures, are showing uplift of 50% and 265% respectively

In Italy, excluding Italy, our television viewership is up 1% year-on-year and our Saturday viewership for qualifying is up even more. We’re especially pleased with our performance in our two key growth markets the U.S. and China where viewing figures, are showing uplift of 50% and 265% respectively.

For the digital engagement, while still early on our – in our initiative to upgrade and expand our digital platforms, our interactions during race week are up 31%, and our video views are up 66%. And we continue to be for the second year running the fastest growing sport on social media. We now have 18.1 million followers on our social platforms and counting up about 50% on a year ago.

We finalized the 2019 calendar with the renewals of the Japanese and German race contracts. And with that, 2019, will replicate the 2018 race counter in both number of races and locations. We’re already looking forward to 2020 and are thrilled that Formula One will add the newly announced Hanoi race in that year. This location is part of our strategy to extend our reach and brand in Asia and Vietnam is a dynamic country with whom we are excited to partner. We’re in continuing discussions around additional opportunities to develop the race calendar including the previously discussed race in Miami.

Speaking of which, we held our fourth and final fan festival of the year in Miami which overlapped with the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin in October. The fan festival featured a live car run down Biscayne Boulevard which attracted an estimated 80,000 spectators which was featured heavily in social media. That weekend kicked off with an amazing stunt by Red Bull with an F1 car driven by F1 commentator and former racer David Coulthard doing donuts in the top of a high rise. We haven’t seen this video encourage you to seek it out.

Carey: We know that offering compelling content on multiple platforms is key to reaching our existing fans in attracting new ones

As we look toward the 2019 season, we will continue to host fan vestibules as a way to engage and attract fans and build the F1 brand currently and anticipate expanding our fan festivals in 2019. We made further progress and our other main commercial areas. On the television part of the business, we completed additional renewals that matter support our targets on both free and pay television platforms and include digital opportunities. We know that offering compelling content on multiple platforms is key to reaching our existing fans in attracting new ones.

For our Nation OTT product, we launched on mobile platforms in September, which further enhance is the offering and we look forward to a full commercial launch in 2019. We will continue to improve the product and content offering in the off season and over the coming years, but early response since our mobile platform launch has been positive.

We just completed the second event in the F1 New Balance e-sports Pro Series in which drivers race on F1 2018 the official game of the FIA Formula One World Championships which was released on August 24th.

This year and 9 of the Formula One teams have entered teams giving the drivers a once in a lifetime opportunity to race with the backing of some of the most prestigious names in motor sport racing following an intensive qualifying and draft process. The two events have been stream live via Facebook and broadcast last globally on selected TV networks. Our Esport events this season have accumulated over 67 million impressions and 13.1 million views on social media about double what we were – where we were the same time last year through the semifinals.

Carey: We continue to make progress on the motorsport side of our business to improve competition, action and unpredictability

We look forward to the grand final later this month where the winner will receive $200,000. Regarding sponsorships, on our last call I talked about our philosophy and how we approach both new and existing sponsors and the focus on building a broader array of offerings to service the needs of our partners and provide a real connection with our fans and support. On this called like to focus on the many wins we’ve had here in 2018, some of which include renewals of existing sponsors DHL and Emirates with multi-year deals and expanded offerings.

Our first ever regional sponsorship deal with Petronas, partnership with Amazon, Web Services entering into sponsorship and data rights commercial partnerships with ISG to produce an F1 betting offering, in a listing New Balance and [Fanatec] as sponsors of the F1 to balance Esports pro series. I point out that many of these deals were done during 2018, and we look forward to receiving the full bettered by these new contracts in 2019. Sponsorship will be a continued area of focus in 2019 and we will enter the year with great momentum. The F1 value proposition to sponsors will continue to strengthen as we expand and tailor the offering, grow the fan base and reach new audiences.

We continue to make progress on the motorsport side of our business to improve competition, action and unpredictability. We’ve agreed on changes to the aero regulations of the cars that will be introduced in 2019, which could lead to an increase in overtaking and build excitement on the track for next season. The unpredictability is amplified by a number of changes to the driver lineup going into next season.

With Fernando Alonso retiring Daniel Ricciardo moving to Rano, Pierre Gasly taking his place at Red Bull long side Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc heading to Ferrari and more. They are eager to see what this next season has in stored. And we’re focused on a larger list of sporting regulation changes to further improve the sport for our drivers and fans.

Carey: With the Concorde Agreement, we’re making progress regarding the broader set of changes to cost structures, revenue distribution regulations and governance

I am often asked about the so-called Concorde Agreement, we’re making progress regarding the broader set of changes to cost structures, revenue distribution regulations and governance. During constant constructive discussions with the teams and at the end of the day, our interests are aligned. We agree on the long-term objectives and we’re working towards finalizing the details for the 2021 season.

Our team is busy working on all these initiatives with the majority of our hiring for corporate functions complete, we now have the organization largely in place it will continue to build and grow Formula One for long-term success.

Ben Swinburne: Thank you. Good morning, guys. Chase, just going back to your comments on the digital business and streaming, is 2019 a year sort of full steam ahead in terms of marketing and programming that product? I think this year – this year launched it at the beginning of the season sort of had fits and starts and you’ve been getting the tech ready and the devices ready is 2019, a year that you think this business really can get hit its stride from a growth perspective or do you see it is still something that’s a multi-year project, is there any color on that since I think it’s a big opportunity for you guys and then I have a follow from it?

Chase Carey: You’re talking – you’re talking about OOT product?

Ben Swinburne: Yes. Yes, exactly.

Chase Carey: Yeah. Okay, yeah. I guess – I think that’s right I mean it’s a look – it’s a multi-year project to get it to where we believe it can get to. But I guess I’d say this year ended up being probably almost a beta project to me and we didn’t launch it at the beginning of the season, I think first, more like ours to really achieve its potential, it’s a season by more than up more than a sort of race by.

We have more technical I means as do a lot of players who have gone into it initially, in the more technical blogs and the like I think we probably were not surprised, we hoped they wouldn’t be there but they were. And so I think really this has been –I mean to me there are there steps in getting in building this out, first is the technology, the technical platforms got to be reliable, I mean customers, just don’t they don’t tolerate glitches.

I think second, we’ve got to find content offering me people buy content that are by technology, so the technical got more but then we got to define the content offering. And we got to sell the market, we didn’t really do the latter this year because we were focused on. You got to get all most of the things done sequentially, got to make the technology platform stable. Tell the content story of and sell the market it.

Carey: Next year will be the first time we really sell and market it properly

So I think 2019, will really be the first time we bring it to market as up as a commercial proposition to market and sell it. And I think we feel good about the technological platform, the mobile, the adding the mobile platform is critical I mean so much of people follow it today, not on desktops or phone got on. And on mobile devices and we didn’t get that in place till September, I think the content offerings improved it will adding some of that the realistically the content is probably over the next couple of years, we’ll continue to add breadth and depth in terms of data and archival products.

But we really next year will be the first time we really sell a market it properly. So I’d say this was a year of getting, if ready to more commercially launch but next year to year one, this is not a – this is a multi-year proposition and we’re still, as we roll it out clearly it’s going to rally different in different countries and in some it will – will be fully an aggressively push it actually one of the really exciting opportunities we’re developing as with some of our traditional broadcasters, some of the deals we did, renewals we did for 2019, we’re sort of partnering with them to market and promote over the top platform in a way as to sort of working with them as opposed to against them. Because I actually think it is compatible and I think it I mean this is a product targeted at your hardcore customers who will pay more for a richer experience than the basic linear one. And I think it benefits everybody to find a way to tap into the demand that those products that those customers have for the product.

So it will continue to certainly evolve, certainly it’s not going to be early days next year but along with the wave thing next year really will be the first time we sort of take it to a market – take it to market as a commercial proposition, again it will vary by country how we take it to market.

Carey: The business model is not what it can or should be

David Karnovsky: Hi, just a question for Chase. How does Force India is entry and exit administration potentially impact your view not only on things like budget caps but also on how profitable and financially healthy the independent F1 team should be in general?

Chase Carey: I think it probably reinforces. What we’ve been saying that the initiatives that we’ve proposed and we’re discussing with the teams on revenues and cost are really of two goals. One is to make the sport better, improve competition action, as we said. But others to make it a healthier business model for everybody right, I think today, the business model is not what it can or should be. And I do that we need to address revenues and costs and teams agree with that the details – the details are always going to require hard work and compromise to find the right ones because there are 10 different perspectives there are – there isn’t one on the details. But I think everybody agrees in the goals and I think the challenges of Force India sort of reinforce.

That the importance of making it healthier than I think we can then I think actually realistically it’s – I think we can make it a healthier business model and a healthier sport, so it’s laces where tacking and dealing with things like cost is actually not compromising, the quality teams, the quality competition I think it’s actually enhancing it, for it. It’s just the challenge is sort of breaking old habits and recognizing where people are today to get there. But I think we need to make it healthier for them both healthier for the teams that are in it and I think it makes them it a much more exciting an enticing proposition for some of the potential new entrants that we think potentially could race on the track with us, that would be a great addition for fans. So I think the – I think it just reinforces the importance of improving that business model from both perspectives.

Carey: We’re in a fortunate place right now that we have more places we want to have races, then we can raise, and that’s a good place to be in

David Karnovsky: Okay. And then just a follow-up, is there any update you can provide an integration for the British Grand Prix, first 2019, is it – is it feasible to move this race to the other track or street racing London and then separately is there any update you can provide in where you stand with regards to Miami? Thanks.

Chase Carey: Again, I think an ongoing negotiation, we’ve said the best this is for it to seem to like negotiate in public and I don’t think that’s the healthiest way to deal with things as partners. So I don’t think we want to provide a lot of inside the tent commentary on active discussions, we value the Silverstone race but we’ve got to get to a place that works for us. And then those discussions are ongoing. There are always other options in it, part of one of those we make sure is we’re continuing to develop an array of options. We’re in a fortunate place right now that we have more places we want to have races, then we can raise, and that’s a good place to be in.

We’ll continue to develop those options and you can make sure, we are able to make the best decisions both for fans and for racing and for us as a business all those things matter and we’re actively engaged Miami clearly there and ongoing process a lot of parties involved which is not uncommon when you get to a street race that you’ve got sort of macro parties and micro parties are there instead so it’s just a time-consuming process step to navigate through all of those I guess, I’d say it’s active. I think the fan festival was a help.

Carey: We are certainly the U.S. remains a priority, we’re engaged in discussions elsewhere in the U.S.

I think everybody in Miami thought was a great experience, there was great energy, great excitement of this and the comments being 80000 people and really I think almost all the comments we got were positive and exciting about it, I think really recognized it as a unique world-class event and in sort of help reinforce what we bring, so I think that’s up positive step in it. But it takes time when you’re working through a process like in Miami where there is as many constituencies that we have to deal with.

So we are certainly the U.S. remains a priority, we’re engaged in discussions elsewhere in the U.S. So it’s not just Miami and opportunities but we think Miami you know really could be a great signature event for us worldwide not just in the U.S.

And I guess – yeah I think in terms of where we’re at in the process of really building in some sense rebuilding as Greg said Formula One, yeah I do – I think we do expect 2019 to be a step forward in that sense many ways 2017 and 2018. And if we described it going and we’re sort of foundation building and I think as you go through 2019 realistically we expect 2020 and 2021 also be steps forward.

Carey: We do expect that we start to deliver on the opportunities that exist inside Formula One

So I do think we – I think we actually feel pretty good about where we are I mean early on we talked about coming in with a 3 to 4 year process – 3 to 4 year perspective and the early stage being investment with some of those investments starting to deliver the benefits and then to deliver on the opportunities that we’re building and we do expect those – those sort that come through in 2019 and then again an issues more and others and 2020 and sort of ongoing a 2021, more certainly not going up. We’re not going to get a step forward but clearly we still believe there’s a lot we have a lot of plans we have in place I mean we talk about things like the U.S. and China that are really further down the road as I said OOT is certainly still going to be a very early stage product next year so.

And I think mindset, I also making sure where I think our priority for this business is it continue to be where we’re going to be in 3 years not 3 months and not get sucked into sort of trying to – trying to sort of focus on the prioritize the short term over the long term. I think we believe then the deeper we get into it the more excited we are about the opportunities to grow the sport and want to make sure, we really prioritize building that value over up, maximizing a short term profit opportunity but that being said certainly 2019, we do expect that we start to deliver on the opportunities that exist inside Formula One.

Jeff Wlodarczak: Good morning. A couple for Chase. Chase, in the Concorde Agreement, is that something you expect to get done in 2018 and then given the time to engineer and build the new engines especially for potential new as you manufacture teams. At this point realistically, we probably pushing the engine into 2021, I’ve got a follow-up?

Chase Carey: Yeah I guess [first] on the Concorde. We have been [meeting] in private and I guess I go back to the conversations on discussions we have in private versus public. We’ve told them our goals and in terms of targets and timeline, I’d rather get it done sooner than later though, the challenge is everything we’re talking about is affective in 2021 and usually getting things done there helped by having a deadline that sort of drives that. [Editor: Auto-transcribe wobble or Chase losing the plot, not sure…]

Obviously, if all these changes are 2021, everybody’s like to have it done but there isn’t – there isn’t something that creates up a pressure point to say it has to get done by December 31st, 2018, I’d like to have it done just because I think it’s sort of healthy for us to be focusing on the future. But I think the conversations are good.

We have targets internally but I don’t think it’s constructive for us to try to put out externally target dates that are going to create a different dynamic around those discussions, I think the discussions have been good, I think the discussions have been helpful and I think the best discussions again are ones at this point that we have with the 10 teams as partners and there are ongoing and we feel good about that process and we’ll bring it to a conclusion, in the right way, in hopefully expeditiously but we’re not going to put them publicly out deadlines on it, I don’t think that helps them, helps the process.

Carey: I think we’ve actually pretty well got a path forward for the engines

In terms of the engines and the engine really isn’t part of the Concorde Agreement because really governance dictates how you deal with the engine I mean we can put something in place but the engines always going to have things that are evolving it through. And actually I think we have a – I think we’ve actually pretty well got a path forward for the engines that sort of evolved in many ways through good constructive conversations with the teams in a year ago, we are probably headed towards a – towards a more significantly rebuilt engine.

I think as we got into discussions, I think we – with all the teams, I think we all came to an agreement that the right path was more stabilizing the existing engine and it to a series of sporting and technical regulations that improve competition and help to improve address the economic issues around that, some of those sporting technical regulations are still evolving and they will and again they won’t really be – they won’t be part of the Concorde Agreement, the Concorde Agreement will be will lay out the governance process by which you have you put in place those sort of regulations but they won’t they won’t lay those out.

So actually I think right now, we’re in pretty good path. I mean we agree from early days our goals on the engine for simpler, cheaper, louder more power, let the drivers drive. I think as we went through that we felt, the best it was destabilizing the existing engine and then through sporting and technical regulations trying to achieve tailored, just sort of our objectives through those regulations to achieve what we wanted to achieve and I think we’re pretty well, pretty well aligned on that and the path we’re going forward. And down the road I’m sure they’ll continue to be regulations that evolve with that but I think the engine path is

I think we’re on pretty well agreed to and again continuing to be refined through the regulatory process.

Carey: I think we agreed probably been the most stabilizing for those objectives whether it’s new or existing is stabilizing the existing engine [whatever that means…]

Jeff Wlodarczak: So it’s more evolutionary than revolutionary and do you feel comfortable that you contract outside engine manufacturers through the path engine or on the price cost?

Chase Carey: Yeah I think that’s why the regulations are important. I think what we – I think what we what we really came to an agreement with I think everybody got persuaded by that stabilizing maybe have a new engine. Its sort of every starts over and they’re always unintended consequences out of a new engine. So what is actually I think we agreed probably been the most stabilizing for those objectives whether it’s new or existing is stabilizing the existing engine and to the degree you want to address the economics and things like that, it’s really to regulations because I mean a factor for example that came out of this is die, no time which is testing time, it’s probably as. [Editor: Someone please translate that for me!]

One of the more expensive consequences because it lets you test open ended sort of throw stuff against a wall and tested. So the degree you want to address sort of how much – how much time and money can be spent testing, an endless list of theoretical enhancements, is probably an example of as important as anything any tool to try to make the engines both from a sport, and a competition perspective and a business perspective viable and attractive form, again existing and new players. [Editor: Did anyone understand this?!]

Carey: We have a technology that is miles beyond any anything else out there at any level

So I think the – the intent of this was not just to improve the development path for existing but actually it is develop a path that we think is enticing and interesting for new. And I think in doing it one of things, we want to make sure, is we’re not looking, we want engines to be the engines to be different, the technology in this sport is incredibly important, we are clearly – we have a technology that is – miles beyond any anything else out there at any level, the efficiency of these engines I mean one of the stories that has been told well enough is this new hybrid engine that came out a few years ago, the incredible performance it gets today with – in a much more fuel efficient basis than prior engines.

So I think we’ve want to make sure we continue to have the hybrid engine that was rode relevant today. But at the top of the pyramid in terms of technology that – that in many ways is at the forefront of what’s going on in the world. So I think it’s achieving all the things that I think that part of that is what attracts the right new engine manufacturers into it as well. And then I actually think the process to teams is the way I hope we address a lot of things going forward is that it was collaborative, I think it was constructive, and I think it was much more as opposed to every man for himself in the past, it was much more of a partnership and trying to agree on goals and agree on the best path to get there.

But I do think the path we’re on and we’ve had some discussion with attention to entrance we’re in cars and I think there’s broad agreement that the path we’ve – we’ve sort of landed on for going forward is the is the right path for everybody again is next existing and new.

Jeff Wlodarczak: Thank you.

Operator: And we’ll take our next question from Bryan Kraft with Deutsche Bank.

Bryan Kraft: Hi. Chase had two questions for you. Was wondering if you could give us some additional colour on the advertising and promotion revenue in the third quarter, specifically did the AWS in the Patronas relationships contribute or are those still yet to come in 4Q? And then separately, I wanted to ask you what are the benefits that you’re expecting from the agreement you recently signed with ISG to bring betting to Formula One, and just maybe at a high level, can you talk about the structure of the economics and what it means for Formula One, and what the timing is for rolling out that an across the major markets? Thanks.

Carey: I think betting is… we always have responsibilities that go with it, want to make sure it’s done in a healthy way

Chase Carey: There was some impact been those deals were signed during the – I said on the Petronas you know off top of my head, the ISG, certainly was not we sign during the quarter I think it was probably pretty late into the quarter. So those deals will certainly be much more 2019, you have a bigger impact and much more significant happening impact the 2019 than 2018. But in terms of the actual percentage in the third quarter, I don’t know I think it was but it was sort of at the back end of the third quarter.

I think the betting, I think betting is a – is a we always have responsibilities that go with it, want to make sure it’s done in a healthy way, want to sure it’s done there’s proper integrity tools around it. But I think fans that – it’s clear fans enjoy it, I think it makes it more interesting, makes more exciting, makes as an American I look at in some ways fantasy football which is great enhancement into the NFL. It’s all a form of fun day and I think that type of engagement in a sport widens its appeal to others, makes the experience better and obviously as business opportunities for us.

For us were we’re sort of both it’s both a sponsorship element and providing probably a more expanded an interesting set of opportunities to – to engage with the sport and bet on things that you may not be betting that may not be available and the people I was talking about in the sport today is so it’s not betting on the sport it’s not new. But I think we can provide new and interesting ways, we have to make sure, we have integrity and disciplines around them to ensure that anything one bets on is – is properly oversight and properly sort of policed and maintained.

But we think it’s up, we think it’s a great advancement in a great additional dynamic dimension to the sport that we can both road and develop there’s additional places to go for fans to – fans to bat and we do it recognizing, there are things you have to be aware of and be responsible for when you’re – when you’re gauged in the world the betting.

Bryan Kraft: Does Formula One share at all in the economics from the betting side or is it the sponsorship revenue that – that form and why?

Carey: I think the primary directly we’re not in the betting business

Chase Carey: I think the primary directly we’re not in the betting business, so we are more engaged with opportunities to bet than promoting the betting aspect of it but we’re not in the – we’re not in the gambling, we’re not in the betting business.

Jason Bazinet: I don’t know if this is – for Mr Carey and Mr Maffei but – from the moment you bought Formula One, Liberty stock sort of reacted very favourably. Because the buy side likes the asset they had a lot of confidence in Mr Carey and the broader Liberty team. But every quarter that you guys have reported, I think over the last 5 or 6 have been disappointing even though you’ve been very clear about this being sort of foundational years to build for long-term growth.

So my question is this as we take this step forward as you describe it in 2019, 2020 and 2021, what is a reasonable range of expectations for top line growth? Is it a low single-digit, mid-single-digit, high single-digit like what anything to source or to help the buy side dimensional eyes what success looks like or what failure looks like I think would be quite helpful.

Chase Carey: Greg, because I’ll answer Greg can add anything he wants them. Look I guess I don’t think we’re sort of going to get into prying trying to quantify I mean I guess it’s a form of guidance and where we expected to be. I think we tried to be clear about 2017 or 2018 what were our priorities and in some way, I think people always sort of think once you’ve what you said you going to do something three months later why isn’t it done, and it takes time to put an organization in place.

Carey: Get everything to where it should be an opportunity to grow it

I think equally as you get into a business and I think talked about this a few quarters ago or maybe was last year. Usually, always find a few surprises that you usually know the good thing, so it’s something you find about a race in particular or a sponsor that was had was leaving. In some ways those are opportunities but there are opportunities to fix them, so I think I’m in many ways the ample of things we found early on that we’re working through, all opportunities for us to as we – as we address those and get everything to where it should be an opportunity to grow it.

But our – when I recognize the market always in a really want to step sort of gravitates form the quarterly earnings, I mean that is short term quarter, and not that we ignore it. But I guess we’ve tried to be as clear as we can that our priorities where I get as said – I think I said from the get go where we’re going to in 2020 not where we’re going to where we’re going to be in 3 to 4 years not 3 to 4 months. And we have and we describe the initiatives to get there but I think that – I don’t think we’re going to start trying to have – head down a road of quantifying – quantifying those components, some of the initiatives we announced yesterday the race if you had not made to step into 2020 step not 2019 step, but as we evolve the calendar in 2020.

And 2020 want to be on one of the opportunities and we described the things that can drive the business. And if we feel pretty good about where we are and realistically I think there’s always a challenge when you describe where you’re trying to go again I think it’s a reaction once you’ve described it, and things should in very short orderly process follow behind it. Realistically it takes time to develop take a business that’s really what we came in to, when I said it I think at the investor conference last year, is sort of an organizational startup in a business turnaround and those things don’t happen and whether – whatever expectations were in there in the short term, our focus has been building for 2020, so that and – I think we feel.

Carey: the world’s never exactly as you as you expect it to be. There are always surprises and I think as Greg said earlier, the world’s never exactly – as you expect it to be. But all things considered we feel – I think we feel pretty good about where we are. And but clearly we recognize equally, there’s real work to do in execution to. Now there are some things that are a lot harder than plan and some things where you have an opportunity that we didn’t – we didn’t know was there whether it’s fixing something from the past or an area that is bigger than we thought it may be.

Greg Maffei: So if I could say, I grew all just comment that – we have the market gave a lot of credit it’s right on the block as you rightly pointed out Jason. We appreciate that but sometimes the market can also as Chase rightly point out expect immediate gratification syndrome. We have gone and laid the foundation [a] bunch of things including hiring including building out substantial capabilities, we’ve absorbed places where business may have been ahead of itself.

For example, particularly with promoters and adjusting to make that a better experience, and we’ve done things to set the business right for the longer term, we’ve cleaned up the balance sheet, we’ve driven a lot more flexibility, we think we’re building and the asset that we bought is the asset that we wanted and we think we’re building a seminal sported going to be critical to viewers and liberty for the long term and I think going to happen faster always where I wish would happen faster, I’m sure Chase which is more than I do. But I’m very comfortable we are in the right direction.