2023 Season

[E.B]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

A new name on the entry list next season.

Welcome to the grid Fernando Alonso Diaz

I remember reading thatLewis was changing his name officially by deed poll to become Sir Lewis Hamilton-Larbalestier to reflect his Mothers Maiden name. Im not sure if it ever happened. Obviously not in F1 terms I guess.

[Greem]

Well now.

FIA in "Authoritarian crackdown" non-shocker.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Greem

Well now.

FIA in "Authoritarian crackdown" non-shocker.

They don't want the feathers ruffled of certain partners/sponsors.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Greem

Well now.

FIA in "Authoritarian crackdown" non-shocker.

I am not surprised. I figure they didn't want to loose the narrative as to what is being talked about during events. Meaning they want it to be 100% on F1. I wonder what a workable approach might be to this? I guess their answer is to get approval first.

Richard

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

They don't want the feathers ruffled of certain partners/sponsors.

Couldn’t have put it better myself

[Alan52]

Call it the Saudi Clause.
Although homophobia,climate change,Putin as well as every human rights issue you can think of is also off the agenda.
Pathetic by the FIA.How much of this comes down to friends of the new FIA head?

[Skam85]

Wonder if this would extend to their social media or just what they wear/say at race or sponsor events.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Skam85

Wonder if this would extend to their social media or just what they wear/say at race or sponsor events.

Right!

Not much to add other than saying I’m looking forward for the FIAs hard line back firing on them!

[Kingair]

Welcome to the 2023 Political Correctness World Championship Circus!

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Kingair

Welcome to the 2023 Political Correctness World Championship Circus!

F1 in Moral fibre shock!

[Akrapovic]

Some great quotes from Mohammed Ben Sulayem on this topic.

- Now, Vettel drives a rainbow bicycle, Lewis [Hamilton] is passionate about human rights and [Lando] Norris addresses mental health,

I didn't realise mental health is such a massive political topic, Ben.

- Everybody has the right to think. To me, it is about deciding whether we should impose our believes [sic] in something over the sport all the time.

Ben is unhappy at believes being imposed on people, so is imposing a ban on people who think racism is bad.

Remember when the FIA banned jewellery and Lewis turned up with 3 watches and gold chains? I look forward to Lewis turning up to the first race in a bright rainbow suit and giant BLM top hat. The "wE rAcE aS oNe" nonsense before each race is going to look particularly hilarious now isn't it.

I think the GPDA needs a good old fashioned strike over this one.

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by Greem

Well now.

FIA in "Authoritarian crackdown" non-shocker.

F1 should not be political - well ok, but then why is it ok for some countries to directly fund and sponsort F1 races and use these races to promote an ideaised version of themselves? This is political

And for whataboutism in regards to European countries and their history - the countries do not directly fund the F1 races - the money are raised by private companies and maybe some small funding from the local council etc - so is not a political act from the European/North American countries

Would love first press event and all drivers reply to every question with "I cannot answer, it was not vetted by the FIA"

[Greem]

Will Buxton made a very good point on Twitter, which I'll paraphrase:

The reason there are so many new fans who've stuck with F1 isn't solely because of Drive2Survive, it's because the drivers aren't just robots with no personality. They appeal to people. If that's taken away...

[Akrapovic]

Hot take: People who care about human rights issues are not going to stop talking about human rights issues because the man who doesn't believe in human rights issues has told them to stop talking about human rights issues.

[GTRMagic]

Has anyone actually looked at the calendar the F1 circus visits each year?
Not sure 'human rights' is at the top of the agenda for the series...

[Kingair]

We are not allowed any Christmas decorations at work this year, because it may offend some people!

Good point about the F1 calendar GTRMagic!

[crmalcolm]

The cancelled Chinese Grand Prix will not be replaced this year.


"Formula 1 can confirm the 2023 season will consist of 23 races," a statement said.

"All existing race dates on the calendar remain unchanged."

[chillibowl]

no doubt readjusting travel and freight schedules would have been problematic but the hot take cynic in me thinks there is no replacement because no one wants to pay for the privilege?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

no doubt readjusting travel and freight schedules would have been problematic but the hot take cynic in me thinks there is no replacement because no one wants to pay for the privilege?

Maybe a bit of both.

Rounds 1 to 6 make for a convoluted journey.

[S griffin]

Too many races anyway. Shame we have certain races instead of the likes of France and Portugal, which have proved more popular

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

no doubt readjusting travel and freight schedules would have been problematic but the hot take cynic in me thinks there is no replacement because no one wants to pay for the privilege?

Or the Liberty mob are getting paid for not going.. as per the old days of Mr E.. so a replacement wont be needed to balance the books

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Or the Liberty mob are getting paid for not going.. as per the old days of Mr E.. so a replacement wont be needed to balance the books

As a side matter - I wonder if the budget cap was agreed prior to the race being cancelled?

[S griffin]

I assume they already set the budget cap prior to this year

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

As a side matter - I wonder if the budget cap was agreed prior to the race being cancelled?

just inferring from this but sounds like the cap has a (shockingly sensible) provision built in where the cap could go up or down based on the number of races over 21.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...xxw6r5yDS.html

This year, the figure has reduced to $140m, although there are some technicalities that mean the final figure stands at more than that. Given the impact of extra races on a team’s resources – not only financially but in terms of parts required too – there is a concession that every race over 21 in a season allows an increase of $1.2m to the cap, meaning that this season – when we’re set to have 23 races – the cap will officially sit at $142.4m.



i have read elsewhere the cap for 2023 is 135m so im not sure what the base line budget for 2023 was supposed to be.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

just inferring from this but sounds like the cap has a (shockingly sensible) provision built in where the cap could go up or down based on the number of races over 21.

This is what I was getting at.

The cap is based on the amount of races in a season - so, if the cap was determined when the calendar was 24 races, has it been reduced since?
And if so, will teams already have committed to certain expenditure that needs to be reigned in?