And now for something *slightly* different...

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Ataxia
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And now for something *slightly* different...

Post by Ataxia »

Dear forumists,

We've got another juicy article for you to get your teeth into this weekend, and it's a little bit different to anything we've had before.

As some of you know (or are sick of me mentioning), I was on World Series FV8 3.5 duties the other weekend at Silverstone, and I collected various quotes from teams, drivers and the series management team about the World Series and its future.

As one of the various single-seater feeder categories (which has given us the likes of Magnussen, Ricciardo and Vettel, as well as Will Stevens, Roberto Merhi and very nearly Bertie Breadstick), I thought it would be fair to work those quotes into a piece, giving World Series a bit of attention.

Originally, this was going to be written for elsewhere, but due to time constraints on my end I duly passed the quotes on to their editorial team for them to work into an article. I found a bit of time to finish it this week, and so hopefully it holds up okay! You can read it HERE.

I hope you enjoy it!
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yannicksamlad
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Re: And now for something *slightly* different...

Post by yannicksamlad »

Thanks for the article; some interesting points you've got in there, but I suppose that for me the big one is about who funds drivers these days at levels below F1. The economy isnt too bad worldwide, but F2/GP2 doesnt fill the grid, GP3 doesnt have the same interest as before, Euro F3's grid has shrunk ( and not wholly by 'design') , and FV8 3.5 is nowhere near a 'full' grid.
Above F4 in single seaters it gets too expensive for most 'family businesses'/friends/family etc to support someone for a season and in the absence of big enough sponsors this leaves the junior F1 programmes. These programmes combined still dont support whole fields of cars ( or even half a field). I suppose advertising on cars at these levels doesnt give the value such that they'll supply enough money to run the cars and I dont think the series get enough TV money to fund the teams. Without big independent sponsors , with too few F1/manufacturer supported drivers ( there are fewer Red Bull drivers these days it seems, for example) , and without enough TV money , they are struggling . I dont see an easy answer, but I do think some of the issue stems from the limited number of F1 places. Drivers and sponsors used to aspire to a chance of getting in F1, but now the costs are too high for sponsors and drivers know that without manufacturer/junior F1 scheme support its almost too difficult to make it. So its harder to justify doing everything to get an F2 season together (to get beaten by well -supported Prema team drivers..) etc.
Possibly an answer is to see some of these categories for what they are; fantastic racing events in themselves, with really good drivers and teams , and very fast cars, and then appreciate them for that, and sell them to TV and advertisers as such .?
Any thoughts?
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