The notebook this week is a bit late, but the reason for this is a good illustration of the life of an F1 traveller, lest you have warm and comfortable illusions about life as an F1 road warrior. Everyone thinks that once a race is over, we waltz off to the right parties, quaff champagne and retire to our penthouses with dusky babes keen to impress us.
It is not quite like that. We left the Media Centre just before six in the morning, startling a few people who were busy packing up the team equipment ready for the trip to Russia. We wandered down Republic Boulevard (aka The Back Straight), as lot of folk with plastic cones were preparing to open the roads to traffic and then marched up to Suntec City where we found a taxi at the Fountain of Wealth. We stopped at the hotel for a full 10 minutes, to pick up the bags and change clothes. Then it was in another taxi to Changi, where we were soon in the lounge, having a glass of wine because there had been no dinner the previous evening. OK, I accept drinking wine at six thirty in the morning might seem a little radical but it had been a rough night, with the Adobe Indesign programme (CC2017) having been troublesome. This was one of those cases where a really good software package was replaced by the nerds who do these things in the name of progress, but who create far less robust systems thinking that they improving the product. It is not much fun when several hours of work disappear when the system crashes, with no indication of why it has happened.
At the airport we were told that the plane was going to be late leaving because it had been late arriving. There was also a technical delay of some sort and so we were at least two hours late taking off. The plane was rammed with people but I have no real idea of the actual delay as I was asleep instantly, long before the plane took off. When I woke up, somewhere in the skies above the Gulf of Oman, I realised that I had not seen my iPhone since we were in the lounge and having searched myself and my belongings, I was left mourning the loss of my close associate. Inevitably the late arrival of the plane meant that I had just enough time to watch the departures boards change the Paris flight to Gate Closed and there was no point in hurdling through the terminal, doing security checks and all the rest of it. So I retired to the nearest lounge and did some work that was needed and then found my way to a hotel room that Emirates had laid on for the delay. Twelve hours later I was on a plane heading in the right direction and upgraded (using air miles) to cheer me up. A 12-hour delay – and the need to go to the phone store, had implications for Tuesday, when I was due to pick up my Russian visa in the afternoon… so I didn't get home until close to seven on Tuesday evening, which was Wednesday morning in Singapore, so I guess I was on the road for more than two days. I din't bother with the maths. It doesn't help. Anyway, I then had an urgent visit to the garage to do as the brakes on my car were in a parlous state and then it was time spend some time sorting out the contents of my new house, as in the week between Monza and Singapore, I moved the contents of two houses into a third.
So, here I sit, surrounded by piles of books and boxes, with no clue where to find most things. Just what you need in the middle of the F1 season.
Singapore is always a strange event. In theory, one is supposed to go to bed at 04.00 and then sleep until midday and then head off to the paddock, where you wander about saying "Good morning" despite the fact that it is the middle of the afternoon. If it wasn't Formula 1, they take the people away and lock them up for being nine-parts bonkers. Someone wrote into my blog the other day, asking which restaurants I eat at in Singapore and I struggled to think of a single one. We eat whatever is provide in the media centre. That is about it. But, for all of the above, Singapore is a terrific event, with an atmosphere all of its own. It's been a smash hit success for Singapore and for Formula 1. Admittedly, like Monaco, overtaking is very tough on the streets of Singapore, but the event is spectacular and does Formula 1 a power of good. It would be nice if a way could be found to create an overtaking possibility…
Lots of other potential F1 promoters come to Singapore to see how it is done and to enjoy the atmosphere. The race is profitable for the city, simply because of the GST (similar to VAT) in the two week period around the race. I am told that this brings in $100 million more than normal. GST is current only seven percent but will rise to nine percent from 2021 to 2025. There is also a hotel tax which forces hotels to pay either 20 percent or 30 percent tax on their gross room revenues when F1 is in town. The government is now considering expanding the tax to cover rental accommodation, such as Airbnb. It this way the visitors contribute nearly $10 million to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), which supplements the Tourism Development Fund to support the costs of the F1 project, which are around $60 million annually. The GST and the hotel taxes mean that the F1 race easily pays for itself and provides value for Singapore without costing the country money. The advertising for Singapore is free and the local businesses benefit from the customers drawn to the country by the race. To further reduce the costs and share the risks, the Singapore race in a private-public partnership, with investment in the event coming from billionaire Ong Beng Seng, who owns businesses which benefit when the F1 race comes to town.
The Singapore F1 business model is one that can work elsewhere if the government embraces an F1 event and even if the fees seem to be high, the reality is that F1 is relative cheap compared to some other sporting events. It is not manageable these days without government help at some level or other, but the governments do get great value for money.
This is part of the reason that there are now so many F1 race projects in the pipeline and those races which are struggling to survive need to find ways to become most cost-effective, as the additional demand will, inevitably, result in the fees going up. Liberty Media is trying hard to create a buzz around events and want to pull in as many spectators as possible, as they believe that those who attend races will start to follow the sport more closely.
The green notebook in Sinagpore noted a list of fans festivals that are in pipeline for 2019: the list is as follows: Beijing, Shanghai, Chicago or New York, Munich or Berlin, Milan, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro. The Formula One group's commercial head Sean Bratches was supposed to be in Singapore but he took off to the United States at the last minute. Given that Singapore is a major F1 marketplace these, it must have been important. One rumour kicking around is that the race that is being discussed in Las Vegas would be a night race and that it could take place on the streets of the celebrated gambling city on a Saturday night. Given the number of failures to get races off the ground in Vegas, one needs to be a little bit cautious about these things but it seems like an interesting idea to have a Montreal-Las Vegas double-header. June is a good time to visit Vegas before the crowds arrive in the summer and when the weather is comfortable. Hotel occupancy rates are average but not high and ticket prices of sporting events in Vegas are huge, but people are willing to pay them…
This would create a more sustainable North American swing in the middle of the European season, but its makes sense because it is impossible to move the Canadian Grand Prix. However, this will probably create a little more congestion in the European part of the championship.
There would be a second US-Mexico swing in the autumn with races in Mexico and Austin (if that continues) or a replacement such as Miami. I'm told that there are problems in Miami as the port authority is not very keen on the idea of a race and F1 wants to have a track includes part of the port land. It would be a shame if this was to block a race, but there seem to be a few options in the Americas these days in other destination cities.
For the moment, however, the folk at Liberty Media are keeping their cards close to their chests (as they generally do with race negotiations), preferring to announce things when the deals are done, unless they have to do so beforehand, which is often the case because most US cities have public transparency rules that mean that race negotiations ought to be made public.
It is worth noting that Formula One Licensing has filed trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for merchandise and other items related to the "Las Vegas Grand Prix", although similar applications have also been made for New York and Miami.
The F1 world in Singapore was buzzing with rumours about Williams given the fact that there seems to be little else left on the market, apart from the second Sauber and the two Toro Rossos. Haas has still to confirm its drivers and the Singapore race was a real mess for the team with Romain Grosjean being penalised for blocking the leaders. This sort of behaviour is out of order and thankfully one doesn't see it very often these days. Years ago it used to happen all the time with drivers at the end of their careers. One remembers, for example, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Rene Arnoux and Olivier Grouillard as being celebrated baulkers, all three being men who did not achieve as much as they thought they ought to have done. To eb honest, a five second penalty and two penalty points didn’t seem like punishment enough for Grosjean, who held up Hamilton to such an extent that a comfortable lead disappeared and Max Verstappen was even able to take a look at passing the Mercedes.
Williams is a very sad story at the moment, particularly as the team is running with Mercedes engines, which should put the team somewhere near Force India in the pecking order. But that is not the case at all and if things continue as they are Williams is going to end the year 10th and last in the Constructors' Championship. The team has rejected help from Mercedes, which was keen to place one or more of its young drivers at Grove, and was willing to invest in a loss-making deal to supply the team with the Mercedes rear end. Williams has rejected this idea, which is worrying. One understands that the team has pride and wants to remain being a constructor, but when it comes to needs must, one wonders whether sticking with team same technical leadership is a good decision. When all is said and done, the technical leader must take the blame (or the glory) for a car. Lowe felt that his team designing this year's car was good. The result wasn't so his belief that the people who have now taken over are good, must be seen as slightly worrying. Two consecutive failures would warrant only a swift boot up the rear end, but it would also call into question the decision-making that allowed that to happen. Leadership is key to success in F1. In any case, there is little doubt that building their own car and using pay-drivers to race it is a high-risk strategy that has failed this year… Doing the same thing again next year hopefully will produce a better result.
Getting things wrong is easy in F1 and Red Bull has shown that with its Young Driver programme, having ditched all the youngsters of this generation, the Austrian drinks company now finds itself scrabbling around for two drivers for 2019. The word is that Daniil Kvyat will be given another chance (and when better to announce it than in the run-up to the Russian GP). The second seat has created all manner of wild speculation. My favourite, I think, was a convoluted story from the US which suggested that in order to get Fernando Alonso into an Andretti IndyCar next year, someone would pay for Alexander Rossi to leave the team and join Toro Rosso. It sounded like a daft story so I ran it past Christian Horner, who called it "total rubbish" (or at least I think that was what he said. It might have been fruitier in terms of language, but the note reads as reported. The current thinking is that Red Bull is trying to convince the FIA to grant a Superlicence for British driver Dan Ticktum. He did not get any Superlicence points in 2017 and was banned from racing in 2016 and so his 30 points for winning the European Formula 3 Championship this year (if he does) would not be enough to get him through. However, he did win the Macau GP in 2017 and the argument is that this is the FIA Formula 3 World Cup and should have some points attached to it. It can only happen if Ticktum wins the title and if the FIA votes through a change at the next meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on October 12. It could happen but this weekend is important in that respect as the 19-year-old British driver is under pressure from Mick Schumacher, who has won six of the last 10 races, while Ticktum has won only four times this year. At the time of writing the totals are 264-261 with six races to be completed.
Ticktum is best known for an outlandish incident at the end of 2015 when he was racing in the MSA Formula in Britain. He lost his temper and overtook 10 cars behind the Safety Car in order to ram rival Ricky Collard. This got him a two-year ban, with the second year being suspended. He says that it is all the past now…
Incidentally, in Singapore there were rumours that Mick Schumacher's team – Prema – has been sold (by Lawrence Stroll) to Nicholas Todt, the co-owner of ART Grand Prix. It has been rumoured for some time that Todt is splitting with ART partner Frederic Vasseur (he of Sauber fame) and looking to buy another racing operation. Todt (son of you-know-who) says that he has not bought Prema and is still in the process of extricating himself from ART Grand Prix. Stroll, by the way, told me in Singapore that he has no intention to rebrand the team to promote any new fashion brands, so can we expect to see a pair of Racing Point-Mercedes next year?
