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Motor Racing Headlines

Indycar World Series

The Indycar World Series is going from strength to strength on the back of increasingly intelligent developments for the sport including:

• The sports return to Laguna Seca after the return of events in Portland; Road America; and Pocono. Only in the last week or so was it announced that a return to a Surfers Paradise street race could occur as early as 2020.
• TV broadcast rights have been handed to NBC and NBC SN for the 2019 season allowing more Americans to watch the sport on free-to-air television. This, as F1 moves behind a pay wall in the UK for all but the British Grand Prix. This issue is my most recent upload on the sight.
• NTT Data has become the sports new title sponsor and replaces Verizon which will still maintain its association with 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power.
• In addition to a return from a solely independent entry by McLaren and Fernando Alonso at this years Indy 500, a new two-car team has entered the fray in the form of the son of former New York Yankees manager George Steinbrenner III.  At 22 years old, George Steinbrenner IV will be the youngest ever team owner in the sports history when he brings Harding Steinbrenner Racing to the opening round at St Petersburg on March 10.

FIA Formula 1 World Championship

Liberty’s 2021 Plans Look Shakey

Amid growing concern on an agreement over the 2021 Formula 1 regulations, a proposed F1 Commission meeting scheduled for Wednesday 16 January has been cancelled. The 2021 Formula 1 season will be the first without the current teams bound to the separate bilateral agreements it made with the previous commercial rights holders of Formula 1. The season presents the first true opportunity for new owners Liberty Media to impose their vision on how they see the sport functioning, and to bring together all teams under a single agreement.  However, despite the three chiefs of the sport (Chase Carey, Ross Brawn and Sean Bratches) looking to reduce costs; divide the income stream more evenly; and encourage new manufacturers into the sport, it is increasingly becoming apparent that Liberty’s ability to find a consensus amongst the teams is not going well.  Liberty has revealed that no new engine manufacturers were persuaded by the proposed new engine regulations for 2021.  A major concern for this writer is that Liberty continues to lack the courage to back the strength of the F1 brand and is seeking to compromise with the pre-existing manufacturers in Ferrari and Mercedes, at the expense of those manufacturers willing to get involved but not at the expenditure currently required to compete at the front of the field.

Renault betting on a spending budget

Cyril Abiteboul has revealed that while the engine manufacturer hopes to provide McLaren and its works team with a strong power unit in 2019, it is not willing to expand its current workforce. In the belief that budget caps will be introduced by Liberty Media in 2021, Abiteboul did not want the company to hire staff only to then have to lay them off when the new regulations came into play.

MotoGP World Championship 

Once again the premiere two-wheeled motorsport looks set to steal all the headlines on the track in 2019 with the scintillating intra-team battle between two of the sports greatest competitors. All eyes will be on the battle between Spaniards Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo as the battle it out together for the Repsol Honda Team. It’s a shame that decisions of this kind can’t be replicated in Formula 1.