[croaker]

Don't get too excited yet. Things change fast in F1. Plus Ferrari, Red Bull, and STR are contractually obligated to participate next year. The law suits will start to fly if they do pull out. Plus they have less than a year to organize and set up an entirely new race series. They will also need to attract other teams since a grid of 16 cars would be dead boring. Not to mention the fact that they may as well re-name it the Ferrari/Maclaren racing series since you know they are going to ensure the rules allow them to dominate.

I do agree with most of their complaints though. Max and Bernie have made some crappy decisions over the last few years. KERS is a joke, the marketing of F1 is so off the mark I don’t understand how it even exists any more. Tickets are so freaking expensive that most of the grand stands are empty at each race. The German GP was a ghost town last year. For my son and I to go and sit at Sacs Corner ran me about $800. Not counting food and gas. This is just bad marketing. Filling the stands as much as possible should be the main priority. Not to mention that the TV coverage is horrible. I’m not a NASCAR fan, but they do it right when it comes to marketing.

Then there are the venues themselves. Bernie has really screwed the pooch here. The new tracks are simply OK and are not pulling in enough new fans. The night race is a cool gimmick, but how long before that gets boring? Meanwhile he cuts all GP’s from North America and is getting ready to flush the British GP. He does not seem to be taking a long term view. By putting all his eggs in the mid-east and far-east basket, he is marginalizing the mostly European fans of the sport.

For this reason I almost hope that the break away thing happens. F1 will be dead in a year. Who is going to show up? Who is going to watch it on TV? Do you see major sponsors paying to back Force India and USF1 or Ferrari and Maclaren? I do feel bad for USF1 though. Just as the US gets back into F1 it turns into the European version of IRL vs. Champ Car.

I can’t wait to see what happens next. At least Williams may win an F1 Championship again.