Don't forget that F1 is purely Entertainment!

[TauToadmiester]

F1 is nothing more than an arbitrary set of rules established by some # of Cardinals and Bishops of FIA/etc and the money gods of the teams, but most notably by Bernie E. and Max Mosley, they largely made F1 what it is. Look at the early years, very amateurish, but fun!

F1 is an entertaining competitive engineering exercise that we either love or hate or tolerate, with a skilled 'monkey' as the pilot! (Lucky Monkeys!!)

The rules did not come from an Omniscient supreme absolute God, they are determined by a bunch of blokes that have been empowered by mutual agreement, just like ALL Human things, and can be changed, NOW if desired!

Just by chance, there just might be some technical benefits to the 'real world' but that is NOT the goal - ENTERTAINMENT is the goal!

But we have some of the blokes involved becoming Billionaires and many Millionaires, just like all those Hollywood/Bollywood actors and politicians and all those Pro Athletes!

ENTERTAINMENT nothing more-Mostly!

Now on with the 'Lucky Monkeys' show!!

[Caito]

It depends.

It's a business to most. Entertainment to others. Competition to others.

And you try to get all of them happy. It's not JUST entretainment..

[TauToadmiester]

It depends.

It's a business to most. Entertainment to others. Competition to others.

And you try to get all of them happy. It's not JUST entretainment..

Obviously! But its single Goal is 'Entertainment'!

[Caito]

It depends.

It's a business to most. Entertainment to others. Competition to others.

And you try to get all of them happy. It's not JUST entretainment..

Obviously! But its single Goal is 'Entertainment'!

It's not, IMHO. Vettel doesn't drive to entretain people. Bernie does it for the money, etc..

[N12ck]

If you want pure entertainment with things like sprinkler systems or stupid things like that, watch wacky races,

formula 1 is about racing at the highest level of motorsport, not just about entertainment.

[PlatinumZealot]

Motorsport is entertainment. SPORT is entertainment. I watch it because all the different aspects are interesting, educational and entertaining! If it was boring none of us would watch it!

[bettonracing]

It's not, IMHO. Vettel doesn't drive to entretain people. Bernie does it for the money, etc..

Surely he's not in a haste to get somewhere, is he? (Sorry I couldn't resist. Don't take it personally)

The people that do it for the business, are in the business of entertainment (regardless of what their business plan says). The drivers are entertaining us with their abilities.

Regards,

Kurt

[mep]

Entertainment.

It depends on your point of view. For many it is all just about business. For some its a Hobby because they are so rich that they don't know how to spent their time and they like to play with cars. The fans think its about sport but in fact it has little to do with sport. Thats why they always scream things are sooo unfair.

However I like the statement that Alonso is a really poor sportsman but a great entertainer.

[horse]

Wikipedia to the rescue! Sport:

A sport is an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs.

[Just_a_fan]

Well as 'sport' comes from an Old French word for leisure, it really refers to hunting and similar pastimes. This is because only the wealthy landowners had much time for leisure and their preferred pastime was hunting. This aspect is still carried over in hunting/shooting circles today, particularly in the UK.

These days, though, sport is much broader.

Interestingly, the wiki difinition of sport can be just as easily applied to other things such as stock market trading. That's organised, competitive, entertaining (to those involved I'm sure) and skillful. It requires commitment, strategy and, ideally at least, fair play (in the legal sense). The winner is usually the guy with the biggest bonus cheque. Rules are used to govern it.

Vettel doesn't drive to entretain people.

Perhaps not, but I bet he does because he enjoys it. It entertains him.

[timd]

Dont tell your girlfriend she's sport if you find her entertaining now !

[WhiteBlue]

This thread needs to be shut down. Not a technical point being made anywhere.

[andrew]

It's a darn sight more technical than anything Flavio Briatore has to say!

I think this is an excellent opportunity to discuss the commercialisation of F1.

[CHT]

ultimately modern F1 is manipulated show business that generate multi-billion dollar advertising revenue to feed the world most egoistic and greedy humans at the expense of fans paying top dollar to watch a "sport" where 99.9% of them will never get a chance to experience the sports in his life time.

[WhiteBlue]

Ecclestone recruiting Cowell and Fuller?

01/04/2011

As the FIA and FOTA, the teams' alliance, look at ways to spice up the action on track, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is said to be on the verge of announcing a move aimed at seriously broadening the sport's appeal.

We understand that Ecclestone has invited English duo Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller to help him in his quest to move Formula One out of its sporting niche and into the wider entertainment market.

Cowell, a music executive, television producer and entrepreneur, is the man behind the X Factor and Got Talent franchises and according to the New Statesman was one of the "World's 50 most influential figures" in 2010.

Fuller, an artist manager, television producer and creator of the Idol franchise, is also the co-creator and executive producer of the reality show So You Think You Can Dance and other US and European TV shows.

Having managed the Spice Girls at the peak of their success, his roster of artistes and sportspersons includes David and Victoria Beckham, Annie Lennox, Andy Murray, Michael Caine, Jennifer Lopez and, as announced only a couple of weeks ago, Lewis Hamilton. Interestingly, Lewis' girlfriend, pop star Nicole Scherzinger, is to be a judge on the forthcoming series of the US version of The X Factor. In 2007, Time magazine named Fuller one of the "100 most influential people in the world".

While Formula One has increased its fan base in recent years, Ecclestone wants to see the sport broaden its appeal, cutting back on the technical/purist side of things and instead promoting the glamour, danger and celebrity side of the sport.

Only recently, Ecclestone told Pitpass business editor Chris Sylt: "We are in showbusiness.

"(Maybe that's the) wrong word to use," he continued, "we are in the entertainment business. We are supposed to entertain."

While he is not known for taking the opinions of others on board, Ecclestone is said to be highly impressed with the way Fuller and Cowell have built their empires, therefore, if anyone can convince the F1 supremo what direction the sport should be taking it is they.

Cowell, in particular has attended a number of races, once telling the BBC; "I like the model of what Bernie Ecclestone has done. The Singapore race is as good as the French race is as good as the English race." Fuller, on the other hand, was called in by the Honda F1 Team to give it a "youth orientated buzz", a move which resulted in the infamous MyEarthDream saga.

While Ecclestone has toyed with the idea of medals and even artificially wet races, it is understood that Fuller and Cowell have already suggested that races are too long and consequently casual fans soon lose interest.

This could mean Ecclestone changing the race weekend format, a move already proposed by some sections of the paddock who believe that race weekends should be reduced to two days of action. While the length of a Grand Prix could be reduced, the most likely scenario is that the event would comprise two races, one on Sunday morning and the other in the afternoon.

Cowell and Fuller's contacts in the music and entertainment business could provide the answer in terms of what would fill the gap between the two races while their expertise in terms of reality TV could see the sport introduced to a much wider mainstream audience away from GP weekends and during the off-season.

We understand that there has already been talk of races on Saturday when teams would enter their third/reserve drivers, only scoring Constructors' Championship points, while it should not be forgotten that a couple of years back there was talk of celebrity races involving two-seaters.

As it happens, Paul Stoddart was in Melbourne with a couple of his two-seaters last week, the former Minardi boss enjoying a brief chat with Glen Crompton.

According to Crompton, a possible scenario, which would definitely appeal to Ecclestone, and the two Simons have the contacts, could see twelve two-seaters line up on the grid for a celebrity race at each round. Each car would 'race' in the colours of one of the championship teams and would be driven by one of its drivers with a celebrity sitting in the back. Such an event would probably guarantee the sport more global coverage than a regular round of the championship.

It's all pie in the sky at the moment, but while purists will shudder at the thought, Ecclestone, CVC and the teams will surely listen to any suggestion that Messrs Cowell and Fuller might make. After all, they have track records.

More dumbing down to come?