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Geoffrey Harris21 Nov 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: Ambrose, F1 and disappearing free-to-air TV

Dual V8 Supercar champion in his new DJR Penske Falcon today as it emerges that more major motorsport is set to be lost to live free-to-air TV in the not too distant future

Pay TV deal on F1 may mean only four GPs live on Ten
Marcos Ambrose is back in a V8 Supercar today, getting a taste of a new new-generation Ford Falcon (in xBox livery) at Brisbane’s Lakeside at a ride day for DJR Team Penske, with a couple of days of testing at Queensland Raceway to come before his return to Australian competition at the Sydney 500.

The Formula One world title is on the line in Abu Dhabi this weekend, with Lewis Hamilton needing to finish second in the final grand prix of the season if Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg wins.

So much else happening as well, including Matthew Brabham to make his debut in the Formula E world championship at the second round of that new all-electric series in Malaysia at the weekend.

And, amid all of this, it is becoming clear that motorsport is going to be a quite different picture for the Australian fan within the next couple of years – at least for those without, or not prepared to get, pay TV.

It’s already been known for the best part of a year that, under the new V8 Supercar TV deal starting next year, only six V8 Supercar Championship events will be live on free-to-air TV (on the Ten Network) from next year.

And this week the Australian Financial Review reported that, under the next deal for F1 broadcasts in Australia, as few as four GPs a year might be live on free-to-air – again on Ten – from 2016.

If correct, that will mean that the year after next Australian motorsport viewers will see a total of only 10 V8 Supercar and F1 championship rounds live on television, unless they are prepared to subscribe to pay TV.

Of the next F1 telecast deal for Australia beyond 2015 – starting in 2016 – the Financial Review’s report, tucked away on Page 23 of Thursday’s edition, said: “Foxtel is believed to have come up with a large proportion of funding for the deal, believed to be worth up to $30 million per year, three times the present rate. In return, Ten will have exclusive rights to as few as four races per season.”

So even in these times of apparent crisis in F1, with two teams on death row, at least three others in dire financial straits and the global TV audience dwindling, the sport’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, now in his mid 80s and condemned as out of touch for his views on the new social media, has an Australian media entity prepared to throw a multiple of the existing rights fee at his empire, these days majority-owned by a private equity company, CVC Capital Partners, that soaks hundreds of millions of dollars out of the sport but seemingly contributes none.

That aside, perhaps the price Foxtel is prepared to pay is a sign of the value it sees in F1 with the prospect of Daniel Ricciardo being a huge figure in the sport, perhaps even a world champion, over the next few years.

In his first season with Red Bull Racing the 25-year-old West Australian is assured of finishing third in this year’s world championship, irrespective of the results of Sunday’s season finale in Abu Dhabi.

The merry-go-round ... and the not so merry
Official confirmation finally came overnight from Ferrari that Ricciardo’s Red Bull teammate, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, is joining the Italian team next season – and that Fernando Alonso is off, two years before the end of his contract.

Spanish dual world champion Alonso admitted he started having thoughts of leaving Ferrari last year.

McLaren, the team to which he is set to return, this time with a new Honda power unit behind him rather than a Mercedes engine, will not announce its 2015 driver line-up until next month. It may still have to agree the length of Alonso’s contract with him, as well as decide which of this year’s drivers – 2009 world champion Jenson Button and young Dane Kevin Magnussen – to retain.

One of the two F1 teams in administration, Caterham, has made it to Abu Dhabi with the assistance of crowd funding, after missing the US and Brazilian GPs, and will give 23-year-old British driver Will Stevens his F1 debut. Obviously a pay driver, Stevens was sixth in this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 Championship and had two race wins. Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi will be in the other Caterham.

The second team in administration, Marussia, has not fronted in the capital of the United Arab Emirates and, missing three GPs in a row, will forfeit its place in the sport and an estimated US$50 million from F1’s season prize pool that the two points Jules Bianchi scored for it in Monaco would have reaped.

Frenchman Bianchi, badly injured in the Japanese GP seven weeks ago, has been transferred to a French hospital this week, still in a critical condition, while Michael Schumacher reportedly is paralysed, in a wheelchair and unable to speak.

Philippe Streiff, a French ex-F1 driver also in a wheelchair, is a friend of Schumacher but the seven-time world champion’s manager Sabine Kehm has said that Streiff’s comments on the German’s health are only “his opinion” and has not issued any update on Schumi’s condition as he continues his recovery at home in Switzerland from his skiing accident in France almost 11 months ago.


Young Brabham gets his chance in Formula E
Matthew Brabham will drive one of the Andretti family’s Formula E cars at Putrajaya in Malaysia in the second round of that new championship tomorrow.

The 20-year-old grandson of Australia’s late triple F1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham will deputise for French driver Charles Pic, who is the Lotus reserve driver at the Abu Dhabi GP and will take part in the post-season F1 testing there next week.

The young Brabham won last year’s Pro Mazda open-wheeler championship for Andretti Autosports and this year finished fourth for it in his debut season in Indy Lights.

He tested one of its Formula E cars twice in England before the new championship began in September at Beijing in China.

Andretti’s other French driver, Franck Montagny, and Pic finished second and fourth in Beijing behind Brazilian victor Lucas Di Grassi.


Great Dane quits, Emmo back, JV out and Mick ROCs
Lots of other driver developments around the world this week.

Denmark’s Tom Kristensen will retire from top-line sports car racing after the November 30 final round of the World Endurance Championship at Interlagos in Brazil, foregoing the chance of a 10th victory in the Le Mans 24-Hour.

The 47-year-old’s nine wins in the French classic – six of them in a row from 2000 – are a record. While he is synonymous with Audi, his 2003 victory came with its sister marque Bentley in 2003.

“I feel that I have crossed the finish line,” Kristensen said in announcing his imminent retirement. “I still feel I am in peak physical form and possess the necessary mental toughness, both in and outside of the car. It has been important for me to stop while I am still strong and able to deliver top performances.”

The Brazilian WEC round will see a one-off comeback by the legendary Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi.

The dual F1 world champion as well as Indianapolis 500 winner and Indy series champion, now 67, will co-drive an AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia in the six-hour race he promotes in Sao Paulo.

It will be Fittipaldi’s first race for six years and the first time he has raced a Ferrari.

Jacques Villeneuve, another F1 world champion and Indy 500 and Indy series winner, has split from World Rallycross Championship team Albatec Racing ahead of the final round in Argentina.

Canadian Villeneuve has missed four rounds of the initial World RX due to F1 commentary duties but failed to make the semi-finals in the seven rounds at which he has competed.

Albatec team owner and driver Andy Scott was unhappy at Villeneuve criticising the team and the IMG-run championship.

“I don’t think he really gets or appreciates the nature of rallycross,” Scott said.

“I don’t think he has dedicated himself to try to get the results. He just didn’t seem able to put a weekend together. I don’t think his heart was in it.”

Scott, classified as an amateur racer in the series, outperformed Villeneuve, making the top 10 five times in eight events, and has replaced the Canadian with a British rallycross champion, Ollie O’Donovan for next week’s Argentinian season finale.

And Mick Doohan, Australia’s five-time 500cc motorcycle world champion, is to  compete in the Race of Champions for the sixth time, partnering six-time V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup at the event in Barbados on December 13-14.

The pair reached the semi-finals of the Nations Cup when the ROC was last held, in Thailand in 2012, while Doohan reached the individual quarter-finals.

This year’s field includes Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, World RX champion Petter Solberg, Argentina’s new world touring car champion for Citroen, Jose-Maria Lopez,  Tom Kristensen (post-sports car retirement), NASCAR driver Kurt Busch and Susie Wolff, the Williams F1 team’s development driver and wife of MercedesGP team principal, Toto Wolff.

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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