I'm not as convinced as the doom mongers that a spilt would end up like the IRL/CART issue and, if managed effectively, it could ultimately be a good thing - imagine if FOTA managed got, say, 90% of commercial revenues back into the teams as opposed to the 50% that it is at the moment; even with lower priced agreements they could still end up with more going back to the teams and promotion of the event itself.
To break even in that situation they'd need their breakaway series to hit the ground running with commercial income of something like 56% of what F1 currently has. That is quite frankly ridiculous.
The Premier League started in much the same fashion and similar reasons as this has and that can hardly be called a failure.
The Premier League was not set up in competition with the existing Division 1. Furthermore it was set up to radically increase broadcast and sponsorship income, as the football league was sold en masse and didn't take advantage of potential commercial income, yet then distributing what little it did receive to 90+ clubs. The teams realised that they could achieve much higher commercial income if it was just the top tier negotiating on their own, and would need to do so if they would have any hope of competing with top teams across Europe. The Premier League situation is much more applicable to FISA/FOCA than this particular war. This would be akin to 15 Premier League teams breaking away from the strongest commercial league in the world to form their own alternative from scratch with no recognition from FIFA, UEFA or the FA.
Likewise, did aspiring players and fans dream of "League Division 1" or did they dream of playing for / watching Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, etc?
Footballers want to win trophies. It's rare to find a player at Fulham who would turn down a move to Barcelona, even if they supported Fulham as a boy, they were their local team and they were incredibly happy there. If Barcelona began to struggle and Inter start winning European cups, then even those Barcelona players will start considering life in Milan.
Similarly, racing drivers want to be Formula One World Champion. Just like football, the team is an important part of that, and just like in football, things change as teams come and go, or vary in performance. Ask Hamilton (off the record, obviously) if he'd rather be in a Brawn this year than in the team which has brought him to F1 from karting, and with which he won the championship last year. There is no room for sentimentality or loyalty in these sports.
CART isnt F1. Were there actually people outside the US that could be botherd with CART/IRL? Nobody knows the drivers or teams and the best they produced, Bourdais, cant perform in F1 so that pretty much sums up the quality of the series.
I'm not going to dignify that with a response.
F1 is totally different. People want to see the big names like Ferrari and Alonso. I doubt anybody will be botherd if they are watching the really big teams and drivers in F1 or F1new.
They'll be watching the drivers, and the drivers will want to be in Formula One. Just like in the US, the drivers want to win the Indy 500 (oh wait, you've never heard of that). It's amazing to think that the draw to that particular race was able to practically bankrupt the series it broke away from. Twice.
Ferrari are in plenty of race series, and it's not like people stopped watching F1 when Alfa Romeo, Lotus, BRM, Brabham, or any number of other teams ceased to compete. Lotus are my all time favourite constructor, but I don't watch the Elise Trophy over F1.
They want to drive the fastest cars against the best drivers. It happend that you could find that in F1 for the past 60 years. If a new series offers something better, they'd want to go there. Same goes for Sponsors. They want to be where the big names are because your brand on a Ferrari in F1new is worth alot more than your brand on a souped up GP3 car in ''F1'' with a team and driver that nobody ever heard of.
I guess you can disagree, but look at the options for a driver or a sponsor:
Option 1: The name "Formula One" - known throughout the world, prestigious, followed by millions, a long and distinguished history full of legends like (to name just a few) Fangio, Moss, Clark, Hill, Stewart, Lauda, Hunt, Prost, Senna, Schumacher. Established championships, circuits, broadcast agreements, sponsorship deals. Governed by the International Automobile Federation.
Option 2: A couple of teams starting from scratch, with no official recognition, no governance structure, no circuits, no sponsors, no broadcast agreements, no history, no prestige, just the names Ferrari, McLaren, and, er... BMW and Toyota.
Plenty of tracks that would be very willing to host a GP.
What commercial benefit are they guaranteed for the cost of hosting a race for a startup series, and at the same time losing favour with the FIA and therefore taking them out of the running to host any FIA events like F1, WTCC etc?
