Series financial security

[Mak]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Right, Team Italy also immediately springs to mind as one that should have done a lot better.

Perhaps this is why we have not seen GER and PAK yet, hopefully A1GP are saying don't come back until you can stand on your own two feet.

Just from my own speculative guesswork:

Self sufficient: CHN, IND, INA, IRL, KOR, LEB, MAL, MEX, MON, NED, NZL, POR, RSA, SUI

Supported by A1GP: AUS, BRA, FRA, GBR, ITA, USA

I am pretty sure that another 3 teams(IND,INA&MEX) (SUI?) are not in the first list and several others not fully self sufficient, hence a major floor in the A1 model. PAK did have funding from associates with Khan and as he does not fit in the car this has gone.
A1 has been very exposed to the Credit crunch due to the fact they have not been able to secure funds to underwrite the new car/engine/Ferrari deal over a 3 year term.
It must also be embarrassing for A1 to have to put extra finacial burden on those who are "paying there way". ie Colin Giltrap having to bail out the cars to get to Taupo.

[rychard]

Pakistan were due to test at Phakisa (ex MotoGP venue) today ..... will post more when I know more.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by RichardRenes

As it takes about $3 million to run a car for a year, i'd say you can get a full body sponsorspot for the same money you can get a wing end plate spot for in F1.

And to my knowledge team NED is not self sufficient yet. They come close though. They got about 85%-90% of their costs covered.

No big sponsor, but a lot of smaller ones.

Car, engine, spares and "crash money", crew, driver salary, and travel all around the world is $3 million? I'd heard on another auto racing site that the annual cost to run a team was $7 million.

What's the purse money like?

[Mak]

Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan

Car, engine, spares and "crash money", crew, driver salary, and travel all around the world is $3 million? I'd heard on another auto racing site that the annual cost to run a team was $7 million.

What's the purse money like?

Thats a joke.... Everones still waiting for last seasons prize money???

[rychard]

I hear 1st plane full of cars has left NZ, but 2nd only due to arrive Wed.

BTW - all A1GP staff have been warned not to speak to media/anyone at all, that's why its so difficult to get info.

Pakistan car str8 from Europe

[Tyrrell]

Quote: BTW - all A1GP staff have been warned not to speak to media/anyone at all, that's why its so difficult to get info.

What rubbish!

[Kiwi3]

Originally Posted by Tyrrell

Quote: BTW - all A1GP staff have been warned not to speak to media/anyone at all, that's why its so difficult to get info.

What rubbish!

Very normal. In all large companies there is a standing policy that all communications be directed to the communications department only.

[rychard]

Originally Posted by Tyrrell

Quote: BTW - all A1GP staff have been warned not to speak to media/anyone at all, that's why its so difficult to get info.

What rubbish!

WELL, YOU TRY GET INFO FROM A1GP!!!!

The cars are not at Kyalami!

[Kiwi3]

Originally Posted by rychard

WELL, YOU TRY GET INFO FROM A1GP!!!!

The cars are not at Kyalami!

Well, do you have media accreditation? Is it any harder to get info from A1GP than it is from FOM, FIFA or the IOC?

[rychard]

All I want to know is where the cars are, but its a secret!

[ford prefect]

It is none of our business where the cars are. I feel that you are trying to stir up a story where none exists.

We will know in a day or two where the cars are.

Stop panicking.

[Kiwi3]

Originally Posted by rychard

All I want to know is where the cars are, but its a secret!

Why on earth would you want to know that? And why should A1GP release that information?

[rychard]

Pakistan tested at Phakisa on monday & tues with hordes of Ferrari technical people also there, must've been over 20 of them. Car doing 1:23 sec.

Kiwi, lately each race is 'almost' not happening so it would be nice to know if the cars are comming. As of this morning they are still not at Kyalami. That leaves 48 hours to get them to the track and prepared for the rookie sessions

[Kiwi3]

I think the fact that they've flown Pakistan's car there especially from the UK is a fairly strong sign that Kyalami is happening (not to mention the various driver announcements). Good that Pakistan are there, I had expected them to drop out altogether.
Hopefully there will be an excellent crowd this weekend, which will give everyone a boost.

[Go_For_Pole]

stopandgo reports that Germany will also be present at Kyalami, GU-Racing running the team and Michael Ammermuller driving.

[rychard]

I found this .........

A1GP cars to arrive on Thursday
Written by sw
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Despite being delayed, due to freight problems, the A1GP cars will be at Kyalami and the A1GP, Gauteng will take place as scheduled although the Rookie session has been moved to Friday afternoon to give teams more time to prepare.

According to Stephen Watson, CEO of promoters Gauteng Motorsport Company, the fleet of Ferrari powered cars and the equipment will be arriving on Thursday via Air Malaysia, "one aircraft early morning and the other at midday," he confirmed today.

It has also been confirmed that the Team Pakistan car was lapping at the 1 minute 23 seconds mark during vital testing at Phakisa today, after completing instalation laps yesterday.

[Kiwi3]

I've edited the name of this thread a bit as although a month ago there was a report of a new investor or major sponsor, it seems there isn't one.

Very, very interesting interview with Tony Texeira here: http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEditi...aspx?id=944369

A bit of a misleading headline, he does not make the quote that F1 wants to be like A1GP.

He is clearly in A1GP to make money as the last quip about Bernie buying him out suggests, although it also very much suggests he is in it for the long term.

He answers a few criticisms:

• About the new car, i.e. that he would not have bought it if he had forseen the financial crisis (which nobody did)
• About everyone turning up late (to save accommodation costs - makes perfect sense). If the staff are turning up late it also makes no sense to have the cars there early...
• He is up front about the fact that this is a bad year, but I get the impression he is going to hang in there.
• Makes no apologies about cancelling a race if it is not going to make money.

Questions that brings to mind is therefore:

• Was the Lippo cancellation genuinely down to FIA certification of the track or not being financially viable? I was under the impression that the Indonesian government were paying a sizeable fee, and they obviously had the money after paying Tilke to design the circuit. Also interest in Indonesia seemed to be very high.
• Presume Mexico is not seen as being viable. Crowds there were very reasonable and they seemed to be taking over that market from Indycars. I guess still not enough to cover the costs of having a single race in that region?
• Is the Brazil round due to FIA dates or actually the same issue as Mexico?

While raising as many questions as answering them, I think A1GP would have done itself a big favour by issuing a press release at the end of last year along the lines of "A1GP's response to the financial crisis", to explain a lot of the issues that discussed in here.

I also get the impression that Tony T is resigned to funding it himself and getting a return in the long run (or finding someone to buy him out), in the short term if he kept a stable calender surely it would be a lot easier to find sponsors to partly fund it. Is this his mining industry mentality getting in the way, or is he being realistic about it being unrealistic to find sponsors at the moment anyway?

[mountainstar]

I like A1 and I hope they hang in there and make it work. I think the concept has a lot of potential.

[kerrmanningjarv]

Mexico is surely down to the FIA, not money or viability - they have had big crowds and it was voted "Best Event" last season.

The FIA want some stupid new chicanes installed, and refused to allow A1GP to run there on the 22nd of March due to the WTCC in Mexico on the same weekend (the FIA don't want A1 taking fans away from their own championship). So it seems they are switching it to 24th May, which the site selling the tickets is now advertising.

[Roninho]

The financial security of the serie will be totally up to how long the shareholders are willing to pay for it.
It costs an enormous amount of money to run an world-wide autosport serie, while the cars are also extremely expensive to run ($3 million+ a year to run 1car).

This can only be funded by either manufacturers (like dtm) and/or sponsors. Ferrari isn't going to pay, and sponsors won't pay millions with coverage on networks like ABmoteurs, Premiere and sky sports in major markets france, germany and uk.

[jackschmidt]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Very, very interesting interview with Tony Texeira here: http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEditi...aspx?id=944369

I've been really trying to access this article as I want to read it myself but the bloody site isn't loading the news article!

[ASRoma]

For me the problem is that some of the Seat Holders do not do the work to develop the product, they just wait for the money to come from A1 GP to run the cars

We're at season 4 but A1 GP is not developping enough in countries like Germany, France, Italy, England...

What we can see is that when the work is well done, it works (Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, etc...)

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by ASRoma

What we can see is that when the work is well done, it works (Netherlands, New Zealand, Ireland, etc...)

One of the main reasons of A1gp's succes in the netherlands has been the deal with the tv-network RTL. It has been a great promotional tool for the serie and it's zandvoort event.

I've read an interview with the guy of RTL holland that made the decision to pick up the serie and show it on tv. The main reason for going with A1GP was the presence of Jos Verstappen. According to the RTL-guy a new/unknown sport/serie is an investment for a network, because it takes time before people know the sport and are willing to follow it. With Verstappen in the mix they had a driver that was still very popular in holland and therefor it became interesting for RTL. He literally said he had seen the A1GP stand at SPORTEL in Monaco, looked at it for a couple of minutes and didn't see anything in it (of course all before verstappen joined).

It seems to me this can be translated to many other countries and networks.

[Go_For_Pole]

Provided of course that they do have a JV-popular driver available which is not always easy. Ok for UK Button could do, if ex-Honda doesn't make it, but can you see a French or Italian or German driver with such profile?

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

Provided of course that they do have a JV-popular driver available which is not always easy. Ok for UK Button could do, if ex-Honda doesn't make it, but can you see a French or Italian or German driver with such profile?

Agree that it's not easy to find such drivers. However there might have been some available.

In 2005 (a1's first season) the addition of the likes of HH Frentzen, Mika Hakkinen, Olivier Panis or Jean Alesi could have been possible. They were at that time not long out of F1, would be interesting out of an publicity viewpoint and wouldn't cost that much (I think i read that Alesi and/or HH were around 1 million euro in dtm).

I don't know the spanish and austrian markets, but maybe Alexander Wurz, Pedro de la Rosa or Marc Gene could have had a huge impact on these markets at the time.

Nowadays/in the next 2 years i could think of Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella, Sebastian Bourdais, Rubens Barrichello that could have such an impact.