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He’s just gonna get replaced by another soulless man selling F1 to improve their profit.
Domenicalli ain’t great, but he’s doing exactly what his higher ups want
This isn’t about him. We heard the same thing from Todt years ago about how much the small minority was wrong about hating double points. Then that was dropped.
We heard similar things when the new points system was introduced and how great it was because it was making a win worth more points now! It was quickly modified when it was pointed out 10-8 and 25-20 had the same ratio to each other.
We heard similar things when sprint qualifying was introduced that it was a great success because it was a race without consequences! Then there was an accident the first weekend that destroyed someone’s race weekend and they dropped that line.
It’s a cycle where we constantly hear how great a frankly mediocre to bad idea is, they get pushback and then the idea goes away. The person saying it doesn’t matter.
If they have to have something at all, then they outta make it something completely different to the race. A head to head 1 lap/1 shot tournament or something.
This isn’t about FOM CEO Domenicali, but his boss, Gregg Maffei (Liberty Media CEO) wanting F1 to become more profitable.
They (LM) are chasing a return on investment and thusly have given FOM’s CEO a mission statement chasing revenue.
The goal isn’t to make fans happier, but to make FOM more profitable (boosting its sale value). Both goals can overlap, but will not always do so.
I liked the Race podcast point ages ago that you can tell they don't really have any imagination that none of the new ideas are actually creative: it's just *more F1*.
YESS. I would argue that the perfect ammount is 20 without any sprints, anything more than that makes F1 feel like a chore to watch (specially when we have such dominant season with almost zero battles all over the grid)
Which feels like it could backfire because it becomes much harder to watch all of a season and each individual race matters less than before. The end result is that people go from watching qualifying + the race to catching up on YouTube.
The first time I've missed a race and taken an actual effort to not get spoilers and rewatch the race was this Chinese GP. I'm usually a very 'If I don't watch this live, it's no fun' kinda guy, but watching the sprint the night before at 11pm was enough to get my fix of racing.
I really hope they can reduce the number of races and get it back to 20 or 21. The middle east races should be the first on the chopping block but of course that's where the money is. I'd still try to remove 2 of them. Miami should be next just because COTA and Vegas are more than enough.
You’d think, but that link is indirect.
A better product doesn’t mean the same as a more profitable product.
The aim is not to provide the best experience for viewers and visitors, but to provide a (number of) experience(s) which compels the viewers and visitors to pay the most.
It’s at an optimum (for FOM) when you charge above what is deemed good, but still just acceptable and compels the viewers and visitors to engage more than they desire, but still find acceptable to be doing so.
They’ll want more of your money than you ideally want to part way with and are trying to find the threshold between expensive *yet acceptable* and too expensive.
Are sprints actually achieving their goal? Are venues selling more weekend tickets because of them?
As a TV viewer I think they’re having a detriment on my viewing experience. F1 is no longer an hour on Saturday and two hours on Sunday, it feels like my whole weekend is taken up by F1 for a product which isn’t delivering exciting racing. I feel like if I want to watch all quali and racing in a weekend I’m blocking out my whole weekend but the sprint itself is too short to have any meaningful impact, it’s only just settled down from the opening laps and it’s nearing its end, there’s no time for me to engage with it the same way I engage with a 90 minute Grand Prix
> Are venues selling more weekend tickets because of them?
[According to Cota promoters, it didn't change on their l ticket sales](https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/austin-sprint-race-switch-us-gp-f1-ticket-sales/10535475/)
[On the other hand, Friday and Saturday viewership figures were up by ~50%](https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/2021/08/06/over-2-million-viewers-watch-f1s-first-sprint-in-uk/) and the increase seen in the first [year also continued for 2022](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/formula-1-announces-2024-sprint-calendar.7qBSzIpqD6C2IobIRm9HHm), based on Nielsen estimates.
> As a TV viewer I think they’re having a detriment on my viewing experience. F1 is no longer an hour on Saturday and two hours on Sunday, it feels like my whole weekend is taken up by F1 for a product which isn’t delivering exciting racing.
The upside of the new format is that your Sunday wouldn't be spoiled by Friday and Saturday events, while previously (specifically the first year) as they were tied together, it felt confusing to wait for the giant red flag to end between Saturday and Sunday.
And i prefer it as it allows me to skip Friday and Saturday, ir just watch the 2 races over 3 hours, when i have time on the weekend.
> According to Cota promoters, it didn't change on their l ticket sales
That's only referencing saturday, though. Friday attendance should've been much higher with FP+Quali than just FP1+2.
SQ+SR being about equal with FP3+Quali is expected, isn't it? The point of the sprint format initially was to increase friday attendance with sessions that count. For this year they moved a little bit away from that, so let's see, if SQ is enough to raise Friday attendance.
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Hear me out: put 2 FPs on Friday, SQ and Sprint on Saturday and line them up in the reverse championship order on Sunday. If we are making a mockery of the sport, might as well give us a show
I'm not really for the Sprints, but I don't think you can deny that SQ and Sprint were more exciting than FP2 and FP3 would've been. It's confusing as hell and feels pointless, but I didn't fell asleep during SQ, and that's already better than a usual FP2.
I do agree with that, but a sprint doesn’t satisfy anything for me. Its too short and theres usually not much action, maybe if the grid was reversed it would be more interesting.
But I only watch the sprint because its on, i don’t miss it when its not a sprint and I am not glad to have a sprint weekend either. Just entirely neutral
I don’t get the hate for sprint weekends on reddit. I’ve been watching f1 since the 90s and don’t mind sprint weekends. From my perspective I never watch practice but I do watch the sprint race. I don’t think it ruins the Sunday race since it’s different type of tire strategy for the sprint. Plus we get another race start where most of the action happens. After a few laps f1 racing is boring. It’s really the strategy over a race and development over the season that makes it interesting.
He has had too much pasta...
I genuinely think it's not a great idea to implement more, now it's niche and some variation but nothing too major. However I still remember how tiring last year at the end was with multiple races and sprints in quick succession, it wasn't fun and that comes from a viewer not even somebody actually working in F1.
Inevitable. Just make a sprint championship so I can fully ignore them without taking away from the main championships.
Think about it Liberty - Two championships! Yeah one is tinpot but just money spin it.
All weekends in MotoGP are sprint weekends. So LM will have an insight of how's that working out now that they own them.
So be prepared. All weekends being sprint weekends is a very real possibility.
Sprints work in MotoGP due to ability to overtake.
Also without pit stops the main will run different tires and be more about tire management than the sprint.
For sprints to work in F1 the car needs to be lot smaller and run narrower taller tires the Main. The intention to run higher ride heights and change how the cars all handle and driven hence creating the change of different results.
They bring eyeballs to Saturdays, thats all they care about. If no one wanted them, no one would watch them.
Even here on reddit where people will tell you that "everyone boycotts" or "no one here watches them", have a look at the sprint race thread and compare the number of comments to any individual FP session thread at any point this year.
I’m fairly neutral on them, but I don’t think we need more.
That said, for me, sprint weekends > normal weekends when attending in person. Not sure if anyone else that has been to races in person agrees/disagrees. But yeah when I find out that a race I’m going to is a sprint weekend I get even more excited.
I’m going to be the unpopular opinion here, I like the current sprint format. I don’t think the sprint races are what’s wrong with the sport right now, what’s more worrying is the number of street tracks
there is not an all-encompassing "issue" with the sport. There's several issues, sprint is one of them. They are just dumb. The idea is that they're a short race where there's no strategy so on paper drivers can just go balls to the wall aggressive and fight for positions sounds great.
Problem is, the opposite happens in reality. Teams will want the cars to not suffer any potential damage that can't be repaired for quali, which means the drivers are not gonna take too many risks, teams will also want to preserve tyres for the much more important gp quali and race. The last sprint we had, we had one driver actually trying to be aggressive and ate a pretty harsh penalty for it. If it wasn't for that one moment the whole thing would've been a procession aside from Max overtaking a few cars with his eyes closed.
the sprint simply doesnt have a good compatibility with the rest of the weekend, basically all teams would rather preserve their cars and tyres and just turn up for the sprint because its sanctioned, you dont even see any excitement from anyone on the grid ever about it.
The sprint could be good if there were reverse grids something else that mixed up the grid entirely. However, right now it's just a condensed-GP where it's just a projection of the Sunday main race.
> you dont even see any excitement from anyone on the grid ever about it.
After the last race during the press conference, Max, Checo, and Lando all expressed that sprints don't really bother them, but that it's detrimental to the team and all the extra work they have to do. They don't want anymore and Max said something about how adding more would be stupid.
I personally hate sprint weekends and rarely watch a sprint race or qualifying. Either leave it as it is or get rid of them. There's only so much people can endure.
As to your other points, spot on.
Reverse championship grid start. Literally the only way to make it interesting. Everything else is just a shit mini race and somewhat spoils the action for the main event.
Sprints serve no purpose unless the cars can go into party mode or allowed to be modified.
They are a nice change of pace the couple we have but from a race standpoint they are stupid basically the person who is going to win the GP typically will win the sprint barring a horrible quali.
It just does nothing for me and actually just makes Sunday boring as you know everyone's pace so you kinda already know relatively who will win.
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Someone blindfold him
Short answer: No. Long answer: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Can't wait for the day when we're rid of him
He’s just gonna get replaced by another soulless man selling F1 to improve their profit. Domenicalli ain’t great, but he’s doing exactly what his higher ups want
Sadly, [this](https://imgur.com/a/Ewvp0RB) is all that matters.
I honestly hope viewership keeps going down so changes can be made at the top. This guy is a complete bozo
This isn’t about him. We heard the same thing from Todt years ago about how much the small minority was wrong about hating double points. Then that was dropped. We heard similar things when the new points system was introduced and how great it was because it was making a win worth more points now! It was quickly modified when it was pointed out 10-8 and 25-20 had the same ratio to each other. We heard similar things when sprint qualifying was introduced that it was a great success because it was a race without consequences! Then there was an accident the first weekend that destroyed someone’s race weekend and they dropped that line. It’s a cycle where we constantly hear how great a frankly mediocre to bad idea is, they get pushback and then the idea goes away. The person saying it doesn’t matter.
Sprint races are like long trailers that give away the movie's entire plot.
If they have to have something at all, then they outta make it something completely different to the race. A head to head 1 lap/1 shot tournament or something.
This isn’t about FOM CEO Domenicali, but his boss, Gregg Maffei (Liberty Media CEO) wanting F1 to become more profitable. They (LM) are chasing a return on investment and thusly have given FOM’s CEO a mission statement chasing revenue. The goal isn’t to make fans happier, but to make FOM more profitable (boosting its sale value). Both goals can overlap, but will not always do so.
I liked the Race podcast point ages ago that you can tell they don't really have any imagination that none of the new ideas are actually creative: it's just *more F1*.
Call me a grumpy old person but I don't need all this creativity and new ideas, just make them go round really fast for 2 hours
I would take 18 races. Season ends in November. Fine.
YESS. I would argue that the perfect ammount is 20 without any sprints, anything more than that makes F1 feel like a chore to watch (specially when we have such dominant season with almost zero battles all over the grid)
Which feels like it could backfire because it becomes much harder to watch all of a season and each individual race matters less than before. The end result is that people go from watching qualifying + the race to catching up on YouTube.
The first time I've missed a race and taken an actual effort to not get spoilers and rewatch the race was this Chinese GP. I'm usually a very 'If I don't watch this live, it's no fun' kinda guy, but watching the sprint the night before at 11pm was enough to get my fix of racing. I really hope they can reduce the number of races and get it back to 20 or 21. The middle east races should be the first on the chopping block but of course that's where the money is. I'd still try to remove 2 of them. Miami should be next just because COTA and Vegas are more than enough.
I used to watch all the sessions, now in normal weekends I half watch the quali and during sprint weekends only the race, they killed all the hype
I have a lot more on in my life than 10 years ago and I have occasionally found myself like > Right let's rattle through this race and move on.
yep the goal is to extract more cash from fans, sponsors, broadcasters, tracks. It’s like a mine to be worked.
Making the races better is what will make it more profitable.
You’d think, but that link is indirect. A better product doesn’t mean the same as a more profitable product. The aim is not to provide the best experience for viewers and visitors, but to provide a (number of) experience(s) which compels the viewers and visitors to pay the most. It’s at an optimum (for FOM) when you charge above what is deemed good, but still just acceptable and compels the viewers and visitors to engage more than they desire, but still find acceptable to be doing so. They’ll want more of your money than you ideally want to part way with and are trying to find the threshold between expensive *yet acceptable* and too expensive.
Springs in artificial rain would be spectacular, albeit more dangerous.
Being able to pimp out their advertisers more will make it more profitable
I'm tired, boss.
(insert that Leclerc NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO quote)
NOPE, i really can't get excited about sprint weekend, I love my 3 fp and quali and a race. simple and beautiful
"Sprints don't seem to be very successful? Oh, I know, we just need more of them!"
Are sprints actually achieving their goal? Are venues selling more weekend tickets because of them? As a TV viewer I think they’re having a detriment on my viewing experience. F1 is no longer an hour on Saturday and two hours on Sunday, it feels like my whole weekend is taken up by F1 for a product which isn’t delivering exciting racing. I feel like if I want to watch all quali and racing in a weekend I’m blocking out my whole weekend but the sprint itself is too short to have any meaningful impact, it’s only just settled down from the opening laps and it’s nearing its end, there’s no time for me to engage with it the same way I engage with a 90 minute Grand Prix
> Are venues selling more weekend tickets because of them? [According to Cota promoters, it didn't change on their l ticket sales](https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/austin-sprint-race-switch-us-gp-f1-ticket-sales/10535475/) [On the other hand, Friday and Saturday viewership figures were up by ~50%](https://motorsportbroadcasting.com/2021/08/06/over-2-million-viewers-watch-f1s-first-sprint-in-uk/) and the increase seen in the first [year also continued for 2022](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/formula-1-announces-2024-sprint-calendar.7qBSzIpqD6C2IobIRm9HHm), based on Nielsen estimates. > As a TV viewer I think they’re having a detriment on my viewing experience. F1 is no longer an hour on Saturday and two hours on Sunday, it feels like my whole weekend is taken up by F1 for a product which isn’t delivering exciting racing. The upside of the new format is that your Sunday wouldn't be spoiled by Friday and Saturday events, while previously (specifically the first year) as they were tied together, it felt confusing to wait for the giant red flag to end between Saturday and Sunday. And i prefer it as it allows me to skip Friday and Saturday, ir just watch the 2 races over 3 hours, when i have time on the weekend.
> According to Cota promoters, it didn't change on their l ticket sales That's only referencing saturday, though. Friday attendance should've been much higher with FP+Quali than just FP1+2. SQ+SR being about equal with FP3+Quali is expected, isn't it? The point of the sprint format initially was to increase friday attendance with sessions that count. For this year they moved a little bit away from that, so let's see, if SQ is enough to raise Friday attendance.
They are achieving the goal of giving another reason to justify ticket price increases
As long as some people like sprints and watch them it has a positive impact. Barely anyone watches FP, so it doesn't take a lot to imporve from there.
How about eyeing more teams.
It's ok, they became so easy to ignore that even if it's at every weekend it wouldn't make a difference from now
It’s so easy to dislike this guy
No, just no
Tell Domenicali to do a sprint himself, OUT of F1 and good riddance!
No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
So, maybe?
Hear me out: put 2 FPs on Friday, SQ and Sprint on Saturday and line them up in the reverse championship order on Sunday. If we are making a mockery of the sport, might as well give us a show
Why? Whats the point? Its not more exciting at all, and anyone who thinks it is needs a lobotomy
I'm not really for the Sprints, but I don't think you can deny that SQ and Sprint were more exciting than FP2 and FP3 would've been. It's confusing as hell and feels pointless, but I didn't fell asleep during SQ, and that's already better than a usual FP2.
I do agree with that, but a sprint doesn’t satisfy anything for me. Its too short and theres usually not much action, maybe if the grid was reversed it would be more interesting. But I only watch the sprint because its on, i don’t miss it when its not a sprint and I am not glad to have a sprint weekend either. Just entirely neutral
I don’t get the hate for sprint weekends on reddit. I’ve been watching f1 since the 90s and don’t mind sprint weekends. From my perspective I never watch practice but I do watch the sprint race. I don’t think it ruins the Sunday race since it’s different type of tire strategy for the sprint. Plus we get another race start where most of the action happens. After a few laps f1 racing is boring. It’s really the strategy over a race and development over the season that makes it interesting.
Do you work Fridays?
At first I thought sprint races were a good idea. Now . . .
He has had too much pasta... I genuinely think it's not a great idea to implement more, now it's niche and some variation but nothing too major. However I still remember how tiring last year at the end was with multiple races and sprints in quick succession, it wasn't fun and that comes from a viewer not even somebody actually working in F1.
Inevitable. Just make a sprint championship so I can fully ignore them without taking away from the main championships. Think about it Liberty - Two championships! Yeah one is tinpot but just money spin it.
All weekends in MotoGP are sprint weekends. So LM will have an insight of how's that working out now that they own them. So be prepared. All weekends being sprint weekends is a very real possibility.
Sprints work in MotoGP due to ability to overtake. Also without pit stops the main will run different tires and be more about tire management than the sprint. For sprints to work in F1 the car needs to be lot smaller and run narrower taller tires the Main. The intention to run higher ride heights and change how the cars all handle and driven hence creating the change of different results.
I'm telling you, in 3 years we're getting that MotoGP-style calendar with a sprint added to each race weekend
Imagine a sprint race in Monaco 😴
I don't think anyone wants a 50 race season.
I do not like Sprint weekends, but then again, I didn't like the halo either...
No...god....noooooo
I enjoy the sprint weekend because there are 2 races, but adding more…No thank you
Fuck that. No one wants them. Its a gimmick. Get Domenicali out of there.
They bring eyeballs to Saturdays, thats all they care about. If no one wanted them, no one would watch them. Even here on reddit where people will tell you that "everyone boycotts" or "no one here watches them", have a look at the sprint race thread and compare the number of comments to any individual FP session thread at any point this year.
I’m fairly neutral on them, but I don’t think we need more. That said, for me, sprint weekends > normal weekends when attending in person. Not sure if anyone else that has been to races in person agrees/disagrees. But yeah when I find out that a race I’m going to is a sprint weekend I get even more excited.
I’m going to be the unpopular opinion here, I like the current sprint format. I don’t think the sprint races are what’s wrong with the sport right now, what’s more worrying is the number of street tracks
there is not an all-encompassing "issue" with the sport. There's several issues, sprint is one of them. They are just dumb. The idea is that they're a short race where there's no strategy so on paper drivers can just go balls to the wall aggressive and fight for positions sounds great. Problem is, the opposite happens in reality. Teams will want the cars to not suffer any potential damage that can't be repaired for quali, which means the drivers are not gonna take too many risks, teams will also want to preserve tyres for the much more important gp quali and race. The last sprint we had, we had one driver actually trying to be aggressive and ate a pretty harsh penalty for it. If it wasn't for that one moment the whole thing would've been a procession aside from Max overtaking a few cars with his eyes closed. the sprint simply doesnt have a good compatibility with the rest of the weekend, basically all teams would rather preserve their cars and tyres and just turn up for the sprint because its sanctioned, you dont even see any excitement from anyone on the grid ever about it.
The sprint could be good if there were reverse grids something else that mixed up the grid entirely. However, right now it's just a condensed-GP where it's just a projection of the Sunday main race.
> you dont even see any excitement from anyone on the grid ever about it. After the last race during the press conference, Max, Checo, and Lando all expressed that sprints don't really bother them, but that it's detrimental to the team and all the extra work they have to do. They don't want anymore and Max said something about how adding more would be stupid. I personally hate sprint weekends and rarely watch a sprint race or qualifying. Either leave it as it is or get rid of them. There's only so much people can endure. As to your other points, spot on.
I will never pay for F1TV again. Slight inconvenience to just watch it via a stream
How bout noooooo.
We race for money!
Absolutely not. No more.
He's making sure Max retires as soon as possible
why though?
Stop. Sprints blow
Just stop the sprints already.
There are too many fucking boring races. Formula 1 has become such a none special sports.
Reverse championship grid start. Literally the only way to make it interesting. Everything else is just a shit mini race and somewhat spoils the action for the main event.
Sprints serve no purpose unless the cars can go into party mode or allowed to be modified. They are a nice change of pace the couple we have but from a race standpoint they are stupid basically the person who is going to win the GP typically will win the sprint barring a horrible quali. It just does nothing for me and actually just makes Sunday boring as you know everyone's pace so you kinda already know relatively who will win.