AMD wins the F1 sponsor championship
Whose chip wonga bought what
ANOTHER F1 CHAMPIONSHIP has drawn to a close, and in the infernal fight between AMD and Intel, Chimpzilla from Sunnyvale notched another victory, winning the constructor's championship with Scuderia Ferrari.
However, Intel also scored major points this year. The stellar rise of the BMW Sauber F1 team marked the first time Intel-sponsored teams scored more than 100 points. Unlike years of suffering with the Toyota F1 team.
Intel achieved its record score with 114 points. Last year, the Intel dollar only managed a combined total of 71 points (36 for BMW Sauber F1 and 35 for Panasonic Toyota F1).
With the McLaren appeal hanging, we're not certain if the 114 points will stand or if Intella will yet lose seven constructor points.
But with all the appeals that are being put into place, it is hard to draw final conclusions. Ferrari has 204 points and that's that, but Intel will end up with either 114 or 107, still a brilliant year.
Overall, do you still feel that Formula One is a sport? It's rather lawyer's exercise (and the author of these lines has been an avid race fan for 24 years out of 28). Even sponsors cannot count out final scores long after the chequered flag has been packed up for next year. µ
Comments
F1 =
I have lost my passion for F1 for some time now. There is no question that it was a sport in years past but as of recent the cars seem to be driving themselves. Along with the fact that the richest team will always win, spending the most money is better than having the best driver. The recent steps to de-tech F1 are ones in the right direction. WRC is doing the same thing now. I still have passion for WRC, mainly because it is dirtier. :)F1 -
I kind of agree with you Max.The fundimental difference between WRC and F1 though is the management of.
F1 desperately needs to get rid of Bernie Eccle$tone, and start realising that they are a sports governing body, not a business.
Imagine if the Olympic commitee suddenly became run by one person, and that person made billions of £s out of it. The Olympics would collapse, and no-one would take any interest. Exactly like F1 over the last 15 years.
F1
Sure F1 is still a sport. You could say the same things about football, since in any league the championship really is only within reach of two or three teams, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the field isn't fighting tooth and nail for every last position. If all it took was lots of money Toyota and Honda would be fighting for first and second, not tenth or sixteenth. The racing action might not be as exciting on track, now that most of the advantage is placed on strategical choices rather than being able to overtake, but that doesn't mean a victory is any less brilliant with today's formula than that of a decade ago.Why don't they just cap the car spending?
If the richest team always wins, they should take that out of the equation. Give them a limit to the amount of money they can spend. Not an absolute limit, but if they go over the limit, then they get penalized in some way.Or maybe the limit should only apply to car improvements, and the driver payments could be separate. That could keep good drivers from going elsewhere.
It ain't just money
As Tom said, if F1 was about spending a lot of money to get results then Toyota and Honda should actually be winning. In F1 you also have to take into account driver and team experience. In example, Renault proved before that it was about driver skill and strategy, from being a 3rd rate before, they became part of the tier-1 teams. People who watch F1 simply for the cars or the brands clearly have no idea about the sport, that's why they see it as boring. Focusing on the driver is what makes it exciting.it still a sport ...
but only for the super-rich companies