#F1 Summer News Snippets. @F1 #Formula1
Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90 (Left) 2nd place and Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda RB15 (Right) Winner on the podium. Formula 1 MyWorld Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2019, Red Bull Ring, Styria, Austria.
F1 Summer News Snippets – TermiOnTrack is back from our Christmas and New Year break whilst working on search engine optimisation. Let’s catch up on the latest F1 news that happened whilst we were away.
Summer News Snippets – Young guns extend contracts with their respective teams
We start off with news of F1’s rising stars who are set to be the main title contenders in the new decade have extended their deals with their respected outfits and we start with Charles Leclerc.
F1 Summer News Snippets – Leclerc extends deal with Ferrari until 2024
Just before Christmas, Ferrari announced they extended Charles Leclerc’s contract until the end of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship season. The Monegasque-youngster came through the ranks of the Ferrari Driver Academy, which he joined in 2016.
Leclerc scored two victories and ten podiums last year in his first season for the Scuderia after debuting in the sport for Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team in 2018.
You can read the full statements from Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Matteo Binotto at the following link: https://formula1.ferrari.com/en-au/leclerc-to-stay-with-scuderia-ferrari-mission-winnow-to-the-end-of-2024-2/
F1 Summer News Snippets – Verstappen commits to Red Bull until end of 2023
On Tuesday January 7, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing announced that Max Verstappen will remain with the Milton Keynes-based squad until the end of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship campaign.
Verstappen became the sport’s youngest ever winner after victory at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
You can read the full statements from the eight-time race winner and Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner at the following link: https://redbullracing.redbull.com/article/max-attack-2023
F1 Summer News Snippets – 2020 Car Launch Dates
Scuderia Ferrari – Tuesday February 11
Renault F1 Team – Wednesday February 12
McLaren-Renault F1 Team – Thursday February 13
Scuderia AlphaTauri – Friday February 14
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – Friday February 14
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – TBC
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – TBC
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN – TBC
Haas F1 Team – TBC
ROKiT Williams Racing – TBC
F1 Summer News Snippets – Bratches steps down as Managing Director of Commercial Operations of Formula 1
Formula 1 announced that Sean Bratches would be stepping down from his role as the sport’s Managing Director of Commercial Operations following three years at the organisation. He will leave at the end of January 2020 but will continue to support the business in an advisory role from the United States.
Bratches built and lead a team that transformed the commercial business from a motor sport company into a leading global media and entertainment brand. As part of the transformation, he established a world class management team and structure, which will continue to serve the sport and it’s fans well into the future.
Formula 1 during Bratches’ tenure has increased it’s sponsored portfolio, improved the scope of the sport’s global media rights, renewed major Grands Prix promotion agreements and announced two more races to the calendar. F1’s digital business was revamped under his leadership launching a new responsive web platform and extending the brand into areas such as consumer, fantasy, podcasting, licensing and betting. All key metrics including race attendances, television viewerships, digital and social media engagement and usage have increased during his three-year stint.
Also, he has created and overseen many brand and fan racing initiatives including the highly popular “Drive to Survive” series on Netflix, hosting of live demonstration runs in major city centres as well as establishing F1’s Esports Series along with innovative events such as the “Extreme Innovation Series.”
You can read the full statements from Bratches and Formula 1 Chairman and CEO Chase Carey at the following link: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.sean-bratches-to-step-down-as-managing-director-of-commercial-operations-at.X7sEoPovwqogZCqn2uOUM.html
F1 Summer News Snippets – Stella promoted to Racing Director role at McLaren
McLaren’s shuffle of management continued ahead of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship season with Performance Director Andrea Stella now promoted to the team’s Race Director.
The role, which Eric Boullier departed the team from in 2018, sees Stella leading the Woking-based squad at race weekends, according to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. It comes after a major restructuring of McLaren-Renault F1 Team’s senior management under Andreas Seidl, who joined the team from Porsche in early 2019.
Technical Director James Key joined from Toro Rosso in 2019, whilst Production Director Piers Thynne joined McLaren in 2008 working his way up through the team to oversee the factory’s operations.
Seidl oversaw a change in organisational structure at McLaren creating what he described as a “simple traditional motorsport organisation” compared to a set-up by Ron Dennis that spread responsibility across all managers. McLaren also have a new driving simulator as well as a new wind tunnel in the pipeline.
The launch of the new MCL35 will be unveiled on Thursday February 13 with Brown not bullish about the new contender’s potential saying: “The rules don’t change a lot, so our goal has to be to continue to incrementally improve.”
“[We must] keep our heads down. We’ve still got a lot to work on. We started last season more than 1.5 seconds off pole and towards the end of the year it was as low as eight-tenths. [But] that’s still a big gap we need to close.” Brown concluded.
Race attendances surpass four million in 2019
Formula 1 published it’s spectator attendance figures for the 2019 campaign and based on data supplied by all the race promoters, eight Grands Prix had more than 200,000 spectators while weekend attendances went up 1.75%, race day attendances was up 4% compared to 2018 and the Formula 1 Paddock Club had a 7.15% increase YOY.
As in 2018, more than four million spectators (4,164,948) attended at least one of the 21 Grands Prix on the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar, with a 1.75%+ increase compared to the previous season, despite the cancellation of Saturday running at the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix due to super typhoon Hagibis. Also adding to this total, 80,118 Formula 1 Paddock Club ticket holders (7.15%+ compared to 2018), the average attendance per race was 202,146 (+1.85%).
The Australian, British and Mexican Grands Prix had an attendance of over 300,000 spectators over the Grand Prix weekend – whilst a total of eight, more than a third of all events, saw crowd levels of over 200,000 including Singapore and USA, Belgium, Hungary and Austria. It’s worth noting at the 90th edition of the Italian Grand Prix reached it’s highest ever attendance record with 200,000 spectators hitting the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
The most significant increases compared to the 2018 campaign were the Grands Prix hosted in Montreal (+14.69%), Shanghai (+10.34%), Melbourne (+9.86%), Spielberg (+9.73%), Budapest (+9.52%) and Monza (+9.29%).
Sunday’s only overall attendance was 1,771,106, up 4% YOY. Five circuits welcomed more than 100,000 spectators on race day: Silverstone (141,000) topped this list once again, ahead of Mexico City (138,435), Austin (128,000), Singapore (115,240), Spa-Francorchamps (109,064) and Melbourne (102,000).
Six Grands Prix (China, Austria, Belgium, Singapore, Japan and USA) posted a double digit increment over the previous seasons. The most major were the +30% registered attended at the Shanghai International Circuit on the day Formula 1 celebrated it’s historical milestone the ‘1000th Grand Prix’.
Formula 1 announce race start times for the 2020 season
