The pandemic has taken its toll on Liberty Media’s finances with the announcement of a loss of $104m in the third quarter of 2020. In a statement, the company blamed the pandemic and also noted its payments to teams were up from $335m in 2019 to $440m in 2020 “due Continue Reading
Articles
Alpha Tauri the road ahead
Last week’s column looked at the possibility of Dietrich Mateschitz selling the Red Bull team, leaving the question, what about the Scuderia Alpha Tauri team? The team was originally purchased in late 2005 from Minardi by ex F1 driver Gerhard Berger and Red Bull with the team changing its name Continue Reading
Headaches piling up for Dietrich Mateschitz
Dr Helmet Marko and Christian Horner are always quoted as saying Red Bull owner Mr Mateschitz will make the final decisions on all the important issues. So, the first item in his in-tray is Honda’s departure from F1. Red Bull have stated their preferred option would be to take over Continue Reading
Lawrence Stroll F1’s Rainmaker
Lawrence Stroll once again proves to be the consummate dealmaker with the announcement last week that Mercedes-AMG was involved in a new £1.3bn refinancing package for Aston Martin. Lawrence who had previously put together his Yew Tree consortium to purchase Aston Martin knew the company did not have enough cash Continue Reading
Gene Hass to decide
Last week Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean learned their services are no longer required by the Haas team. Grosjean told L’Equipe that team boss Guenther Steiner informed him that financially Haas needs two pay drivers. With that news, the rumour mill went into full speed with Sergio Perez, Mick Schumacher, Continue Reading
Good night Vietnam
The much-anticipated cancellation of the Vietnam 2020 race has struck another Covid-19 blow to Liberty Media’s finances. In an interview with the New York Times in 2018 after announcing Vietnam as a new race Chloe Targett-Adams, the sport’s global director of promoters and business relations (boy do they love their Continue Reading
Liberty Media takes back control in Brazil
The news broke last week amid controversy that F1 will move from Interlagos in Sao Paulo to a new purpose-built track on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The construction of the new circuit would require the deforestation of the Camboatoa region with the felling of 200,000 trees something the Continue Reading
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s master plan
Both Daimler and Toto Wolff continue to issue statements proclaiming their respective commitments to the Mercedes F1 team. Daimler recently said, “Speculation regarding a potential withdrawal from Formula 1 continues to be unfounded and irresponsible. “The sport has taken the right measures to address the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading
Chase Carey’s F1 report card
It has now been officially confirmed Chase Carey will leave his role as chairman and CEO of F1 with former Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali replacing him at the helm. So, how has Carey performed in his role? Well, Liberty Media purchased F1 from CVC capital partners back in 2017 outbidding Continue Reading
From Russia with love
The F1 circus arrives this week in Sochi to complete the seven-year deal agreed back in 2010 between ex F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone and President Vladimir Putin. For decades like a dog with a bone, Ecclestone relentlessly tried and came close several times to a deal with Moscow. In early Continue Reading