ONE HUNDRED MILLION!!!

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=292527

Formula One leaders McLaren have been kicked out of the 2007 constructors' title race and fined $US100 million ($A119 million) in a spying controversy involving Ferrari information.

However, the governing FIA ruled that championship leader Lewis Hamilton and team mate Fernando Alonso could keep their points in the drivers' contest.

OOeer, Someone is gunna get Fired.

hmm this is only the beginning, bigger s*** storm on the way!!

serious dollars!

Ospi is right..

The previous record fine in motor sports history was the $5 million tag handed out to the Turkish Grand Prix organisers last year for a podium ceremony controversy.

FIA said the motor sports council would receive a full technical report on the 2008 McLaren car, and it would decide in December this year whether to impose any further sanction for that season.

This s*** is going to get messy....

Bring on the long winded appeal process!

In a pub late at night..

"Hay Guuuyzz, gezz whaa... hic... SSshhhh dun tell anywoonn... hehe.. hic.. I've relly bin weerken for McL .. hic.. Laren ssshheellen ssshecretzz .. hehe.. whhaaa, why uzzz looken at me like dat?"

This is not over.

Wouldn't $100 million still be pocket change to these guys?

Not really, they have estimated budgets of $300-400 million a year (last time I heard). So losing a 1/4 of that won't destroy them, but it isn't insignificant. Loss of reputation and internal instability resulting from this will compound things of course.

They have high 3 to 4 million budgets yes, but if you look at the actual *profit* of the teams, it's very low.
I remember in '05 Williams profit was USD80k for the year, despite doing something like 180m revenue.

That's because there's no point in turning a profit. Everything you get may as well be put into improving performance because that's the aim and what the big sponsors want, their name on a winning car. Now Mclaren will probably be the best part of $100 million down on performance compared to where they would have otherwise been.

OK kids a couple of points.

First: McLaren will probably only appeal the severity of the sentence, not the verdict itself. IMO the fine will be reduced to between $US 30,000,000 & $US 50,000,000.

Second: They will be able to offset the fine against the loss in revenue stream from the Formula One Management (FOM) agreement. Money is paid by FOM (read Bernie Ecclestone) to teams for every point they win. The first few points are worth the most; if teams get x amount of points (x<10) they are re-embursed by Bernie for most travel expenses incurred in transporting their team/cars to the various venues. There is a sliding scale in place for the TV revenues also, so the more points you get (ie more TV time) the more mullah Bernie passes onto you. McLaren stand to lose anywhere between $US10 million to $US30 million from their loss of points (this guestimate is very conservative IMO). So total fine will be $100M less $10Mto$30M less any reduction in fine. So total *cash* fine after appeal maybe as low as $20M (100-30-50).

Third: If the fine is spread over 2007 *and* 2008 it is essentially halved ie they're not being fined $100M in both seasons, and will be able to offset loss in points revenue for both years against the single, $100M fine (whether or not they lose all points for 2008 will be determined at a later date, Nov or Dec I think).

Fourth: The World Driver's Champ'ship (WDC) is much more prestigious than the World Constructor's Champ'ship (WCC), and Alonso and Hamilton will retain their points and are free to race this weekend. This is a bitter blow to some/most Ferraristas.

Fifth: Word is Alonso ratted on his team in return for immunity from the FIA and supplied the most damning evidence (emails). Will/can they remove him from his race seat, thus sewing up the WDC title for their golden boy Lewis Hamilton? Atm Lewis has a 3 point lead over Alonso with 4 races remaining.

Summary: It'll be fascinating to see if either side appeals the verdict. Ferrari seem to be the most content (at least publicly, internally they must be seething), while McLaren & in particular team boss Ron Dennis must be feeling publicly humiliated and privately shattered. For two such companies (previously in good standing) being found guilty of a charge tantamount to cheating must be a bitter pill to swallow. Toyota withdrew from rallying in 1995 after being busted for illegal engine mods. I don't think Mercedes will withdraw, they have been in F1 for decades. Besides, the fine was levied upon McLaren, not Merc, and McLaren are the 2nd most successful F1 team in history, with 100+victories.

But that's just different ways of accounting... in the end if it doesn't get reduced on appeal, that's still $100 million they would have otherwise had for car development.

i wish i had 100m for car development

I don't know if what chakas said makes sense to me: they put all their money back into their cars so they can make more from the advertisers so they can put more back into the cars? Unless by "improving performance" you also mean paying phat loots to ppl.

I'm not saying it's wrong... but I think it's a bit naive to think a lot of people aren't sitting back and raking in the millions getting filthy rich.

I don't know if what chakas said makes sense to me: they put all their money back into their cars so they can make more from the advertisers so they can put more back into the cars? Unless by "improving performance" you also mean paying phat loots to ppl.

I'm not saying it's wrong... but I think it's a bit naive to think a lot of people aren't sitting back and raking in the millions getting filthy rich.

Putting money into improving performance means paying the best people stupid amounts of money to work hard, use ridiculously expensive materials to built the cars from and setup massive factories with multiple wind tunnels working 24 hours a day all year. Some people describe a career in F1 as being among the most stressful going around, that's part of the reason it pays so well. There are probably a few people at the very top making money for little effort, but they would be very few and far between.

last edited by Chakas at 15:29:36 14/Sep/07

I don't doubt that it's stressful, I was just pointing out that racing, like everything else in this world, is about making money.

i was under the impression that it's not necessarily about directly making money off the racing teams, but more about getting exposure and advertising the car maker.

i.e. if they can build a wicked awesome f1 car then they can transfer the technology into their retail cars etc.

is this wrong?

getting exposure and advertising the car maker

Depends on the point of view. For manufactures yes, it's all about brand marketing and prestige. The privateer teams not so much, but they are more and more becoming a footnote in F1.

I don't doubt that it's stressful, I was just pointing out that racing, like everything else in this world, is about making money.

Yes, but that's different to "sitting back and raking in the millions". When the tenths and even hundreths of a second are the difference between hundreds of millions of dollars, there isn't a lot of room for people to sit back and make money.

No, thats more or less a key reason the likes of Toyota, Honda, BMW etc are involved, they can learn a s***load from the sport and filter it down as they do.

Anyway on a positive note, since the CC is no longer possible for Mclaren, hopefully Lolonso and Hamilton will go hammer and tong for the DC and not worry about risking taking eachother out and risking the CC.

Bring on Spa!

Performance is the only thing that matters in F1, not profit. It is purely an advertising venture to increase the profile of that manufacturer in the consumer market.

By winning more they also have more sponsorship options. But in the end every dollar will go to making the car faster.

Pars: Toyota got banned from rallying for a year because engine mods and then returned the following year. They did leave a rallying a few years ago for good though so they could concentrate of f1.

And yet even with their budget and experience in motor racing they still suck, i mean they still have Ralf ffs.

But his surname is Schumacher, so he must be good.