sabato 30 aprile 2011
News Corp eyes bid for control of F1
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/04/19/news-corp-eyes-bid-for-control-of-f1/
Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco
Seat will get its own Q3-based crossover
New Seat crossover/SUV, which was previewed by the IBX concept in Geneva, will be built at Seat plant in Spain alongside Audi Q3Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth
Japan Ground Self Defense Force Light Armored Vehicle - Iraq Humanitarian Assistance Unit - finished
Thanks to all who indulged me through this unconventional vehicular build! This was a nice kit, but interesting in that for a Tamiya kit, it had a lot of pin marks and mold seams that required clean up. Also, the assembly of the front windows to their frames left much room for error if you went wrong with the glue (and they weren't really open to the use of white glue because of their sparse attachment points. The only final error I had was that the decal on the driver's side door (which is actually the right door) split right down the middle. You can't notice it in the pic, but the actual decal looks imperfect. All in all, a fun build and I would recommend one of these as a change of pace.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/955816.aspx
Classic F1 2011 - Sebastien Buemi
Sebastien Buemi, who has enjoyed a promising start to the new season with the Toro Rosso team, takes his turn in the hot seat in our new-look classic Formula 1 series.
For those unfamiliar with the format, BBC Sport has asked all the F1 drivers for their five favourite grands prix. Those choices will then be serialised before every race this season in order to whet your appetites for the action ahead. Highlights will be shown on this website and the red button on BBC television in the UK.
The first two drivers to reveal their top-five picks were world champion Sebastian Vettel and countryman Michael Schumacher.
Buemi - a 22-year-old Swiss - is next. He may not be as famous as Vettel or Schumacher but he has come up with some interesting choices.
Unlike Vettel and Schumacher before him, Buemi has, for the most part, picked races that he does not feature in - perhaps because he is in only his third season in F1.
Nor has he chosen the incident for which he is perhaps most famous for - the crash during practice for last year's Chinese GP when both wheels came off his car simultaneously.
What he has done is pick four iconic races from F1's recent history, plus an event that resonates particularly with him:
1) The 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, the first of two infamous collisions in title-deciding races at Suzuka between arch-rivals Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
This one was at the chicane - Prost turned in on McLaren team-mate Senna when the Brazilian tried to overtake him and the two collided. The Frenchman was out of the race, but Senna rejoined and went on to win, before being controversially disqualified, handing the title to Prost.
2) The 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, the second of two infamous collisions between Prost and Senna at Suzuka. This time, the two men only reached the first corner.
Senna, after being beaten away from pole position by Prost's Ferrari, was determined the Frenchman would not make the corner and barged into the back of his car at 160mph. The incident took both drivers out of the race and left Senna as champion.
3) The 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, a dramatic race from start-to finish, including what Buemi describes as "the biggest pile-up ever" on lap one.
The race is actually infamous for two incidents - the 13-car pile-up at the start that Buemi is referring to and Michael Schumacher's retirement after he had run his Ferrari into the back of David Coulthard's McLaren in appalling visibility.
The Scot was trying to let Schumacher lap him but the German, who could not see very well in the spray, did not realise his rival had slowed down and made contact. Given he was in a title fight with Coulthard's team-mate Mika Hakkinen, Schumacher sensed a conspiracy and charged down the pit lane to remonstrate with Coulthard. The two men had to be physically separated.
The incident left Damon Hill in the lead ahead of Jordan team-mate Ralf Schumacher. After team boss Eddie Jordan instructed Schumacher not to try to race Hill, the two finished one-two for Jordan's first F1 win.
4) The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix - famous for the nail-biting climax to the world championship, which hung in the balance until the final corner of the final lap.
With Ferrari's Felipe Massa driving to a dominant victory, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton needed to finish fifth to win the title. But the race did not go well for the Briton, who started the last lap in sixth, having lost fifth place to Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.
In the Ferrari pit, team personnel - including Massa's father - celebrated as their man crossed the line. But then came a dramatic late twist. With rain falling increasingly hard, Hamilton, who was on wet tyres, closed inexorably on the Toyota of Timo Glock, who was struggling on untreaded dry tyres. Hamilton eventually passed the German as they accelerated out of Juncao corner on to the start-finish straight for the final time, prompting delirium at McLaren and despair at Ferrari.
5) The 2009 Chinese Grand Prix, which Buemi has picked for two reasons. Firstly, it was Red Bull's first win, with Vettel leading home team-mate Mark Webber.
Secondly, Buemi, who had made his debut in Australia just two races previously, scored points for the second time in his short career. He had finished seventh on his debut in a race marked by very high attrition. In China, he drove superbly to finish eighth on merit, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica and Giancarlo Fisichella.
We have chosen one race to highlight by embedding it in this blog - and we have opted for the 2009 Chinese race. Long highlights are below, with links to shorter highlights underneath. There are also links to long and short highlights of Jenson Button's brilliant victory in last year's Chinese Grand Prix. This year's Chinese race is Sunday, of course.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 CHINESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2010 CHINESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2010 CHINESE GRAND PRIX
We are also making available the full BBC 'Grand Prix' highlights programme from one of Buemi's other choices - the 1989 Japanese GP. The programme is being broadcast for the first time since the evening of the race 22 years ago - and you can watch it here.
The classic races will be shown on the red button on BBC digital television in the UK from 1400 BST on Wednesday, 13 April until 0830 BST on Saturday, 16 April.
On Freeview, they will be available from 0415-0545 BST and 1915-2315 BST on Thursday, 14 April and 0040-0255 BST and 0435-0655 BST on Friday, 15 April.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/04/classic_f1_2011_-_sebastian_bu.html
Formula One Goes High Definition
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/formula-one-goes-high-definition/
Keith Andrews Elio de Angelis Marco Apicella Mário de Araújo Cabral
GM likely to regain top dog status given Toyota's production woes
Toyota's production and recall woes will hit its sales this year giving GM the opportunity to reclaim the number one spot.AUTOS: Ford Truck Torture Test
Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/autos-ford-truck-torture-test/
Whitmarsh: ?We?ve just got to keep progressing?
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/04/19/whitmarsh-weve-just-got-to-keep-progressing/
Lotus F1 row takes new twist
A new twist in the long-running row over the use of the Lotus name in Formula 1 has emerged with the announcement that the owners of Team Lotus have bought niche sportscar manufacturer Caterham.
Tony Fernandes and his partners see Caterham, which makes replicas of the old Lotus Seven two-seater open-top sportscar, as a company with historic links and "synergies" with Team Lotus that allows them to realise their ambition of diversifying into making road cars.
Their original plan was to do that with Group Lotus, the company that markets Lotus sportscars, but as Fernandes puts it: "That obviously didn't turn out very well."
What the Malaysian businessman, and owner of budget airline Air Asia, is referring to is the increasingly bitter dispute between him and Group Lotus that has ended up in the High Court.
When Fernandes and his partners first set up what was then called the Lotus Racing F1 team last year, it was with the blessing of Group Lotus, which licensed them the name. But in the course of 2010 Group Lotus's new chairman Dany Bahar decided he wanted to go his own way in F1.
He terminated Fernandes' licence, and switched instead to a sponsorship deal with the Renault team. Fernandes, seeing this coming, bought the rights to the historic Team Lotus name as a fall-back.
Both issues - the termination of the licence and the ownership of the Team Lotus name - are wrapped up in a court case that was heard last month, with a verdict expected early in May.
Fernandes is widely expected to win the rights to continue to use Team Lotus. He bought it legitimately from its previous owner, David Hunt, brother of the late world champion James, and Group Lotus has always acted in the past as if it knew it did not own the name.
Nevertheless, buying Caterham does provide Fernandes with an interesting fall-back option should the court case go against him. Now he owns his own car company, he could re-name the F1 team after it should he want to.
Team Lotus owner Tony Fernandes now has Caterham in his business portfolio
For now, though, he says that is not an option. Fernandes told BBC Sport that he is "absolutely not" going to change the name of Team Lotus. Although he does add: "Obviously we have to wait for the verdict to see exactly what has been decided. But we see a very natural link between Team Lotus and Caterham, and they can be synergistic and promote each other, and there is some DNA between the two anyway. It's not like we've bought a brand that has no association with Team Lotus at all. It's just the opposite."
The Caterham name will, though, soon appear on the Team Lotus F1 cars - although exactly when and how has yet to be decided - and the company will eventually contribute to the Lotus budget as a sponsor.
Assuming he retains the rights to Team Lotus, that still leaves Fernandes in the sticky position of providing free promotion to a company with which he is in dispute and has no links.
Unsurprisingly, he did not want to get into that on the day of his big announcement, but he could not resist a little snipe or two at Bahar.
Fernandes says he sees Caterham as very much following the legacy of the late Lotus founder Colin Chapman. "In some ways," he says, "we have reunited the Chapman history. Lotus is all about lightweight, more is less. That is all the terminology we like, and it fits with F1. We feel there is a huge opportunity for Caterham in a market no one is really looking at right now."
By that, he means lightweight, affordable sportscars that are within reach of ordinary people. This was Chapman's approach, and one which, Fernandes says, "certain people have abandoned". That is a reference to Bahar's plans to take Lotus upmarket and challenge Porsche and Ferrari with his mooted five new Lotus models by 2015.
So far, the dispute between the two Lotuses has not reached the race tracks of F1.
Team Lotus started this season with chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne setting ambitious targets of catching Renault by the end of the season, but that looks out of reach for now - Renault have started the season strongly enough to set their own difficult goal, of beating Ferrari to third place in the constructors' championship.
But Team Lotus have also started the season well. The car has had reliability problems, but it also has underlying pace, and in the last race in China they beat established teams for the first time since entering F1 at the beginning of last year, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing ahead of a Sauber and a Williams.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
Kovalainen's performance is a clear indicator that Lotus's more realistic target, of scoring points and mixing it with the established teams, is achievable.
Fernandes himself has his feet firmly on the ground. "You build things properly and with the right structure and things will fall into place," he says. "My target this year was to maintain 10th, and hopefully sneak a few points along the way. That is still my target.
"It is beginning to feel more realistic now, but one can't build a challenging F1 team in two years. We are competing against guys who have been there for 30 years but obviously the team smell big steps of improvement. They smell points.
"I never want to kill confidence, I encourage it, but I am also a realist and we are competing against nine guys who have been doing it for years and are very good at it.
"But if you'd asked me do I think at Turkey (the next race on 8 May) you'd be where you are, I wouldn't have believed it.
"We've got a good package and good people, we have put all the infrastructure in place.
"We're working on a new wind tunnel; that's the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle, and I think if you put all the pieces of the puzzle together then the results will come in good time."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/04/lotus_f1_row_takes_new_twist.html
venerdì 29 aprile 2011
Red Bull under the spotlight
 Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel celebrate with Red Bull boss Christian Horner on the podium |
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/red_bull_under_the_spotlight.php
Mazda CX-5 spied with interior shots
The 2012/2013 CX-5 will be based on the Minagi concept and is slated for a debut at the Frankfurt motor show in September.Birabongse Bhanubandh Lucien Bianchi Gino Bianco Hans Binder
Lotus Renault confirm Heidfeld as Kubica stand-in
Robert Kubica broke several bones and almost lost his right hand in a horrific rally accident earlier this month. He is out of action [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/formula-f1/~3/09_nFyJu4hQ/
What next for Robert Kubica?
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/what-next-for-robert-kubica/
JeanPierre Beltoise Olivier Beretta Allen Berg Georges Berger
Send me your questions about F1 2011
Hello everyone,
What a start to the new Formula 1 season it has been! I am filming my first video blogs of the year on Monday. There's a lot to talk about and I'd love to hear your questions.
So if you have anything you'd like to ask me about the Formula 1 season so far, then please post your questions below.
All the best
Murray
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/murraywalker/2011/04/welcome_to_2011.html
Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh
MOTOGP: The Champ Strikes Again (And Again)
Source: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-the-champ-strikes-again-and-again/
giovedì 28 aprile 2011
Why Michael Schumacher Could Win The 2011 World Championship
Toyota FT-86 II / Scion FR-S Concept - hear its sound [video]
Sound clips of engine start as well as revving and exhaust sound have been released by Toyota.Enrico Bertaggia Tony Bettenhausen Mike Beuttler Birabongse Bhanubandh
drag style headers..
I'm building a 32' 5 window Ford coupe... i'm using the stock V8 engine for the base, with stock cylinder head and vavle cover..(highboy engine)... But didnt like the way the engine looked.. so i mated it with a Revell 1970 Chevelle, intake manifold, blower,carbs, and air cleaners.. NICE looking engine so far.. There's a picture of it... Anyways... I'm looking for some drag style headers for it..Where they come off the engine and then flare upwards.. Not the drag style that go to close to the floor then point upwards.. Theres a picture of what style i'm looking for..
this is the style I'm looking for....
This is the engine for the 32' 5 window..
You can contact me by replying to the post...
THANKS!!!!!
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/955455.aspx
Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto
Test your F1 knowledge and take the Mobil 1 Track Challenge
To be a top Formula One driver you have to know every track that features on the F1 calendar inside out. Whether it?s the iconic street circuit of Monaco or the sweeping bends of Spa, the top F1 drivers know exactly the line to take, what the ideal speed to enter and exit the corners at is and be at one with their ...
Philippe Alliot Cliff Allison Fernando Alonso Giovanna Amati
Alonso the new favourite
 Fernando Alonso is the new favourite for the title |
?He is the man with the momentum and, on the same basis that I backed Mark Webber to win the title before Korea, is now my favourite to claim the world title in Abu Dhabi on Nov 14. ?When the cars are so evenly-matched you have to back the man in possession. Especially when that man is a two-time world champion and arguably the finest driver of his generation.?The Mirror?s Byron Young drew comparisons between Alonso and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher as the Spaniard bids to become the sport?s youngest ever triple world champion.
?Like Schumacher, Alonso accepts no opposition within his team. Ultimately he fell out with McLaren over their refusal in 2007 to bring Lewis Hamilton to heel. ?He returned to Renault on condition he was No.1, only to be at the centre of the Singapore cheat scandal - engineered to hand him victory. ?The Spaniard has always denied involvement but at the German GP in July he was brazen enough to radio Ferrari to rein in team-mate Felipe Massa so he could start the winning streak that has taken him to the brink of history.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/alonso_the_new_favourite_1.php
mercoledì 27 aprile 2011
Failed Brakes + Runaway Boss 302 Mustang = Soiled Pants
Test driving cars may seem like a lot of fun, but it serves a purpose as well. Driving supercars to their limit on a runway or taking a Land Rover through the world?s worst terrain can showcase a vehicle’s abilities, but what happens when standard systems fail?
Most automotive magazines run new cars through a gauntlet of tests in order to determine where they stack up against the competition. These include 0-60mph times, � mile times, slalom, vibration & harshness, and braking. Most of these tests occur with little to no problem and the data is compiled to determine winners and losers. Most of the vehicles being tested are also essentially brand new. The manufacturer sends several models out to a proving site straight from the factory so that the media may drive them, take photographs, and compare them to the competition. Rarely does such a vital system like the brakes completely fail during one of these controlled test drives, but that is exactly what happened to Motor Trend’s crew while testing a Mustang Boss 302.
The brake failure was immediately taking under investigation by Ford and the vehicle was sent back to the factory to be taken apart and inspected. Ford has found no other discrepancies in their manufacturing line and no recall has been issued to the general public.
Hit the jump to read why this happened and how they got the car back in control.
Failed Brakes + Runaway Boss 302 Mustang = Soiled Pants originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 27 April 2011 19:00 EST.
show me your superbirds/daytonas
going to be starting my monogram superbird in the after we get our new apartment on may 7th..wanting to know how you guys built yours
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/955042.aspx
Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels Edgar Barth
Team orders in spotlight again
| Will Christian Horner regret not utilising team orders in Brazil? |
?The extra seven points Alonso collected when Ferrari ordered Felipe Massa to move over for him in Germany earlier in the season are now looking even more crucial. ?And the �65,000 fine they picked up for ruthlessly breaking the rules will seem loose change if Alonso clinches the title in his first year with the Maranello team. ?Red Bull could have switched the result yesterday given their crushing dominance and still celebrated their first constructors' championship just five years after coming into the sport. ?That would also have given Webber an extra seven points, leaving him just one behind Alonso.?The Guardian?s Paul Weaver says that if Fernando Alonso does take the drivers? title in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari owes a debt of gratitude to Red Bull for their decision not to employ team orders in Brazil.
?If Alonso does take the title next week it would not be inappropriate were he and Ferrari to send a few gallons of champagne to Red Bull's headquarters in Milton Keynes. ?While Red Bull should be heartily applauded for the championship they did win today their apparent acceptance that Ferrari might carry off the more glamorous prize continues to baffle Formula One and its globetrotting supporters. ?Their refusal to make life easy for Webber, who has led for much of the season and is still seven points ahead of Vettel, means that whatever happens in the desert next week Alonso, the only driver who was capable of taking the championship in the race today, only has to secure second place to guarantee his third world title.?The Independent?s David Tremayne is also of the opinion that Red Bull may regret not using team orders in Brazil.
?Had Red Bull elected to adopt team orders and let Webber win ? something that the governing body allows when championships are at stake ? Webber would have left Brazil with 245 points ? just one point off the lead. For some that was confirmation of his suggestion that Vettel is the team's favoured driver ? which generated an angry call from team owner Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria and was much denied by team principal, Christian Horner. ?And it sets up a situation where, if the result is repeated next weekend, as is likely, Vettel and Webber will tie on 256, five behind Alonso.?The Mirror?s Byron Young has put Lewis Hamilton?s fading title chances down to an inferior McLaren machine and he admits the 2008 World Champion now needs a miracle.
?Sebastian Vettel's victory sends the world title fight to a four-way showdown for the first time in the sport's history. ?Hamilton goes there as part of that story with a 24-point deficit to Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, but with just 25 on offer in the final round in six days' time it would take more than a miracle. ?Driving an outclassed McLaren he slugged it out against superior machinery and stiff odds to finish fourth.?
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/11/team_orders_in_spotlight_again_1.php
BMW F10 M-Sport Package by 3D Design
Once upon a time, Japanese tuner 3D Design took the task of giving the current generation BMW F10 5-Series a pretty swell aerodynamic package, one that featured a redesigned front lip, rear diffuser, rear wing, and roof wing.
Not one to leave the F10 hanging, 3D Design gave the M-Sport package of the new 5-Series its own aerodynamic upgrades. With the F10 M-Sport featuring a sportier overall profile than its 5-Series counterpart, including a new front and rear bumper, it wasn’t difficult for 3D Design to come out with a body kit that adds more appeal to the beastly sports car, including a two-piece carbon front lip and a rear diffuser that was combined with the M-Sport bumper which comes with its own carbon fiber replacement piece,
The price for the front lip costs $1,038 with the additional carbon pieces fetching $687 for the pair. Meanwhile, 3D Design has priced the rear diffuser at $1,400. They are not exactly over-the-top additions to the M Sport package, but who says tuning projects have to be extravagant all of the time?
BMW F10 M-Sport Package by 3D Design originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 26 April 2011 15:00 EST.
Source: http://www.topspeed.com/cars/bmw/2011-bmw-f10-m-sport-package-by-3d-design-ar108688.html
Robert Kubica Could Be Ruled Out For At Least A Year Following Accident
Could F1 go pay-per-view?
Formula 1's ability to generate major news stories above and beyond the excitement of the racing has never been in doubt, and this week has been no exception. No sooner had the dust settled on Lewis Hamilton's brilliant victory in the Chinese Grand Prix than reports emerged that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation was considering buying the entire sport.
The stories appeared first on Murdoch-controlled Sky News, quickly followed by the Murdoch-controlled Times newspaper, and they certainly set tongues wagging within F1.
The prospect of the sport being taken off free-to-air television - in the UK, it is currently on the BBC, which took over the contract from ITV in 2009 - and put on pay-per-view has also created debate on social network sites.
So could it happen?
Given that this is F1, it is no surprise that not only is there no definitive answer to that question, but that any explanation of the situation is complicated. I'll try to make it as straightforward as possible.
There are two inter-related issues here - who owns F1's commercial rights, and where it is broadcast. We'll leave the ownership of the sport aside until later and deal with the issue of free-to-air versus pay-per-view first.
F1 is governed by a document called the Concorde Agreement, which binds together the teams, governing body the FIA and the commercial rights holders, currently the private equity group CVC Capital Partners, represented by F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone.
The Concorde Agreement is secret - so secret that the teams are not even allowed to retain their own copy - but it is known that it contains a clause which dictates that, in major territories, F1 has to be broadcast on free-to-air television.
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
The reason for this is that free-to-air TV has much bigger audiences than pay-per-view, and the bigger the audience, the greater the chance of bigger sponsorship deals and therefore financial security and, for the teams, on-track success.
Take F1 off free-to-air TV and the audience would shrink dramatically. The smaller the audience, the less keen sponsors are to be involved, and the less money those that are involved would pay to the teams and Ecclestone.
However, the current Concorde Agreement runs out at the end of 2012, and negotiations to scope out a new one are beginning - at exactly the time that the global economic climate is making the commercial environment increasingly tough.
So teams are about to discuss the contents of a new Concorde Agreement at a time when several are struggling to raise funds and when the amount of money available from free-to-air broadcasters is, in a lot of cases, stagnating or reducing.
In that environment, might the F1 teams be tempted to try to secure their own short-term financial futures by removing the bar to pay-per-view in the Concorde Agreement, so they can free up the possibility of a big pay-day from, for example, Murdoch?
The short answer is that they don't know yet. While teams are beginning to focus on the need for a new Concorde Agreement, they are, in the words of one team principal, "nowhere" on the subject of broadcasting.
It is going to be a thorny and protracted debate, because so much is wrapped up in it:
- The teams want a bigger share of the total revenue of the sport - they currently receive 47%, with the remainder going to CVC.
- The new FIA president Jean Todt wants to renegotiate the deal that his predecessor Max Mosley signed a few years ago to grant Ecclestone's companies the rights to F1 for 100 years for $380m.
- And there is also the small matter of the 2013 regulations - with Ecclestone and Ferrari unhappy about plans to switch to smaller, more fuel efficient turbo engines on the grounds of cost and, less credibly, the noise they make.
F1 teams are typically short-sighted and self-interested when it comes to such matters - so it is not hard to imagine that some might see the appeal of Sky's millions as a way of securing their own short-term futures.
The risk with that would be that by reducing its audience, F1 could also reduce its appeal, and put its longer-term survival at risk.
You might think that the teams with least resources at the moment - both from TV revenues and sponsorship - would be most keen on a commercial model that raised more money from pay-per-view. But you would be wrong.
I put these arguments to the Virgin team's sporting director, Graeme Lowdon, who said: "My view is that the sport is served much better in the world of free-to-air for all the reasons you mention.
"F1 is an incredibly popular sport. It's talked about by people. It's the ultimate team game and the drivers are the heroes. If you remove the majority of the public, it removes a lot of the spirit of what F1 is about, as well as the ability for the teams to stand on our own two feet without reliance on the commercial rights holder.
The BBC is in the middle of a five-year contract to broadcast F1. Photo: Getty
"It's more important that we have an agenda that grows the popularity of the sport than one that gazes inwardly.
"F1 is way bigger than pay-per-view and deserves its place on the global stage with the viewing figures it gets. We would be concerned if the sport was heading towards a pay-per-view only model.
"The biggest mistake any team can make is to assume you'll never be at the bottom. Look at Williams. They have called it themselves a poor start to the season - and that's an extremely good team. Anyone who assumes they'll always win and argues the financial model on those lines at some stage could come a cropper.
"There are a lot of examples in football - lots of teams have built their model on winning the championship. But only one can win and (beyond that) there's wreckage.
"We have tried to highlight that the model for F1 needs to make sense for the team with the least resources.
"The attraction of free-to-air is it gives you more opportunity to diversify your revenue streams. If we go pay-per-view and find people use other (TV) channels, then we're at risk. At least if you have underlying popularity, you can get your revenue.
"I'd be surprised if a race headlong into pay-per-view would provide F1 with the defences (it needs). Free-to-air provides you with so much flexibility - it means the business is less at risk than if you put all your eggs in one basket."
Of course, there is an opposing view - as expressed by English rugby and cricket executives earlier this week as Sky Sports celebrated its 20th birthday - that pay-per-view can re-invigorate a sport and provide it with much-needed revenues to fund grass roots and youth development. On that subject, the Telegraph has quoted a News Corp source saying the company would "transform" F1.
The issue of who owns F1 is clearly both linked to the debate over free-to-air versus pay-per-view and separate from it.
Ecclestone himself says the potential News Corp sale is a non-story. He told the BBC: "I know Rupert and [News Corp international boss] James Murdoch and Carlos Slim, and if they wanted to do anything they would contact me direct. And they haven't."
Elsewhere, he added: "We would not sell to a media company because it would restrict the ability to negotiate with other broadcasters."
One senior insider said this was one of "Bernie's curve balls - he's always throwing them up; they don't necessarily amount to anything".
And a team principal said he did not think CVC was looking to cash in on its investment in F1. "I think CVC are in it for the long term," he said.
CVC spent $1.8bn on buying F1 in 2006, following the collapse of the previous owners for financial reasons. CVC got into debt doing so, but those debts are scheduled to be paid down within the next two years, after which it can enjoy the huge profits F1 makes.
Any potential sale of F1 is complicated by the fact that the FIA has a veto which it can use if it does not approve of the potential buyer - referred to by Mosley as the 'Don King clause'. And where Todt stands on the issue of News Corp is not known.
Some F1 insiders are sceptical that the story was grounded in reality. "It's built up some momentum pretty quickly," said one, "and I suspect it will die away just as fast."
That may or may not be the case. But the wider conversation is only going to grow in importance over the coming months.
The ownership of F1 is tied up in the Concorde Agreement negotiations. If the teams want a greater split of revenues, that by definition means less for whoever owns the sport. And how does CVC feel about that?
The FIA is also unhappy about its financial arrangements with Ecclestone and CVC. Will it ultimately side with the teams against CVC, with CVC against the teams, or be one of three separate entities all fighting their own corner?
Whether Murdoch is involved in it or not, then, this story is not going away.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/04/will_f1_go_pay-per-view.html
Podcast: Chinese Grand Prix Review
Check out the latest Formula1Fancast podcast analysing the Chinese Grand Prix and looking ahead to the next race in Turkey at the start of next month.
Click here to listen to Manish Patel and Paul Hadsley give their thoughts on one of the most entertaining http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/YjevW7FqpZk/podcast-chinese-grand-prix-review
Fred Agabashian Kurt Ahrens Jr Christijan Albers Michele Alboreto