Dear Bernie;
Over the past 30 or so years, you have taken F1 to new levels and if it wasn't for you, F1 wouldn't be as good as it is. But I have to be honest with you, things surrounding your commanding of the sport have gotten completely out of hand over the last 10 or so years.
What has happened? Has the love of money got the better of you? Firstly, you don't seem to realise its 2016, not 2002. Technology has moved on. Other series around the world such as Formula E or IndyCar are uploading fantastic content such as race highlights and interacting with fans via their YouTube channels. They've even started livestreaming events on their YouTube channels. I mean look at Formula E, they completely interact with fans during their streams, and even organise online competitions for gaming enthusiasts. But what do you and your company that runs F1 do, naf all. The majority of the content on the YouTube channel is not the sort of thing outsiders will watch. F1 should be livestreaming by now. Not still use TV for everything and sitting behind a paywall.
Which brings me onto my next rant, which is about F1 moving off terrestrial TV in 2019. I have Sky F1 myself but I am still furious about this. Your running the pinnacle of motorsport, which should be the most accessible out of all the motorsports around the world and you do this? Every single race should be on either freeview or livestream. So many sponsors are going to walk away as their logo is only gonna be shown to under a million people in what should be the most important market for F1 to conquer in the world. This could result in the market falling as small as it is in the US now.
Thirdly, here the love of money has clearly got the better of you. What happened to the promised cost cap that you never did, first in 2010 when three new teams joined, only one now remains, and in 2014 as well? Why do you favour the big teams and seem so disrespectful to smaller teams? Why do you make it so expensive for a team to enter F1? Because of all this, five teams in the past 5 years either left or had financial issues due to your prices. We lost HRT before 2013, we lost Caterham at the end of 2014, we would've lost Marussia/Manor before 2015 had it not been for last minute investers, we would've lost Lotus had Renault not purchased them and we might lose Sauber sometime soon. We could easily have been looking at a grid of 16 cars in 2017 which is not enough! Not only that, teams are having to put pay drivers in over good drivers who should be in F1 to furfil your price demands.
Not just teams, but circuits as well. Your system of if a circuit cannot pay the money you desire, you erase it from the calendar is stupid. Tickets are overpriced because they need that money to pay you that money, £205.00 for general admission at Silverstone is just too much and many people in the UK who would love to go to see a Grand Prix in person can't because they just simply don't have enough money when they could do if you lowered the fees for hosting a race, and then the people running the place could lower the ticket prices to a reasonable price...
Not just this but races are at threat due to these ridiculous fees. First Silverstone was at threat for a bit, then Interlagos was at threat for a bit. Then Circuit of the Americas was at threat for a while until they just managed to for this year. But one track that looks like it might fall is Monza. I desperately want to go to Monza sometime. But I may not have the chance to. Monza is irreplacable, it has an atmosphere that is impossible to match in any other place. And just because they are struggling to pay your ridiculous fee, we might lose that race. And the few tracks that don't struggle to pay the fee are in markets that F1 doesn't need to expand in, for example Azerbaijan.
I think your greed has taken over. Why do you feel the need to prioritize money over the sport? Do you care about F1? Why are you completely shutting the GPDA and fans off from the sport? And the whole elimination qualifying debacle feels like someone said to you 'Do something to make F1 as a sport better rather than for yourself' and then you came up with this idea without thinking it through just to shut that person up. Not to mention the fact your group FOM have been taking down any twitter account with 'F1' in the name and mods for games such as rFactor and F1 2014 that those people put lots of effort into down. And worst of all, you've been ranting saying F1 is worse than its ever been. Your the reason for that and you can't seem to accept it. F1 should be going with next generation technology such as live streaming. F1 should be accessible and easy to enter. F1 tickets should not be too expensive. Races such as Monza must stay. F1 should have every single race free to view. And finally F1 should NOT be completely about being a money making business. Its a sport, with over 65 years of history!
You've ran the sport for over 30 years, you've done some good things for the sport in the past, surely it is time you left and spent your remaining years enjoying yourself and making the most of the money you have. And give your position to someone who is willing to take the pinnacle of motorsport in the right direction.
Kind regards;
Matt Tuson
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