IndyCar 2015 - Season Finale

Including the Indy 500 and all junior series leading up to IndyCar
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IndyCar 2015 - Season Finale

#1

Post by PTRACER »

Teams have developed and tested their own aero packages, looks like it'll be an interesting year!

What I admire about IndyCar is their transparency with finances, completely the opposite to F1 which is all so hush hush (wonder why? :roll: ) . Eff One has so much to learn from the Americans on commerciality. Wonderful, healthy series:
IndyCar has announced that it will increase payments to its 'Leaders Circle' teams to $1.25million per car this season.

The series issues the payments to pre-selected teams - this year choosing 21 entrants - providing they qualify for every race during the season.

Last year the chosen teams received $1million, but the money on offer has increased by $250,000.

IndyCar president of competition and operations Derrick Walker said: "IndyCar is invested in the continued support of its teams.

"This programme rewards teams for full-season participation and helps each of them with an additional source of funding.

"The programme is also an asset to our [race] promoters as it guarantees over 20 cars at each event.

"As IndyCar continues to grow we're excited about opportunities like this that are beneficial to the teams that compete in our series."

Teams eligible for the scheme will also compete for race-by-race bonuses, which will be issued to the top 12 this year, compared to the top 10 in 2014.

Non-eligible teams can also compete for payouts given to the top three finishers, although both race-by-race reward schemes exclude the Indianapolis 500.
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#2

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

I thought that with the latest Concorde / agreement that F1 had become a lot more transparent.... at least we now know what teams make how much, and it is paid by a set standard based on success plus the historical factor. We know what level of payment and how much as a percentage of the overall commercial pie each team gets..... the only thing we are not officially told is how much each team makes in terms of sponsorship income, but we do have a rough idea on the various teams pull in terms of sponsorship income.

I found this from the Guardian, with help from our friend the sticky seabird (Googull) :wink: :
The teams will get a total of £115m ($180m) as a one-off signing bonus for signing the new Concorde Agreement with around 75% of this expected to be paid this year (2014). "There's some signing fees for the teams of around $180 million," says a senior industry source and, during a recent meeting, Ecclestone added "It's a good deal for the teams, it's great." The signing bonus is just the start.

The details of precisely how much money will be paid to the teams on an annual basis until 2020 is also laid bare. Under the current agreement, the top 10 teams get a 47.5% share of F1's underlying profit - known as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) - with Ferrari getting an additional 2.5% exclusively. In addition, Caterham, HRT and Marussia, the three new teams which joined F1 in 2010, each receive £6.4m ($10m) annually. The teams got a total of $686m last year with Ferrari's additional share alone coming to £18.7m ($29.3m).

"The current deal pays the teams 50% of the EBITDA plus some extras which means it pays them about 59%. The new deal is basically 60% plus a little bit more so it is going to be about 63%," says a person with knowledge of the situation.

The new terms favour the best-performing and most loyal teams in several ways. The prize fund will stay at 47.5% but the top three teams from the past three years will get an additional 7.5% which will come to a minimum of £63.8m ($100m) every year. Ferrari will also get a further 5% annually due its historic status. Based on F1's financial results last year that would give the Italian manufacturer another £37.4m ($58.6m) so it is a nice little earner to say the least.

Indeed, to put it in context, when you average out the overall increase in prize money paid to all the teams under the new deal Ecclestone stated that they "are going to get around £44.7m ($70m) more." Ferrari's additional share makes up the bulk of that although of course it previously received 2.5% so it is not a pure increase of £37.4m ($58.6m).

However, the one-off signing bonus will further increase its payout and, of course it will share in the £63.8m ($100m) from being one of the top three teams over the past three years.
(Although not in 2014 they didn't - Everso)

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#3

Post by kals »

Let's not be fooled by how Indycar looks. It has been entertaining these past few seasons but it doesn't paint the right picture.

Three teams make up more than half the grid, that's Penske, Ganassi and Andretti. The latter have had trouble finding money for their fourth entries. The body kits look a mess and there are only two versions developed by Honda and Chevy, not the teams, they will only serve to spread the field out at a period when we've seen some fantastic racing. Honda again looks to be behind Chevy on performance. Established teams and drivers look to be finding sponsorship very hard to come by, so much so that Justin Wilson is unlikely to be seen this year and an Italian pay driver has a seat for the initial races and was ridiculously slow in testing. Then finally there is the planning and scheduling which is very condensed and is not helping recover Indycar's viewer figures or race attendances.

The point here is that the series looks good on the surface but it has as many issues to deal with as F1.
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#4

Post by SBan83 »

Indycar is not healthy by any stretch. It gets barely any media attention at all and ratings are pitifully low, plus the issues Kieran posted about. Although I must say while I agree the racing on the road/streets have been great, the ovals except for Indy have been insomnia-inducing after the initial great oval racing of the first DW12 season. So if by some stroke of luck, these aero kits improve the ovals (I doubt but never know), good.
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#5

Post by Ian-S »

None of the oval races outside of Indy with the DW12 have been any good, the first Texas race was a snoozefest only interrupted by drivers crashing because they had less downforce than a kart and even looking at another cars wake sideways sent them spinning, the other races haven't been much better.
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#6

Post by PTRACER »

SB83 wrote:Indycar is not healthy by any stretch. It gets barely any media attention at all and ratings are pitifully low, plus the issues Kieran posted about. Although I must say while I agree the racing on the road/streets have been great, the ovals except for Indy have been insomnia-inducing after the initial great oval racing of the first DW12 season. So if by some stroke of luck, these aero kits improve the ovals (I doubt but never know), good.
Isn't oval racing overall becoming a problem? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against NASCAR or oval racing, especially since being involved in NR2003 or iRacing series, but it seems to have got a little boring lately. Seem to spend most of the races waiting for the next crash or debris caution.

What's interesting is how I've always said IndyCar (well, CART at the time) should become a global series to rival F1 and now the IndyCar boss has hinted that might be their aim:
IndyCar boss Mark Miles believes that the high race-hosting fees in Formula 1 could work in his series' favour as it explores opportunities to expand beyond North America.

The US single-seater series is in the process of attempting a transition into a season that begins and ends earlier in the year, with the hope of compensating for the lack of North American venues with a suitable climate for racing in February and March by adding a handful of overseas events.

The first step in that direction was intended to be a race in Brasilia earlier this month, however the event was cancelled in February after the local government withdrew its funding.

However Miles remains optimistic that IndyCar can succeed outside of North America, and he believes that it can do so by offering itself as a more viable alternative for markets that have been priced out of F1.

"We believe that there is a not-so-latent appetite for IndyCar racing around the world," Miles told AUTOSPORT.

"I think there is a great value proposition when you look at where we can come in, and what we can offer compared with Formula 1 when you think about price versus value.

"We don't have to charge the kind of sanctioning fees that race promoters in countries, and sovereign funds are paying for Formula 1.

"But I think we can offer a product that is seen as uniquely American, but is extraordinarily exciting racing. So I think there is a big opportunity for us."

IndyCar's planned expansion comes at a time where Formula 1's high sanctioning fees are coming under increasing scrutiny.

The German Grand Prix will be absent for the calendar for the first time in more than five decades this year due to the failure of the event organisers to agree terms with Bernie Ecclestone.

Meanwhile current South Australian tourism minister Leon Bignell recently told the Australian media that Adelaide will not attempt to recapture the grand prix from Melbourne as long as Ecclestone is in charge.
The thing is, that'd make something like Indy Lights the premier oval racing series in America and I don't know if they're really fast/spectacular enough. IRL used to be a good alternative to CART when the two were around.
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#7

Post by SBan83 »

I don't think it's any more boring than watching the same thing unfold on a road course, Paul. Debris cautions or whatever, NASCAR oval racing to me is more watchable than Indycar oval racing (except the Indy 500 which is somehow always exciting).

As for Indycar expanding, they can try but imho it'd be stretching itself too thin. It was a realistic option during the CART days when the series was mighty strong both in the US and globally but now hardly anyone cares. I think its somewhere below GP3 in terms of global popularity.
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#8

Post by PTRACER »

It wouldn't surprise me, but it's an America-only series and it only gets broadcast here on specialist sports channels now which you have to pay for separately to the other sports channels so of course no one watches it.

Motorsport coverage has become so shite in the last twenty years, bring back the days when ALL major motorsports used to be on Eurosport, or on terrestrial TV.

Ian and Kieran will remember the days you could switch on BBC1 and watch live F1 races, live BTCC and the World Rally Championship on Sunday Grandstand. And back then we only had four bloody channels and all of them free.
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#9

Post by Sam »

At the end of the day, Indycar is a US based series (and a relatively minor one at that in the grand scheme of things), and they really need to get their act together domestically before going for global markets and international TV deals.

Also, motorsport coverage on TV may have moved to pay-per-view but the upside is there's heaps more of it than back in the day. I couldn't have imagined receiving things like NASCAR, V8 Supercars, TUSC or WEC back in the day. Or all F1 sessions live, for that matter. And that's before adding the coverage you can get on the Internet.
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#10

Post by PTRACER »

How was the race? I presume no one here watched it, I'm downloading it now.
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#11

Post by kals »

Honestly Paul, don't bother. It was a joke until about 20-30 to go. The new bodykits and various flick ups created yellow after yellow so there was no real flow to the race until well into the final half. If you're going to download it I'd suggest just watching the final 1/4, that was pretty great.
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#12

Post by Cheeveer »

The cars are just as racey as pre-aero package, but they break way too easily - that is what ruptures the racing.
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#13

Post by Ian-S »

I dunno about that, wait till they get to somewhere fast like Barber. They said on the broadcast the drivers were complaining about the dirty air causing aero push here, something they never experienced with the "old" DW12.
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#14

Post by PTRACER »

Cheeveer wrote:The cars are just as racey as pre-aero package, but they break way too easily - that is what ruptures the racing.
It seems there was a nice battle between Montoya and Power towards the end (as kals hinted), but this was such a major problem. Apparently a spectator was hit in the head by one of these pieces and she's in hospital with a fractured skull, believe it or not. The new front wings have the same problem as those introduced to F1 in 2009.
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#15

Post by Ian-S »

It was a rear mudguard that hit the girl I think.
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