I wouldn't count on liberty media not going that way.
Oh no, absolutely, I expect that it will (I had phrased it a bit poorly in my post), but it's a constant through
European racing when compared against the
American way in which we just don't think of the sponsors that much whereas in America part of your job description is an ability to list of three different companies names every time you're being interviewed because that's what pays for the racing. It's a cultural difference that will have to be eroded away and replaced over time, it isn't just going to change overnight and I don't see it happening during my lifetime because it is so deeply entrenched with series focusing on manufacturer rather than privateer entries more often than not which means that the Ferrari's on track are
the Ferrari's and sponsorship is just people paying for their logo to be seen on
the Ferrari's.
They have sponsorship on the safety car thos season for the first time (beyond the "safety cars supplied by" advertising). I really hope it doesn't lead to more safety cars when a vsc would do like Brundel posited it would (and for some dumb reason said that its a good thing).
Being as my main thing the last couple of years has been NASCAR I can really see the racing benefit of a safety car being deployed if the procedure surrounding it is done properly - and within F1 as it stands I don't think it's possible. Let me explain, Lewis complaining the safety car needs to go faster, he's not wrong when you consider the equipment he's in, that SC is going as fast as possible and yet the super technology behind it is struggling to not stall. I think commercialising a safety car is a bad move anyway, it's there for the safety of the drivers and marshals, not the entertainment of the audience.
For sure, have primary series sponsors on there - put Heineken's don't drink and drive campaign on there because it makes sense in the context of it being a safety car, but I think it's ethically unsound to just put any old shit there because it makes money, the car in an ideal world
shouldn't have to appear so to have any amount of money put on the cars appearance I think is a bad move.
Its odd enough they're alternating the safety and medical cars between Aston Martin and Mercedes this year for the sake of those companies being able to advertise their cars. Something about using the safety and medical car for advertising already doesn't sit well (I mean I never thoight Merc gave them those cars for no reason but its now explicitly why they have 2 different manufacturers) adding sponsorship just pushes it over the edge.
I'm sort of split on the point of having split duties for manufacturers when it comes to safety and medical car, on the one hand I don't care enough because I do have faith in the continuity of the people in those cars having their high standard both for themselves and within the FIA of what's expected in terms of performance and function (especially the MC on this one) and if both Aston and Merc produce cars capable of it then all power to them to bid to provide the car.
But is there not a case, no matter how insignificant it might be, that Bernd Maylander who has driven a Merc safety car, not the same model of car throughout I accept, exclusively since it became his full time job, there will be nuanced differences between a Merc and an Aston which surely may have an impact in some way on his performance - thereby possibly giving more weight behind Lewis' complaint, I can just imagine him complaining that the safety car is driving in a different manner week on week, which is the one thing through his complaints he never says.
The same must be said, and potentially more significantly, for Alan Van der Merwe who drives the medical car - if he is actually required to push that car, he needs to know it without reproach and swapping cars surely jeopardises that
without reproach I've just characterised, and it extends to Dr Ian Roberts who is the medical part of that car, he needs to know exactly where everything is, how to get to it quickest, how to fully pack and unpack it on a moments notice when he arrives on the scene of an accident
without reproach, because it is in theory always a bad one when they're on site.
