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Formula One’s big bump Tough Road Ahead: In view of the economic meltdown many feel that Honda might
be the first of many casualties in Formula One. Photos: AFP A win more personal than the rest To my rival, with respect IN THE NEWS
Battle for Europe MAIL
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Formula One’s big bump Honda could trigger a domino effect of manufacturers toppling out of Formula One unless costs are slashed dramatically, International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley has said. “I have to say it was not entirely unexpected,’’ the Briton told reporters after Honda announced they were pulling out amid slumping car sales and factory closures in the global economic downturn. “I’ve been expecting one of the major manufacturers to stop for some time because even before the current situation the costs were completely out of control. “And now I think its difficult to imagine how any manufacturer could stay in unless we make really substantial reductions in cost,’’ he added in a conference call. Major car manufacturers own, either wholly or in part, six of the 10 teams that ended the season in November. They also supply the rest with engines. A recent Formula Money report put Honda’s annual budget at 350 million dollar, with Japan’s second largest carmaker pumping an estimated 1.5 billion dollar into the sport over the last five years. Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, Renault and FIAT (Ferrari) also burned through well in excess of 200 million dollar a year. Toyota entered the sport in 2002 and have yet to win a race. “Unless we can demonstrate to the directors of these big companies that the costs are coming right down, I don’t doubt that they will start to discuss the possibility (of withdrawing),’’ Mosley said. The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) met on Thursday and agreed significant cuts and the FIA said they were in exclusive negotiations with Cosworth, Xtrac and Ricardo Transmissions (XR) for a low-cost powertrain (engine and gearbox) package from 2010. “They (the teams) are certainly making an effort,’’ said Mosley. ‘’The question in my mind is whether they are attacking this in a sufficiently root-and-branch way. I’m hoping to have a meeting with the teams in the next few days and we will discuss that. “I don’t think there’s any doubt now that there’s a real sense of urgency,’’ he added. Mosley recognised that Formula One, already down to 20 cars following the departure of Super Aguri in April, would struggle if numbers on the starting grid declined further. However, he said that while 2009 looked tough, he was optimistic about the medium to long-term future — providing the sport could become effectively self-financing without subsidy from car makers and billionaire private individuals. To do that would require reducing annual budgets down to around the 30 million pound (44.01 million dollar) bracket, allowing teams to be competitive without requiring more funds than provided by television revenues and limited sponsorship. “Much more needs to be done for 2010,’’ said Mosley. “We’ve got to get the costs down, not by 10 or 20 per cent but down to 10 or 20 percent of what they are now. “Without that, I don’t really see where the money’s coming from. “Provided there is a powertrain available...I think it quite likely that some of the old style F1 entrepreneurs would buy the remnants of one of these teams provided that they can do so on reasonable terms,’’ said Mosley. “We may get a shift in ownership of one or two teams but I don’t think we will actually lose the team.’’
— Reuters
McLaren also seeing red McLaren expect their revenues to fall by more than a third as a result of the global economic crisis, according to the Formula One team’s boss and co-ownerRon Dennis. “Our budgets come from the advertising budgets of the companies that support us, and inevitably advertising budgets get slashed or, at least are significantly trimmed in times of economic strife,” he told Britain’s Observer newspaper. “We know we have to reduce our costs to cater for the inevitable downturn in income that is coming in 2010 and 2011,” he added in an interview that the paper said took place before Honda announced that they were pulling out of the sport. “We predict that our turnover will drop from 280 million pounds ($410.8 million) a year to as low as 175 million pounds a year,” said Dennis. McLaren are 40 percent owned by Mercedes with 30 percent in the hands of Bahrain’s state-owned Mumtalakat holding company and the remainder shared equally between Dennis and Saudi business partner Mansour Ojjeh. Their main sponsors are telecoms giant Vodafone and Spanish bank Santander. The team won their first Formula One title since 1999 this season, with Britain’s Lewis Hamilton becoming the sport’s youngest world champion at the age of 23. McLaren are the second most successful Formula One team after Ferrari in terms of races and titles won but they also own a group of companies and Dennis has said he wants to diversify their activities further. “If you look back in history, you see clear examples of teams that have stayed unique to Formula One that have just failed,” he told reporters in Brazil last month. “You cannot sustain a Formula One team indefinitely, you need to diversify.” |
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A win more personal than the rest
Jeev Milkha Singh recorded the most emotional victory of his career in the Nippon Series JT Cup in Tokyo to climb up to the 36th spot in world rankings. This surpasses his best of 2006, when he was ranked 37th. His eyes were moist when Jeev dedicated his trophy from the last event of the Japan Golf Tour to his wife Kudrat who gave him the “confidence and determination” to go ahead and participate barely a few hours after delivering their first still-born child. He held aloft the trophy and said: “I will dedicate this win to my wife. She is healthy now and better things are on the way.” With one more event of the Asian Tour remaining, Jeev is all set to go still higher. When spoken to he was practising on the greens in Tokyo determined to give a good performance in the Volvo Masters of Asia to be played in Bangkok from December 18 to 21. Jeev faces a tough challenge from defending champion Prayad, who has had three wins on the Japan Golf Tour this season, and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-tang, currently second on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit, in the season finale. “But next year, focus will be on the US Major”,said Jeev, who cannot forget the pain of losing his child before birth. He said he would be going to Delhi or Chandigarh in the coming days. “At the moment Kudrat needs complete rest, so I will leave her either in Delhi or Chandigarh before proceeding to Mumbai for a two-day golf assignment. And then it will be the Volvo Masters”, he said. “But I will certainly be in Chandiarh after the Bangkok tournament”, added Jeev. With the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit safely in his pocket, Jeev recorded his second Japan Golf Tour title in Tokyo following his Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup earlier this year. His other titles this year include the Bank Austria Golf Open (European Tour) and Singapore Open (Asian Tour). According to Milkha Singh Jeev will be flying to Delhi on December 10. Milkha Singh and Nirmal Milkha Singh will join in Jeev’s 37th birthday bash, a low-key family affair, on December 15 in Delhi before he flies off to Bangkok on December 16 for the last Asian Tour event. “He has got a lot of determination. It is in the genes”, said Milkha Singh, who took part in the race of the century at the Rome Olympics and was among the four who broke the world record. Jeev’s mother Nirmal Milkha Singh was the captain of the Indian volleyball team during a Test series in Ceyon (now Sri Lanka). Milkha Singh, who won 77 of the 80 races in international events, was awarded the Padma Shri in 1958, Jeev got his Padma Shri in January last year. Milkha Singh was overwhelmed by the congratulatory messages as also sympathies for the stillborn that have been pouring in ever since Jeev took to the greens after Kudrat delivered a stillborn child on the eve of the Nippon Series. He singled out one message he got from the Arunachal Governor,Gen J.J. Singh. “He even rang up to convey his message personally”, said Milkha Singh.
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To my rival, with respect When Rafael Nadal inflicted on Roger Federer an almost physically wounding defeat at Wimbledon in July this year, he actually delayed his return to the locker room until the Swiss player had left. Federer’s sense of loss could be read in his countenance, which had the intensity of bereavement about it. Nadal who had already reined in his victory celebrations, did not want to intrude on his rival’s very private grief. Many of sport’s greatest rivalries are defined by the enmity between the protagonists. Take F1 drivers Ayrton Senna- Alain Prost, boxers Ali- Frazier, tennis legends John McEnroe-Jimmy Connors and ice-skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, whose former husband hired someone to club her rival on the knee. Federer and Nadal have the fiercest rivalry that the increasingly physical and less aesthetic game of tennis has seen. Like reluctant volleyers, who eschew the intimacy of the net, there is a mutual admiration between both the legends, which does not quite spill over into close friendship. Pat Cash, 1987 Wimbledon Champion, told this correspondent that both Federer and Nadal have a very strong relationship. When Roger got injured in 2005 and was on crutches in Basle (Switzerland), Rafa went to visit him in his hotel and they talked for hours together. Then a few months later when Rafa got injured and could not play in the 2006 Australian Open, Roger phoned him and consoled him. They phone and text each other occasionally and also make jokes, added Cash. It is a rivalry, which is a kind of a friendship although you cannot say they are good friends. They are one and two in the world so it is normal that they keep space between them. Cash, a regular commentator at Wimbledon, said, “They like each other and talk during tournaments, though not all the time. They congratulate each other. There is an age difference and Rafa looked up to Roger at the beginning though Roger always spoke to Rafa on the same level from the start.” If Nadal had not come along, Federer would have won more titles and probably already overtaken Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam wins. Yet both have helped each other to define their greatness. One is strangely indebted to the other. Federer, the second best player on clay, and Nadal, second best on grass, have pulled each other even further away from the pack. The rivalry will endure. Because Federer has been around for a long time-he was Wimbledon’s junior champion in 1998 and won his first men’s title at the All England Club in 2003-it is easy to forget he is still only 26. Implausible though it sounds, but he says that he will play until he is 35. The fact is that he has made long term commitments to sponsors. Like Federer, Nadal too has rented a house in the posh London suburb of Wimbledon with his girlfriend, Xisca Perello. Unlike Federer, he rarely goes out in London. Essentially shy, he lives with his parents in a big house surrounded by his extended family back in Spain. “The only time he goes out at Wimbledon is to the supermarket near the tube station because he cooks for everyone,” says Cash. He is fond of watching movies like -Love in The Time of Cholera-and The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, which is about the nine-year-old son of a Nazi general. He also watches videos of the best football goals in history, which include those pumped in by Maradona. Good goal or bad one, for some reason he switches off his TV when David Beckham makes an appearance. He plays football on his play station. He was a very good player, a left-winger, until 11 when he opted for tennis. People go crazy in Spain if he wins. Before this year’s Wimbledon final, Cash quipped “When I arrived I backed Federer but the more I see of Nadal the more I feel he can’t be beaten. It’s like Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. Different styles, a right-hander against a lefty, power against touch. “Nadal is so strong, a killer like Monica Seles. It’s impossible for him to choke. Both men are mentally strong. But Nadal is naturally strong. Federer had doubts and learned to be strong. Federer’s game is built more on confidence. He goes for the lines and just over the net. Nadal’s game has more security more margin for error with his top spin. Tennis is lucky to have two
champions and men such as these. So are we.” |
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IN THE NEWS The decision was taken in the council meeting of the BWF in Seoul on December 6, according to a statement issued by BWF Vice-President V K Verma. The 18-year-old Saina’s name was proposed along with three other players by the World badminton players federation. Saina has had an incredible run this year, becoming the first woman shuttler to win the Chinese Taipei Open, apart from
winning the World Junior Badminton and Commonwealth Youth Games gold medal in Pune. She also reached the quarterfinals in the Beijing Olympics
earlier this year. Elated at being bestowed with the honour, Saina said, “I am very excited and happy to get this honour. I never expected such an award but now that I have got it, it has motivated me a lot and given me a big boost. “I just want to work even harder now and get more results,” she added.
— PTI |
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MAIL Diego Maradona is arguably the best football player the world has ever seen. His recent visit to India will go a long way to promote the cause of Indian football. He will inspire a lot of people, especially youngsters, to take up the sport and will also be of use to the game as he has offered to be Indian football’s brand ambassador. He might have said that as a parting gesture, but it tells you that even a legend like him got swayed looking at the gigantic proportions of people who came to see him. This tells people that the craze for the biggest world sport is there even in a cricket-struck country like ours. Deepak Vats,
New Delhi
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Honda could trigger a domino effect of manufacturers toppling out of Formula One unless costs are slashed dramatically, International Automobile Federation
(FIA) president Max Mosley has said. “I have to say it was not entirely unexpected,’’ the Briton told reporters after Honda announced they were pulling out amid slumping car sales and factory closures in the global economic downturn.
After breaking into the elite zone of top 10 players, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal also became the first Indian woman shuttler to be named as the most promising player of the year by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Didier Drogba helped Chelsea book their place in the knockout stages with a 2-1 victory over Romanian side CFR Cluj. A 1-0 victory over Anorthosis Famagusta ensured Greek club Panathinaikos a chance of finishing atop Group B in the Champions League. In other Champions League matches Tuesday, Inter Milan went down 2-1 to Werder Bremen. Roma secured top spot with a 2-0 win over Bordeaux. Liverpool won comfortably 3-1 over PSV Eindhoven. Atletico Madrid finish second in Group D following a scoreless draw with Marseille. Barcelona went down 3-2 at home to Shakhtar Donetsk. Already qualified Sporting Lisbon rounded off their group campaign with a 1-0 win away to Swiss side Basel in Group C.