Does it take more money to stick around?

[3spddrft]

I think it's easier to follow F1 from year to year because the cars don't change a lot, the drivers don't change a lot, the liveries stay much the same and the sponsors are largely the same. Also, there is a small enough grid that each of the cars is pretty distinctive. I don't think this is anywhere near as true in other GT and open wheel series. There are some iconic cars that stand out but it's hardly what I see in formula 1.

Does anyone else find it frustrating when liveries and drivers change so often?

 

[Pupik]

That's really the essence of motor sports; liveries change due to sponsor contracts expiring, or if a driver brings sponsors, and leaves. F1 had a lot of driver changes from 2009-2010, but it's largely stabilized for now, as the available talent-to-available drives are limited. It wasn't always this way from a driver transfer standpoint, but most major teams have been tinkering with their cars pretty much every few races since the 1960s (not that every team or car has been in F1 that long, but from a historical view).

F1 does create a little bit of a revenue-sharing program, but that's pretty much the prize money, and the travel concessions if your team finishes in the top 10 in constructor's points (or is it only for points-scoring teams?), but for the 12 teams competing presently, there's also literally 100 more that failed or quit the sport. There's also probably a hundred more "paper teams" that never even entered nor built a serious car, but said they would, once the financal burden was weighed out and logistics were taken into account.

 

[Ardius]

The reason F1 has more consistent teams and drivers is that there is still some level of professionalism left in it. A sponsor gets far more for their money than any other motorsport and is so more inclined to stay onboard and find value. The drivers are all clearly top-quality and thanks to sponsors generally keeping around a bit better due to better value, drivers generally keep their seats better.

If we take BTCC or LMS in comparison, the teams, sponsors and drivers change so much because money doesn't go very far. Sponsors can quite easily struggle to justify their involvement as these series do not get anywhere near the same exposure and drivers hence find it more difficult to find seats as well as convince sponsors to come on board with them. It is much more difficult for a race-winning (even championship winning!) driver to keep his seat in BTCC than it is in F1. A WDC in F1 will for the most part guarantee a F1 seat. A BTCC Championship means almost nothing - teams want you but if you don't have any money, you aren't going to find many seats.

Its all about money, the higher profile your series, the more money is generated and hence more consistencey with drivers, teams and sponsors. The lower profile the series, you start to see more frequent driver changes, team closures and sponsors ducking in and out.

I guess you just have to accept that you can't just watch motorsports and be a fan of only a few teams and drivers as chances are they are not going to be around forever. Its bad enough in BTCC if you aren't a fan of Plato or Neal - fans of Turkington or Giovanardi must have found it hard to keep watching in 2010!

 

[MatskiMonk]

I think it's easier to follow F1 from year to year because the cars don't change a lot, the drivers don't change a lot, the liveries stay much the same and the sponsors are largely the same. Also, there is a small enough grid that each of the cars is pretty distinctive. I don't think this is anywhere near as true in other GT and open wheel series. There are some iconic cars that stand out but it's hardly what I see in formula 1.

Does anyone else find it frustrating when liveries and drivers change so often?

I think it's easier to follow the movements and changes in F1, compared to other series, because it's given reasonable coverage, most other series that are televised only seem to show the race itself and not much else. With F1 we get to see the drivers quite often, sometimes at home, running a marathon or doing sponsor work etc. - it makes them personalities, and I think it's easier to follow because of this.. in most other series, a driver is a just a name on the window.

Personally I like variety, I follow sites like TouringCarTimes alot, so I think it's pretty easy to keep up to speed with such things.