‘F1 should keep traditional tracks’ - BMW
The two German car manufacturers involved in F1, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, insist the country must be represented on the sport’s annual calendar.
Currently, Germany hosts a single race per year, alternated between the loss-making Hockenheim and Nürburgring circuits.
Cash-strapped Hockenheim, however, said this week it will only continue to host grands prix with state support, which it is unlikely to receive.
“Germany is an important market for BMW, where we have a big fan base,” a BMW spokesman told Duetsche Press-Agentur. “Formula 1 should not lose its traditional arenas.
“A solution has to be found here,” he added.
Canada and France recently dropped off the 2009 calendar, as the sport looks increasingly to Asia and the Middle East.
Mercedes’ motor racing chief Norbert Haug said: “Of course we are interested that German formula one fans have at least one Grand Prix in Germany, especially as until recently they had two per season.”
There are five German drivers - a quarter of the grid - in Formula 1, while the Toyota team is based in Cologne.
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You’d think that if it was so important to them BMW and M-B could figure out how to get off their wallets and pay for the races themselves.
@ harrison
Well, that was my though, too, when Canada was axed. But that’s only a temporary solution, I’m afraid. The essence of the problem is that hosting a Grand Prix is too expensive, not economically viable.
Hockenheim could have saved some money on renovations if they didn’t ruin one of the most unique tracks in formula 1 for another cookie cutter ‘modern’ f1 circuit. That being said, Bernie needs to calm down with the sanction fee.
F1 should keep the traditional tracks, the origionals are the best, not all the Tilke crud; he DESTROYED Hockenheim.
On the subject I found the other day a petition to stop Tilke designing tracks…
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?f12004&1
@ Lustigson
Not economically viable? Then it should figure out a way to make money (w/o gov’t help) or go out of business.
Anyone ever read this? http://www.motorsportresearch.com/view.asp?rep=13
The argument is that European F1 races create huge amounts of local wealth.
Can a local Governemnt divert money however to fund this? F1 is not a charity and will raise the price if demand increases.
Does this necassarily mean they create national wealth and can that attract national Geovernment funding.
However can non European F1 races create national wealth?
Knowing this will FOM raise the price as demand increases.
I don’t see what BMW and Mercedes are worried about. BMW has a strong presence in WTCC, which gives it plenty of world coverage, and home venues, while Mercedes has DTM as a very big home-based sport.
Both Manufacturers ought to be able to bring pressure onto the government to support its circuits, and maybe give some support themselves, but I think that in the current economic climate, this is the beginning of the end for a truly global F1, and a restriction of possible venues to a very low number indeed….
I remember reading somewhere that circuits only get the money from ticket sales, anything else such as advertising goes to Bernie and on top of that the circuits have to pay him a stonking great fee. Because lots of new circuits have been funded by their Governments this has pushed the price up that Bernie can demand, so in the end circuits lose money hosting a Grand Prix and have to be able to make enough from other events during the year to break even. Also I think I recall reading somewhere that Monaco is exempt because of the status and glamour, so either gets charged no fee or a small fee and may even get the advertising, (can anyone set me right on this?)
The finances of hosting a Grand Prix need to be changed, so that while ticket prices are expensive for fans, circuits could make a profit if they managed to be say 90% full. So Bernie has to cut his fee or let the tracks keep advertising or something like that.
The poor attendance at the Chinese GP and the desire to host night races to suit European audiences show where the majority of fans are.
As F1 is a world series it should try to have a presence in as many locations as possible, while keeping the traditional European venues. No country should have two GPs, and if a region doesn’t have the demand for a GP in two countries near each other they can alternate.
But we all know that the GP calendar is chosen by how much money Bernie can make, not any other reasons such as quality of the race or what the fans want.
Michael - Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely take a look at it.
DG - The WTCC doesn’t get anything like as much coverage as F1 does.
PJA - Yes, Ecclestone’s company gets the race track advertising monies (with the exception of Monaco).
Keith - WTCC - thats hardly BMWs fault either, considering how many teams and cars they entered in the last season….
The world has run out of cash, everybodys skint, yet Bernie still expects his readies. How much longer can we trust our sport with this charlatan?