20 Race limit – Get the cutters out!
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Ok so Ecclestone says that 20 races is the limit for F1, as next season we will have that unprecidented amount of races on the calendar. Ross Brawn also says its about the limit for a single engineer. Here is the 2011 calendar:
1. Bahrain GP – Bahrain International Circuit
2. Australian GP – Albert Park
3. Malaysian GP – Sepang
4. Chinese GP – Shanghai
5. Turkish GP – Istanbul Park
6. Spanish GP – Circuit de Catalunya
7. Monaco GP – Circuit de Monaco
8. Canadian GP – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
9. European GP – Valencia Street Circuit
10.British GP – Silverstone
11.German GP – Nurburgring
12.Hungarian GP – Hungaroring
13.Belgian GP – Spa-Francochamps
14.Italian GP – Monza
15.Singapore GP – Marina Bay
16.Japanese GP – Suzuka
17.Korean GP – Korean International
18.Indian GP – Jaypee Group Circuit
19.Abu Dahbi – Yas Marina
20.Brazilian GP – Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace
However with the USA grand prix scheduled for 2012, a much talked about Rome grand prix and the possibility of Russia which 3 would you cut?
First off I think the “European GP” has very little going for it, there’s already a race in Spain and its a torrid circuit. I think the other personal favourites to face the chop are the chinese gp and the spanish gp. However spains a big market for racing so I reckon at least one spanish race is a safe bet.
Unfortunatly at this rate I see very little room for Spa on the calendar, the circuit lost a stupid amount of money hosting the latest race and I dont see the government stepping in.
Thoughts?
I don’t believe Ecclestone when he says 20 races is the maximum limit any more than when he said it about 16 races back in the nineties.
Here’s that article by the way:
2011 F1 calendar could be longest ever
Now superceded by:
2011 F1 calendar officially revealed with 20 races and season finale in Brazil
Its actually more what Ross Brawn said about if theres anymore than 20 races :
“We want to have these extra races because it’s good for formula one, but it’s reaching a critical stage in terms of people being able to cope,” warns Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn.
Looks like the teams could say enough is enough.
I wonder what he means – is it the workload? I don’t think it’s finance because with few exceptions (like going to Canada and back for one race) each race is profitable for the teams.
I don’t believe Ecclestone when he says 20 races is the maximum limit any more than when he said it about 16 races back in the nineties.
If you stack the events in the right order and group them together by region – for example, Melbourne/Sepang/Singapore and Shanghai/Korea/Suzuka and Bahrain/Abu Dhabi, you can fit more than twenty in.
I think you’d need more back-to-backs. The problem with that is places like Singapore and Malaysia, and Bahrain and Abu Dhabi would be competing in the same market and would take money off of each other. An Australia/Malaysia BTB would be feasible of course, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like a Middle East one is going to happen.
Then here’s a wild idea: a rotating calenar. I know the German Grand Prix has experimented with it, and it hasn’t really been a success, but I’m thinking of an entire caledar that rotates with a few events – Australia as season opener, Brazil as season close, Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, Suzuka and possibly Singapore (ending circuit moifications) – as permanent fixtures. Everything else gets rotated in and out every other year.
Some of those GP’s aren’t as safe as you might think. Australia has a good chance of being dropped soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same applied to brazil japan. If the money isn’t there, it’s very real that they could be dropped. Bernie doesnt care about the fans in those countrys, just his money
Bernie has to run Formula 1 as a business. If you were in his position, I guarantee you that you’d be doing the exact same thing. What do you expect him to do, let Melboure, Sao Paulo and Suzuka keep their races free of charge? If he does it for one, he has to do it for all. No money would be flowing into the sport, and the whole thing would simply collapse. Or do you actually believe that the money from the circuits goes straight into Bernie’s back pocket? If it did, he’d be richer than Bill Gates.
Prisoner Monkeys, I had the same idea about keeping a “core” set of GP’s, as well as rotating the rest of them. Perhaps with Suzuka, Monza, Silverstone, Brazil, and Australia being held permenantly as “heritage” races, GPs like Germany, US, Spa, Spain, and Malaysia as international races to validate it being called a WORLD Championship, and the rest filled with Istanbul, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi(among others). Seriously doubt it would ever happen, but I think it would work, as well as being flexible enough to allow races to be replaced with newer ones every couple of years.
If CVC hadn’t saddled F1 with so much debt it accumulated in raising the funds to buy the rights, circuits wouldn’t have to be charged extortionate amounts. Bernie is a brilliant business man but I think he’s on thin ice here, counting on there to be ever more government-sponsored races in countries that want a Grand Prix for promotional reasons. If those dry up and the original races start failing, F1 is in trouble. I think the only way to prevent this would be to set up the core races idea that get special low rates (or even some kind of deal where the circuit only pays as much of its agreed cost so as not to put in debt, if it’s made a loss that year).
With the upcoming Concord Agreement negotiations coming up and the teams wanting a bigger slice of the pie though, I fear we’ll be coming closer to the idea of a GP1 than ever before. The teams, now with more than 8 months to prepare for it, set up a break-away with their own stable rights deal that ruins F1 financially before Bernie then buying out the bankrupt F1 and the series get re-united. And that’s if we’re lucky.
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