Bernie Says Azerbaijan GP is a Go

[cosworth151]

The latest F1 Dictator Derby race appears to be Baku, Azerbaijan. Bernie is playing it up as a replacement for Monza.

Yuck! 

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/despite-spotty-human-rights-record-azerbaijan-go-f1

[Ian]

Just proves it, you only have to wave an oil rich flag at Ecclestone and he's away with the mixer. 

[Scott]

Reporters on Sunday told Ecclestone F1 without Monza is unthinkable.
 
"I was told that when we didn't have a race in France actually. And Germany now," he said. "We've got some good replacements, haven't we?"

What an A-Hole to be so flippant about tossing the European races in the bin.  When will lightning strike this guy?

[Jericoke]

Reporters on Sunday told Ecclestone F1 without Monza is unthinkable.
 
"I was told that when we didn't have a race in France actually. And Germany now," he said. "We've got some good replacements, haven't we?"

What an A-Hole to be so flippant about tossing the European races in the bin.  When will lightning strike this guy?

How many European countries has been been indicted or investigated in?

Maybe he's moving out of Europe to cover up the fact he can't do business there any more?

[Dare]

Maybe with some luck Bernie will be taken hostage and
no one will pay the ransom.

[lkjohnson1950]

Bernie is always trying to spice up the show, viewership is down, attendance is down. Maybe he should give a thought to the idea that the squandering of F1's heritage has something to do with that.

[John S]

Yes Jeri this is to do with Europe but just not in the way you are suggesting.

Bernie can't give long term low rate sweetheart deals to Germany and Italy, the European Union rules on fair competition put the brakes on that.

I'm sure there would be a line of lawyers from Britain, Belgium, Spain and Hungary queuing up to get reductions in the hosting fees for their races.  -  Oh and compensation for previous years for their hurt feelings on not being considered worthy enough for special deals. 

Because of his success in making F1 so big and getting 19 races around the world in a season Bernie has unwittingly created this present problem.

Whilst I mourn the loss of the French GP and now possibly Monza I am still more thankful that we have F1 from March to November and there are over twice as many races from when I started following F1. 

If I where in charge of keeping historic tracks on the F1 calendar I'd bring back Brands Hatch in place of pancake flat and windy Silverstone, but sadly that can never be because of new housing development near the track.

We also mourn the loss of historically great teams but we have learned to cheer or berate the ones we have know, life moves on and so does F1. ...............Viva F1! 

[cosworth151]

And we have silent, bland little V6's that are so complex & fragile that they miss races. McLaren couldn't fix an electrical fault in JB's car in the 24 hours between quali & the start. Half of the races so far this season have had cars missing from the grid because they were too delicate to make it to the start.

Then the cars that do make it to the start usually just parade around one of Herr Tilke's gimmick tracks in front of mostly empty stands. Many only last a few years.

F1 is no longer the pinnacle of racing. It has been surpassed by endurance racing. (But don't worry, the FIA is now working hard to ruin that, too.) F1 has become the world's most expensive spec gimmick series. Think Formula E on steroids.

How many life long F1 fans have we had right here on GP Wizard that have completely given up on the sport? Quantity is one thing, but if all quality is lost, who will be left to care?

[Willy]

stupendous asshole

[Alianora La Canta]

Actually, the EU doesn't stop sweetheart deals altogether - it just stops EU tracks from being undercut by each other. Granted, this means that Bernie can't offer Italy a cheaper deal than the UK if they're offered at the same time unless Bernie can justify it with a valid reason. But neither rate is supposed to be affected by the rates offered to Bahrain or Japan - or Azerbaijan.

I think Bernie has overcooked the eggs, for I have seen little evidence that Azerbaijan is any more interested in F1 in the medium term than South Korea or Turkey, and there are fewer and fewer races interested in paying Bernie fees. I don't think this is the way to maintain quantity let alone quality.

[Jericoke]

Actually, the EU doesn't stop sweetheart deals altogether - it just stops EU tracks from being undercut by each other. Granted, this means that Bernie can't offer Italy a cheaper deal than the UK if they're offered at the same time unless Bernie can justify it with a valid reason. But neither rate is supposed to be affected by the rates offered to Bahrain or Japan - or Azerbaijan.

I think Bernie has overcooked the eggs, for I have seen little evidence that Azerbaijan is any more interested in F1 in the medium term than South Korea or Turkey, and there are fewer and fewer races interested in paying Bernie fees. I don't think this is the way to maintain quantity let alone quality.

I'll need more clarification on what the EU has to do with F1 contracts.

Surely if the EU stood in the way of an Italian Grand Prix it would be a trivial matter to generate outrage in Italy. 

[Alianora La Canta]

The EU has quite a bit to do with all contracts signed under the law of any EU country. It stipulates certain minimum standards that all member countries must adhere to, which member countries may add to as they see fit (but not contradict). It's a bit like the relationship between federal and state levels of US government, except that the EU is strictly forbidden from making law in some areas and is rather more interventionalist than the US federal level in other matters. (The UK knows this well, as it has the worst record in the EU for convicted contraventions of EU law).

In this specific case, EU competition law is the issue at play. It's supposed to ensure equal rights for states when competing for contracts. Basically, you can't offer the same contract at different prices in different countries unless there's a business-justifiable reason for it. And no, "I can make more money doing it this way" is not deemed business-justifiable. ("It costs more to supply Country X than Country Y", on the other hand, is).

The only way to exit EU rules is to exit the EU. There is already lots of outrage against the EU in Italy for other reasons, but it hasn't amounted to anything because it gets more money from the EU (directly through "welfare" payments *and* indirectly through better trade opportunities) than it pays in - and it's in a position where it would struggle to keep itself financially afloat if it left.

[Irisado]

In addition, it's worth pointing out that none of these 'EU laws' would have come to pass without the agreement of the member states, so they aren't laws being imposed by the Commission.  The Commission just oversees the laws to make sure that member states are adhering to them.  It did not actually make them.

The other issue here is that governments don't tend to fund Formula 1 race tracks in Europe.  This is not the case in a number of these other countries.  As a result, wealthy individuals pay Ecclestone millions to hold races in their nation state, and, as per usual, Ecclestone is only interested in how much money he is being paid.  He doesn't care about the sport at all.

[Philbe]

  I can see where Bernies going with this one, obviously money is the issue as has been said but here's some interesting facts about Baku, Azerbaijan.

The city is renowned for its harsh winds. This is reflected in the city's nickname, the "City of Winds

It will be hosting the 2015 European games and Euro 2020

 Baku is also among the world's top ten destinations for urban nightlife. Good for Kimi.

They found oil in 1846 and in 1872 Russian imperial authorities auctioned the parcels of oil-rich land around Baku to private investors.

Its in the top 10 most beautiful cities in the world.
Weathers nice (but windy)

I think the one thing you could say about this place is that it is filled with oil, money and very rich Russians.

And here is an interesting article about politics in the area from 2013 http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67706

[Monty]

There is a lot of sense (as usual) in this thread. I think it is a shame that historic tracks that have always been well supported are being dropped in favour of circuits that are that are being awarded races solely because the national or local government are prepared to pay huge sums of money to attract Bernie's circus. Let's assume there is nothing that can be done to change this..... the next problem is the actual tracks. Even Bernie has realised that the racing hasn't been good. Well that is mainly due to the tracks; whether they are Tilke Boredromes or inappropriate 'street' circuits. In the words of Private Frazer (sorry for our North American friends that may have missed the high calibre humour of Dads Army) " We're doomed!"