GPWizard F1 Forum
F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: Robem64 on November 08, 2018, 12:14:53 PM
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https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/139900/f1-hints-british-gp-could-leave-silverstone (https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/139900/f1-hints-british-gp-could-leave-silverstone)
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I don't see a problem with moving races per se. You need to have deals in place where the promoters prosper, the sponsors prosper, and the fans have a good time.
Liberty turning F1 into a big party is a dangerous strategy though: if people are there for the party, maybe another party which is just as good, but without the expense of racecars, will come along and suddenly you're without customers.
Montreal, Melbourne, Mexico and Sao Paolo are all races in the heart of major cities, and they're not forced to be 'street races'. Even the failed New York/New Jersey race was planned to be on a dedicated race track.
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Britain has no viable location that could take a street race - especially under the current economic climate. No track is anywhere near capable of reaching Grade 1 standard either. Therefore, leaving Silverstone will mean - at least temporarily - leaving Britain. France lost its race in 2008 and it took nearly a decade to regain its slot, largely due to calendar congestion...
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One little bit shows what it's all about now, 'Stakeholders and Shareholders', money money money. All any business cares about now is their shareholders.
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FOM won't be happy till all the classic races
are gone and more Asian races take their place
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FOM won't be happy till all the classic races
are gone and more Asian races take their place
FOM has only one job: makes as much money from Formula One as possible.
That's the results of having so many competing interests in Formula One, everyone has their own little kingdom to look after, and they have no choice but to double down on their narrow focus. Why make $20 million in Silverstone when you can make $20.5 million in Timbuktu? So what if in 5 years Timbuktu won't make a cent? You need that $0.5 million now!
They need to have the sport run by the teams as a whole. The teams understand their needs for making money, providing a sport and building a future. Claire Williams doesn't care about F1 next year, next 5 years, or even the next 20 years. She wants Williams to be something that matters 100 years from now. That means racing where people want to see races, both in terms of 'historic' fanbase, and building a new fanbase.
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It looks like F1 is heading down the same rat hole that NASCAR did. As many of you know, NASCAR was huge here in the States. Then they started dumping some of their best tracks for boring Charlotte clones outside of major cities. They also started juggling the rules around to "attract new fans." Now most Cup races run in front of mostly empty stands. The Brickyard 400 at Indy, usually one of the biggest of the year, drew about 2,500 fans this season. NBC just renewed their TV contract for a fraction of what the last one cost.
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Monza, British GP, Monaco.Watkins Glen,and such was why
I started watching when I could in the 60's and following F1.
I'm at the point now where I can take or leave F1
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It looks like F1 is heading down the same rat hole that NASCAR did. As many of you know, NASCAR was huge here in the States. Then they started dumping some of their best tracks for boring Charlotte clones outside of major cities. They also started juggling the rules around to "attract new fans." Now most Cup races run in front of mostly empty stands. The Brickyard 400 at Indy, usually one of the biggest of the year, drew about 2,500 fans this season. NBC just renewed their TV contract for a fraction of what the last one cost.
NASCAR also was being propped up by American car companies. They would buy full price tickets for employees and their families to go cheer on their marque. When the government got involved in bail outs that was deemed wasteful and a lot of 'fans' who were just showing up for free evaporated.
We've seen F1 swing through phases where the manufacturers are all in, and then suddenly not at all.
Motorsports is somewhat unusual where the on screen product is actually (somewhat) a commercially available product. While I can't buy a 'Lewis Hamilton', I can buy a Mercedes. What other sport does that happen in? (Yes, of course players use Nike or Adidas or whatever in their sport, but no one thinks the players are winning because of their shoes)
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FOM won't be happy till all the classic races
are gone and more Asian races take their place
That could be closer to the truth than you know!!! ... let's face it, Mr Carey is so focused on Miami and Vietnam, I don't think he cares about British/European classic races, so long as he does what is right for the show, that's all that matters to him (... and Bratches).
Best Regards,
Cal :)
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I am not sure it is fair to say Carey et al want Asian races at any cost. However, I do think they have painted themselves into a financial corner. They have paid far too much for F1 and they need to get a return for the shareholders. The money is in Asia and the Middle East where Governments are prepared to subsidise tracks and events. Tracks like Silverstone simply cannot compete, plus the inept management of Silverstone has resulted in the track not being able to make the F1 Grand Prix profitable. Personally, I think Silverstone will compromise on a financial package with F1 - they can't afford the Grand Prix but they can't afford to lose the Grand Prix (it represents a huge percentage of their total sales revenue).
If the trend towards cities and tracks that do not represent true F1 enthusiasts continues the loser will be the sport. My visits to the Shanghai and Abu Dhabi GP were so depressing; there were no people at the track until about 10minutes before the F1 race (we watched the touring car and Porsche races without one other person in our Grandstand). Then the Grandstands filled, mostly with rich folk who had no idea about what they were watching, and the Grandstands emptied immediately as the chequered flag fell (in fact they started to empty long before the chequered flag dropped).
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Liberty's problem is that the investors don't appear to be convinced of the strategy. When Silverstone announced it was exiting its contract, share price dropped 10%. Guess how much it rose when Hanoi was declared?
0.38%.
That's like suggesting it's 26 times more effective to keep a customer than get a new one...
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Maybe Donington Park will put their foot in the hosting door again? :D
Best Regards,
Cal :)
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You're talking about the same venue who closed down the Donington Park Museum last month because it lost too much money for its new owner's* liking (at least, that was the official reason). There's no way they'd take on a project that lost even more money, especially given the amount of money lost on Doninton's last attempt at getting a F1 race is a contributing factor to that particular owner getting to buy the track.
* - Motorsport Vision. They own about half the circuits in Britain, do a good job of it... ...but insist on all the tracks breaking even, no ifs, buts or maybes.
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Okay, so I was being sarcastic about Donny!!
In all seriousness though, I wouldn't put it past Liberty HQ to drop Silverstone and gun for the London Street race as it's replacement .. or is that already the plan???
Best Regards,
Cal :)
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Just caught this update ...
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-autosport/1055412/F1-British-Grand-Prix-crisis-Silverstone-blow-Lewis-Hamilton
Best Regards,
Cal :)
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London was Bernie's plan, until it got an anti-combustion engine mayor.
If a street race happens in Britain, it'll probably be Birmingham - but it's difficult to see what British city could outbid Silverstone.
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If a street race happens in Britain, it'll probably be Birmingham
That makes sense! ... Brumm Brumm. (sorry, it was right there folks from around Birmingham). :-[
Best Regards,
Cal :)
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You probably knew this, but people from Birmingham are nicknamed Brummies... ..and until recent law changes made it redundant, Birmingham was the only city in the UK with a licence to hold a street race (a hangover from the Birmingham Superprix of the late 1980s),
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The annual Silverstone crisis is getting a bit boring. Maybe the “British” teams should for a consortium and take the British GP private and fund it properly, at Silverstone or wherever they think it will be successful for years to come.
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The annual Silverstone crisis is getting a bit boring. Maybe the “British” teams should for a consortium and take the British GP private and fund it properly, at Silverstone or wherever they think it will be successful for years to come.
Considering how much of the crowd are friends and family of the employees paid for by the British teams, it might be cheaper if they just owned it.
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The annual Silverstone crisis is getting a bit boring. Maybe the “British” teams should for a consortium and take the British GP private and fund it properly, at Silverstone or wherever they think it will be successful for years to come.
I think the British GP is the only privately funded F1 race already Scott. No government or local authority funding at all, that's a big part of the problem.
Considering how much of the crowd are friends and family of the employees paid for by the British teams, it might be cheaper if they just owned it.
Can't see British Racing Drivers Club, the owners, selling Silverstone to the British teams, they've already turned down an offer from Bernie to buy it lock, stock and barrel.
However it seems BRDC have proposed to Liberty that they can keep all the GP ticket receipts, a possible sum of £30m less a small percentage for the admin and organisational costs instead of a race hosting fee. Silverstone is the best attended race on the calendar so perhaps they'll see a special case could apply.
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I think that armchair fans, especially those outside of the UK, would be puzzled that with so many teams based out of the UK, how on earth would their own GP be at risk?? - especially with Silverstone's major facelift in recent years!!
Best Regards,
Cal :)
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The "facelift" was mandated by Bernie, else the race would have gone ten years ago. Also, while there are six teams domiciled in Britain, they don't all see it as their true home race:
Mercedes - Germany (and is helping bankroll the German Grand Prix already)
Renault - France
Red Bull - Austria (and pays all the fees for the Austrian Grand Prix)
Racing Point - Canada (who knows how that will play out, but before this year, the team was always low on money)
McLaren and Williams actually do see themselves as British, but they have bigger problems. Also, if they paid the hosting fees, it would cost them about 20% of their combined income in year 1 and probably 40% of their income in year 10 thanks to the infamous escalator system.
If Silverstone manages to get a deal of "all ticket fees minus organisational costs", it'll be laughing, because that will put it alongside Monaco as a fee-free track. (At the moment, handing over zero ticket costs still makes a loss, thanks to inability to use any other source of income apart from limited amounts from the independent concession stands).
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Even worse than that ... they have sold out at Silverstone (*cough* ... I mean Christmas Party Dates!!) :DD
https://www.silverstone.co.uk/plan-your-event/christmas-parties/
... £60 ??? (sure I've spent more than that on a cold soggy pizza).
Season's Best,
Cal :)