The Formula 1 calendar continues to be a problem and with viable proposals rather thin on the ground the series could end up with only 18 races as talks with the German GP promoters now seem to have stopped because they do not have the money to host an event. This may be political posturing by the Formula One group because in recent days a new Minister-President has been elected to replace Kurt Beck, who had been in power for 18 years and had long been a supporter of the event. The new Minister-President is Malu Dreyer, who heads a Social Democrat (SPD) and Green coalition. The next elections are not due until 2016 but Beck ran into trouble over funding of the Nurburgring, which has cost the state hundreds of millions of Euros. He stood down, citing poor health.
The track is 90-percent owned by the state – with a local municipality holding the remaining shares – but the operation is sub-contracted to an independent company, led by Kai Richter and Jörg Lindner.
It is an odd state of affairs given that Germany has Sebastian Vettel at the very top of the sport.
There is still muttering that Hockenheim might take over the race but there is no money and no apparent desire for that to happen.
If the German GP does not happen there will be a very quiet period in F1 this summer with the British GP on June 30 (three weeks after Canada) and then nothing until the Hungarian GP a month later. There would then another month before the Belgian GP.
There has been much talk of Turkey, France, Austria and even Portugal but none of these seems to have a workable project for 2013. With two new races in 2014 there is no point in most venues investing for a one-off race.
The apparent inability of the Formula One group to find a solution to the problem (at least at the moment) is bound to lead to questions about whether (finally) the business model being used is no longer viable in a Europe where money is tight. There remain events in Spain, Monaco, Britain, Hungary, Belgium and Italy, but several of these races are struggling, although the loss of Germany might help boost sales at Spa, which is located only 60 miles to the west of the Nurburgring, but across the Belgian border.
In the long term the Formula One group seems to believe that having six events in Europe is about right, with a similar number in Asia, a couple in the Middle East and the remaining events in the Americas.
joeblogsf1 
You would hope common sense would prevail.
Although I’m sure some people including yourself might enjoy such a break
This situation is completely unsatisfactory. Far too many “ifs and buts” with the season only weeks away. The driver line ups are also a bone of contention with certain teams still yet to commit. I can’t see Bernie being too happy as it’s bad PR for his “brand”.
When looking at the way Beck handled the whole Nürburgring fiasco, it´s good he stepped down. Man, what a waste of money and resources that was.
Sadly this will impact the chances of a German GP, really, Germany who produced 10 titles in the last 20 years! One should think that must account for something. And I´m sure the amount of spectators at the track will not be the problem.
Let´s see if Malu Dreyer is willing to do something about it, she hopefully understand the importance of this race to the region.
The greed of the F1G is finally coming home to roost. I cannot imagine sponsors and advertisers will be too happy with these big gaps between races. I suppose the FIA, having leased the family silver for 100 years, either cannot or is not willing to enter the fray to try and sort things out.
Wilson
The staff would be very happy after last years massive calendar, the same guys also doing the winter tests makes for a long and hard year so I don’t see too many grumbles if this happens.
If I’m being honest I have no problem if the remaining 6 European races are retained, although I’m not a big fan of the Spanish GP and do miss the French GP a little.
To me it makes sense if we have two races joining next year to let the German GP go early (18 is still a good number), however I do think they need to make sure the 6 remaining races in Europe are retained at all costs.
Pains me to say it (for sounding like a smartarse), but it will serve Bernie right, and was all bound to happen eventually.
A bit short notice I suppose but why not have two races at Silverstone or Monza. Both places could sell the tickets. Call them European GPs as has been done before when countries have two races.
Race fees.
Maybe CVC will have to think on the cost on this occasion given that they have venues for the following year? it would be nice to see a race at Brands Hatch (if the long circuit is up to it about which I have no idea – but it used to be a fantastic circuit in the old days).
That said a second race at Silverstone, Monza, or Spa would be no hardship either
I liked the idea of having an extra race at Spa, running the circuit in the opposite direction quite a bit better.
Pure duplicates though? No. Really no, not even on Silverstone which I actually like. Definitely not on Monza.
I cannot see the remaining european races surviving for many more years without a dramatic and very far reaching re-organisation of the commercial side of F1.
The German courts could provide the excuse for the FIA to proclaim the present incumbents unsuitable. But Bernie’s people seem to have difficulty finding some documents, apparently holding up proceedings in the court.
Does it not worry you that there is so much antipathy in Europe towards F1 from governments – local, regional or country? From fan’s point of view it seems to me that we in Europe ‘subsidise’ enthusiasm for the sport worldwide yet are often forced to put up with, at best, mediocre facilities and sky-high prices to boot – in other words the rough end of the stick. It seems that elsewhere in the world there appears to be an apparent inability for certain GP’s to put bums on seats, often resorting to extreme tactics for the sake of putting on a decent show for TV. In another article Joe, you say “Formula 1 does a decent job selling itself around the world …….. the sport does provide a really unique platform for global advertisers” – can this really be quantified in any way? If (true) race attendance figures only were used as a guide surely that statement couldn’t be true?
As I have often pointed out, race attendance is irrelevant to Formula One Management
Indirectly though it does help. Laugh tracks on TV shows ‘suggest’ the jokes points to laugh.
Panning of an audience at a sporting event makes the event seem popular. Poeple are sheep and like to follow things everyone else is interested. Not many like to miss out on whatever is happening, or at least prefer the sense of being one of many enjoying what they enjoy.
F1 showing empty tracks and empty grandstands doesn’t really help. Maybe you can’t pick it from being there, but watching the British GP and Chinese GP are very different. the British GP, although I’ve never been seems to have a great atmosphere and draws me in, makes it seem exciting. There are presenters standing in front of massive crowds, same as the Japanese GP. Big posters for Kamui! Watching teh Chinese it looks like a practice circuit. It doesn’t draw me in watching empty stands and that may not effect the more deep fans but many ‘lighter’ fans, fans who will actually turn in or not based on changes to the sport, are effected by being part of something.
Sure the average joesaward blog reader may not care that much, or may do, but still watch it anyway, many, especially those who F1 seems to be playing to with DRS and such would been turned away from the lack of support or feeling of being part of F1.
Less viewers = less sponsorship money = less for F1 Group
Also less viewers = less your Abu Dhabi’s and co think they can get out of F1’s viewership.
Maybe not, but it was certainly relevant enough for the Turkish organisers to repeatedly cover their empty grandstands in sand-coloured tarpaulin so that masses of garish empty seats were not evident on camera. I don’t think it’s a non-issue. It still looks bad on TV when the gradnstands are blatantly empty.
I agree with APASASA’s comment. If Joe you’re referring to TV figures being more important than actual attendance I would query that – people actually turning up to watch represent the true fans by and large. From that point on the scale outwards, so to speak, I believe you’re taking into account too many casual viewers on the outer reaches. That’s why, in part, I don’t believe TV viewing figures. It’s been BE’s great trick for years and CVC believe it.
There’s no antipathy towards F1 from Governments in Europe.
The simple truth is that they are democratically accountable and there’s no way they can justify paying the race fees. Of all these countries queuing up to join the F1 party, only the US is noted for its democratic accountability.
The emirs will cough up for their plaything. So we go race round a go-kart track in the middle of the desert whilst the great old tracks of Europe wither away.
I disagree. F1 works and any idiot politician can see that.
It may be less about reality and more about perception.
Can democratic governments (in some cases taking somewhat severe “austerity” measures) win the argument for finding new money to financially sponsor a sport where, it appears, all the participants are multi-millionaires because it will pay off in other ways that you can’t really see very well….no no it will, honest. ??
I know the Olympics is always (and understandably) cited, but I’d suggest that there is a perception of “mass” access, “mass” interest and “mass” involvement in terms of the number of athletes etc. Not to mention that most people don’t assume that everyone on track (or water, court, or…etc.) is earning millions to be there.
Perception.
I guess your and FOM disagreement with Artic_Troll is based on “value”. I.e. the European governments does not “value” the race as much. So any politician which has a preferance of “value” which means 1200 daycare centres to continued to open or a 3 day race with great “value” in advertising. Well – thats up for the people to decide and politicians have listened.
This is silly. The sport is coming off the back of one of its most successful seasons, with three drivers in particular delivering at the very highest level in a manner comparable to any of the previous greats. It is now entering a year where there is little direct competition from such things as the Olympics, the World Cup or any other summer football tournament.
And it is looking at having precisly 2 races in that period. Right now, the sport looks like it is losing more events than new ones are emerging to replace them (the emrgence of new events has always been the raison d’etre for the entire business model the sports uses to sustain the calendar). Some of the other events are rumoured to be a bit shaky as well, no? Korea in particular.
Is anything actually happening at the New Jersey site at the minute? Or is that another still-born one?
I doubt the guys at CVC or Bernie will recognize that the business model they use is the ultimate cause of this situation… and I think it is very unlikely that we see a change in that unless Bernie is finally send away to enjoy his pension.
It is idiotic to think that the region where most of your fans are is also the region that deserves less because they cannot afford it. That is a sure way to get less fans and in the long term less income.
Is there any chance that in the period that there are so few races that we get a test with all the teams instead of a race? (Maybe a young drivers test or a test for the 2014 engines)
God forbid we lose Spa, Monza, Monaco, Silverstone or Suzuka.
Not having a German GP is insane. The grid contains multiple German drivers and always has. It’s a massive market for the car manufacturers (many of whom are from there themselves) so this is a disgrace in my opinion.
I’d be happy if we went back to 16 races a year. There are other things I’d like to be doing sometimes on a Sunday afternoon. Saying that I wouldn’t want to miss watching a race.
“In the long term the Formula One group seems to believe that having six events in Europe is about right, with a similar number in Asia, a couple in the Middle East and the remaining events in the Americas.”
Is missing Australia in that deliberate (given early contract renewal talks) or are you meaning to count it as part of Asia?
It is considered as being in the Asian timezone
Why are the Valencia bosses not shouting about getting their race back this season?
I’m glad they aren’t. No one wants that awful circuit back.
But I’m actually kind of shocked the German GP, off all the European races, is in such a situation! You’d think Germany was doing better than most other Euro countries.. and considering the German involvement and impact across the length and breadth of F1, this sounds all the more baffling.
Curious Joe, would you say that F1 has ended up taking too much money from the circuits and not enough money from the TV companies and new potential revenue streams, culminating in situations like this?
I know it has been somewhat covered, but is it only through gate receipts that the circuit makes money (or something along those lines)?
It would seem that there are some circuits that would reach a point where an increase in hosting fees (which it would seem due to the leveraging of FOM/CVC would need to go up at a steady rate to make that payoff for the investors) would just not be worth the hassle.
Sure one can rationalize the ROI based upon money spent in a geographical area, for governments kicking money into the kitty to bring a race, but considerations of needs, and priorities for those areas would seem to make sense also for those who control the taxpayers money.
My suggestion would be to move Spa to the German GP date and have a long summer break. It works in other sports and is better than the odd race now and then which people forget about.
During the summer many people do things on a Sunday afternoon. Having a break during the traditional holiday season wouldn’t really affect viewing figures much as people would just go off and do something else.
It would also give the teams a break, maybe even add a week to the enforced closure period. As another idea, the 2014 engines should be available around then, why not organise a test for the teams to try them out and get used to them. Most teams are Uk based so maybe have the week after the British GP as a test session where they are only allowed to run 2014 spec engines.
18 races in itself is not that bad a number, especially given there’s others waiting in the wings for the future.
But its the distribution of those races, and the fact that the calendar has been insanely slow at coming together this year.
I liked the idea above about Silverstone and Monza having an extra race. Yes, yes, race fees and all that…so how about a couple of special nonchampionship rounds (and thus much smaller fees that the circuits might agree with)? An opportunity to try some alternative formats as well – NASCAR are making a big deal of their special race with the format as decided by fan votes…gimmicky yes, but if its not for the championship, it seems like good marketing, which is F1’s achilles heel…
Of course it won’t happen…
Seems like it’s Bernie’s revenge to German prosecutors.
It avoids BCE having to make excuses for not attending… sadly I don’t mourn either Hockenheim (old or new) or the “new” Nurburgring, but then I am a child of the ’60s and vividly remember April 7th 1968… However, as Joe points out it is surprising that a country which has a triple world champion is not prepared or able to ‘cash in’ on that.
Joe – as you point out, the key element of the business model was the demand for limited race allocations. The blank faces and shrugs from promoters round the world suggests that that equation is no longer in the FOM’s favour.
On top of that, I think there is a new phenomenon about to hit F1 in the next year or two. Falling free to air and pay TV licence fees. A good example is the V8 series in Australia. Copycats Archer Capital sought to replicate the F1 story. Their recent TV right auction failed spectacularly with a decline of about 30% in the fee being paid. TV companies just didn’t have the money due to falling advertising and viewers. This is off the back of a new supposedly more equal spec car and the introduction of two new manufacturers. With more TV viewing switching to services like Hulu, I’m sure CVC would be watching carefully about structural changes to their revenues.
Perhaps we’ll see a shift to where the real fans are valuable again. Look at what has happened to the music industry. Artists make money from concerts and merchandise sales rather than from acutal music sales.
I agree Adrian. There numerous examples of this happening. The number of fans aren’t ready to pay for it (or at least the sums involved) so total figures goes down quickly.
The interesting thing here is to what value the old circuits have to F1. Say what if we loose races in Spa/Hockenheim/Nurburgring, the six european races would be Barcelona, Moscow, Hungaroring, Siverstone, Monza, Monaco.
DTM is doing real good and ticket prices are affordable for anyone (£125 for a family weekend ticket). World Series by Renault (WSR) is also quite fun to watch. And if these series make themselves available to terrestrial TV and get good coverage then money will go to these channels (as European market). I’ve watched WSR the last couple of years on Eurosport and it is quite entertaining (as is WTCC).
So for F1 to get back to France and Germany maybe they have to pay…
Agree about those categories. I think the key to their growth is providing a viable alternative for drivers leaving F1. Their skill and profile could assist with promoting these to generate additional interest.