The word on the street is that the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 2013 could have 23 races. if the teams all sign up to the new Concorde Agreement by the end of the year. As I have reported before the current agreement allows for 17 races with three optional extras. The new deal appears to include 20 races with a number of possible extras. The big question is what will be in the calendar and what will not, given that not all of the races are financially healthy.
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joeblogsf1 
23 Races? Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Nobody can afford to give up that much time to watch a sport – I guess I will have to just pick and choose my races from now on.
For example Valencia is a prime candidate for “Races I can afford to miss”…
What the heck are you talking about? Most sports have ALOT more events than 23 in a year. Sometimes I feel like F1 fans are serial complainers
What a lot of crap. F1 people go around the world like no other sport. You think it is easy? You’ve never done it.
Joe,
I think NIck’s comment wasn’t adressed to those who go around the world with F1, but instead those who watch F1.
rubbergoat was talking about how ‘Nobody can afford to give up that much time to watch a sport’. Nick was saying, that with most other sports, there are more matches
He wasn’t having a go at you, merely poiting out that, in response to rubbergoat, F1 fans are complainers in his eyes because they don’t want to watch 23 races.. not anything to do with those attending 23 races.
Sheesh Joe, relax. Nick’s point was about the time available to fans to watch the sport, not the effort required by those actually involved in the sport.
All,
Please don’t lump me in with the serial complainers. I love the sport, have followed it for 25 years, will continue to support it no matter what and I have really enjoyed the races this year.
I do realize other sports have more events each year – and as it happens, those that I follow that are like this, I have to pick and choose which events I watch and for how long I can watch them for.
I am a big believer in the “quality, not quantity” mantra and I think 23 races dilutes the brand too much, Why have so many races when I can think of 5 or 6 off the bat that won’t be missed, and do not have a good enough fanbase in that country…
So I guess what it boils down to is that a sport that was very easy to watch live every time when there were 16 races per year has now evolved into a sport where I will only be able to watch highlights or short clips of the other seven races.
I will leave that to you all to judge whether that is a good and healthy thing for the sport, along with the other implications of rising costs for extra personnel, and the emotional and physical costs of the “traveling circus” having to fly all of those extra miles, suffer the extra jetlag and spend the extra time away from their families.
So you’d like fewer events to be held for everyone, so that you can watch every race? What an incredible odd and selfish thing to say!
I’d like fewer races by cutting out the ones with no support that don’t provide great racing in order to allow the sport to have proper breaks between races, cut costs substantially and allow for the sport to be run in a better and fairer way for all.
I’m really happy for those who have the time and energy to watch all 23 races live however – I’m very envious of you!
All I will say is that I used to blog about F1 but I found it too relentless with so many races – Joe’s output is phenomenal when you consider he does this, travels, works bloody hard to get content out and does so all at his own expense. I have no idea how he does it!
Like Monaco ++
There’s also a thing called oversaturation…
I could watch it year round… so speak for yourself rubbergoat. However… for folks like Joe… and the teams… it would be quite the burden. Of course it has been said before that you could always split the team and have an A and B going to alternating races.
I am with you on Valencia though. A bit of a snoozer. Although this year it is worth a watch to see if there is an eight winner… or our first repeat!
I guess it also depends what time zone you live in. For me, the European races are on at 10pm on Sunday night. I never have other plans at that time, so watching 23 races would be fairly easy. If there were more races in the USA time zones, the races would be on at 3am or 4am. I can handle getting up early to watch the 2 races that are on at this time currently (Brazil and Canada) but if there were 5 or 6, I would end up watching them delayed.
Agreed. 23 are way too many. I do an effort to exclusively follow f1 and not any other sport, so my family can not complain too much. But with 23 weekends occupied by F1, specially when the weather is best… wow…
Bernie, do not kill the golden eggs hen!
For the first time in years, I’ve missed two races due to various reasons (try finding Monaco on a hotel TV in Washington DC for example). I always try to avoid having commitments on a F1 weekend, but to do that for 23 weeks a year?
Anyway, if I’m being hard on myself what about the teams, asking the pit crew to commit to spending that much time away from their family is asking too much, and rotating crews will add too much to the budget. It’s obvious which of the new tracks haven’t worked out, get rid of them rather than the historic track we and the drivers enjoy so much more.
23 Grand Prix in 2013..? Sorry, but no no no no no no…. Believe it or not as much as I love F1, I have a life.
I’m all for 23 races if that takes some pressure off the better loved venues on the calendar. However I doubt that will be the case.
I already find these long seasons a little wearisome otherwise. F1 has become like progressive rock in the 70s. Brief, exciting and explosive passages of pure brilliance spaced out by an ever increasing amount of boring filler just for the sake of it.
Whatever the new races are I hope they add some quality rather than just quantity.
surely you´re not talking about this year, right?
I love every minute of it.
As a fan, the more races the better. If you’re sinking that much money into building a couple of new cars every year, you might as well use them for their intended purpose.
And the additional fees coming into the sport should enable the teams to add, if not a complete second team, a strong bench to keep the people regularly travelling with the circus most of the time from exhaustion. Well, I guess they would if they’d be shared in a sane way among the stake holders.
How would you feel about that change, Joe? Would you still be going to all 23 events? I suppose so, but where is the cut-off point for any single individual trying to cover it all?
Agreed! I would imagine if you had alternating teams you would not need to stretch the season across such a large portion of the year.
So what would be the additional three races (or more if some are leaving)?
France, maybe Argentina? Maybe even another US race?
So which one going to fall by the wayside for you, Joe? The unbroken record of attendance or the semblance of a normal life?
Belgium, Japan and Singapore are not currently contracted for 2013.
Probably likely to be more question marks over Korea and Bahrain too.
Comments I have seen from teams before on this subject, are that this will increase costs, because they will need to double up on the crews, the limits of exhaustion and safety having already been reached with 20 races.
So they’ll need to employ more people, create new jobs. That’s a good thing surely? I’m sure the teams will be compensated so what’s not to like?
That’s my thoughts exactly Flavio. Isn’t Formula 1 all about overcoming challenges? Isn’t 23 races just another challenge to overcome?
Obviously with 23 races they will need to re-arrange the calender into regions such as North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia (including Australia), and have races in those regions back to back, as it isn’t feasible to have the whole circus jetting back and forth across the globe every second week.
Maybe the teams will need to find ways to service cars without having to send them back to the UK, Italy and Spain after every race, and maybe the teams will need to have A and B team mechanics for each car and a then a team of mechanics back at the factory, so one single crew of mechanics isn’t completely burnt out by trying to do everything.
Maybe they might need to have two team principals who share the races, or a factory team principal who controls the factory and a race team principal who goes to the races. Maybe it’ll give opportunity for some of the engineers stuck in the factory to actually go to races as other engineers take a break.
Maybe the FIA will have to have alternate race directors and scrutineers.
Maybe 23 races will give more opportunity to the thousands of people that want to get involved in the sport and add a level of succession to the sport as more people will be needed to keep it running.
To me it seems like there is a lot of opportunity in 23 races, if the people involved can overcome the challenges.
Joe, it’s an assassination plot!
They are trying to overwork you into a heart attack, so you’re silenced 😉
LOL John (other John),
On the plus side, his Emirates frequent flyer points will be eye-watering. Business class every time at this rate…
You Don’t Mess With The Joehan!
No problem with 23 races at all. I should think that it will be trimmed slightly, lets hope that it is the Valencia’s of this world. Not sure how the teams feel and importantly the staff, its a long time away…
23 Grands Prix? My wife will be going nuts!
mexico argentina and ?
Long Island, possibly…
russia!
maybe: argentina, new jersey and long beach.
With the proposed races of France and Argentina, I only count 22. What is the 23rd?
so you didn’t want a life then?
Do I get a choice?
There’s always a choice.
It’s not always very attractive, though.
YAY!
We can look forward to more races on crap tracks in despot countries.
23 races a Year? That is just not workable is it…. surely???
23 races spaced every fortnight results in a ~44 week championship. That leaves only 8 weeks a Year to cover (1) an end of year Winter prior to next season, and (2) any time for a mid-season Summer break?
There really needs to be a three week mid year break, and two months between seasons for the next-season development cycle…. doesn’t there?
23 races. That is just nuts. Logistically, even if some selected races in the Asia-Pacific, in Europe, and in the Americas were grouped for clusters of races week after week in quick succession (doeble headers, triple headers), the fatigue to the Teams would be horiffic.
In a time when cost reduction measures are being touted heavily, and fiscal controls are being put to vote; why would 23 races per year look workable? The teams would need to have hired two separate race-team crews, used in rotation to keep up with the mad rate of race weekends. That appears anti-cost-saving to me.
As a F1 fan, I like the idea of MORE races per year for my entertainment; but I do have a sense of the unrealistic logistic demands that would place on a Globe-trotting sport like Formula 1, and the unreasonable stress on the people who make it happen at the tracks. Simply nuts Bernie / FOM. Jack Flash
Why have a race every fortnight? There aren’t many races that couldn’t be part of a double header so you could end up with 12 ‘groups’ of races so 34 weeks in total.
It would be a benefit for teams to have two groups of mechanics to spread out the load but in terms of logistics it possibly makes things easier as the travel is reduced.
Further, if they keep a fixed set of rules then do you need the development cycle? Teams can refine the cars over the season and you could have a rule where they could homologate a new chassis once per season but with no limitations as to at what point of the season. The design team would be based at the factory anyway.
You could even allow a number of in-season tests between the paired races to ease the development effort as new parts could be tested with less disruption to the race weekend.
OK it would cost more in terms of staff but probably not a lot more in terms of logistics, possibly less if the teams are always staying away for two races rather than returning to base after most events.
It would certainly raise the appeal of the championship as it will become more of a weekend fixture rather than having to remember which weekends there are a race on. Not relevant to hard core fans but it would bring in more casual fans.
I work for a team and believe me it would be an absolute nightmare. The race teams struggle as it is. Having 2 race teams would put a massive financial burden on all teams and would hit the midfield and smaller teams the most. More chassis would need to be manufactured as they require to return to the factory for inspection, maintenance, painting, wind shear tests etc as well as gearboxes, engines and other bits.
Daft idea created by greedy people
interesting, but: why to have tests between paired races? increasing the number of races should lead to less test days – after all, the Mugello sessions this year ended considered unnecessary by many in the teams.
reliability has reached a high positive level overall the grid, with most of all project work been done virtually. well, so it seems.
with twenty-something races perhaps even fridays’ free practices are going to disappear.
Assuming they change over to a fixed set of rules and cars evolving over time then the pre-season test would become less relevant and having in-season testing would become a cheaper option as well as being better suited to an evolving product.
In theory you could even condense the weekend – two practice sessions plus qualifying on the Saturday, race on Sunday. The Monday between races would be a test day, maybe just something like 2x 2 hour sessions so they can get packed up and away to the next race on Monday evening.
As Rich points out, the costs could impact the smaller teams but my take on that would be that if it was combined with some for of spending cap (as is being proposed) then the money could be spread better with a fixed amount set aside to the actual running of the team to make sure all teams can afford it. The extra sponsorship opportunities have also been mentioned.
I am assuming that the schedule would have to be organized with efficiency in mind? As in, having all the American races in one block, same with the Europeans and the ones in Asia? Otherwise the teams are going to have lots of family troubles….
Well if there are going to be more races I hope they are all on the American continent so they can be broadcast in the evening in Europe and here in Africa. I do enjoy my Sunday afternoons watching an F1 race but there are also many other things I enjoy doing with my weekends. I want to spend time with my wife and daughter and see places away from the sofa. I don’t want to have to feel that every Sunday afternoon I need to watch a Grand Prix.
I love the idea of having more races but I feel sorry for the teams, drivers, personnel and media who have to do this all over the world. Must be a terribly hard grind on them and from that point it may not be worth it.
Rubbergoat NASCAR has 36 sprint cup races and plenty more nationwide and truck races.
Are you sure nobody has time for a sport with 36 races?
If it happens each individual race becomes slightly less important, but the importance of the series remains the same.
NASCAR is a travelling Semi-trailer circus around the continental USA. Not an ‘apples to apples’ logistic challenge comparison to a jet-hopping Global Sport like F1.
I used to try and watch NASCAR but it got too much. Yes you are right, it has 36 races, but it also effectively has two championships with the race for the chase, which I suspect was implemented to keep fans interested over what is a very long season!
…and also because viewing figures used to collapse in the late season. They still drop severely, but not quite as much.
the drop in viewership is mostly because of the overlap with the start of the (american) football season.
NASCAR is very popular, but nothing competes with football.
What chance F1 East Championship , F1 West Championship and F1 Europe Championship with the possibility of winning all 3 in one season ?
I’ve raised the idea before but I think Joe suggested it would never happen, but if the growth continues at this rate, you’re looking around 30 races in 2020.
At that point, simultaneous F1 Asia and F1 Americas championships at the start of the season with 10 races each, with a merged F1 Europe championship for the final 10 races makes some sense, giving 3 individual champions and an overall championship to race for at the end of the year.
Quick! Look what we’re proposing for 2013 – that’s really interesting! . . . What? . . .Munich? . . . Grib-who-sky?
Nailed it.
From my (Selfish) point of view i quite like the idea of having more races. AI also think it makes more sense for the sport as the relative expenditure on cars is spread over more races which also earns more money in tv revenue.
It could also help with sponsorship, 23 races is a lot more attract v than 17 to a sponsor.
However i do feel sorry for people like you who have to go to ever more races, with less and less time between them. Best of luck!
Ive had suspicions for a while, that Bernie is trying to turn Formula 1 into a more NASCAR Format.
If my slightly out there suggestion is anyway true, Then surely with high ticket costs, The tendency to market itself badly. and the graviton away from FTA will mean it falls flat on its face.
I also wonder how happy the mechanics will be too, Wasn’t there already a study to see if 19/20 races a season is affecting there health?
@rubbergoat: MLB has 162 regular season games, the NBA & the NHL have 82. I’m sure numerous European soccer leagues have 40-50 games too.
I agree 23 will tax team budgets, drivers & tech staff though…
Dean,
Yes but do you watch every single one? I follow the English Premier League and the best I can do is watch weekly highlights.
I watch more than 23 NBA or NHL games… but I’m also sick enough to watch the entire 24 hours of LeMans as well!!! 🙂 🙂
So much for cost capping then. The teams need to reduce costs but the financiers don’t want to cap profits, hey ho….
Was’nt the sport going to look at cutting costs…. oh dear.
That’s awesome! I hope they make them weekly, so there isn’t such a long wait in between races! I like the concept of more races, in the US I can easily rcord them avoid the web and watch them when I don’t take away family time, yet I will have more opportunities to attend races in person. I like it personaly. I don’t know how the rest of the world will react, based on this blog the response is not positive, the beauty of a blog is that it is your opinion, so it’s OK if mine defers.
The thing is F1 is unique, it is also the top notch racing, exclusive and elite, I hope having more races doesn’t delute the image of F1, the teams could start trying out GP2 drivers in F1 since the season is long, if a team runs away with the championship the other teams might be tempted to use sub par drivers and start testing during races, that would/could take away from the show.
Hell yeah, racing on Christmas day and New years eve to put the cat among the pigeons. Only joking
More racing = more money for the poison dwarf ( I didn’t say his name ! )
Phil,
Obviously you’ve read the contract between FOM and CVC.
Great! 23 races is gooooood! The physiological break point comes in at 25. Past that limit I won’t watch every race. I’ll quit F1 anyway if they force me towards pay-tv.
And let’s get rid of those races with no spectators. Let’s have Imola. Let’s have Le Castellet! Let’s have Spa EVERY year! Let’s have Long Beach!
Joe… is it possible that the cost cutting measures they are trying to enact could allow the money saved to be put towards alternating crews, etc…
I feel like that, plus the added revenue from the added races, plus a very well planned tour schedule could make all this possible… and effective. If you could trim out the two week breaks (because you have alternating crews) I could see it being a possibility.
Given that this will require a new Concorde agreement, I don’t see a 23 race future being approved any time soon.
With Bernie seemingly racing towards indictment, one suspects that some teams previously on board with Bernie’s new deal will be taking a big walk back. So far as I know, even those team’s who’ve signed have only put ink to a “memorandum of understanding” – a completely non-binding agreement to agree.
If Bernie can go three or four months without being indicted, the teams may feel he’s cleared the hurdle and sign, but given Gribkowsky’s stunning revelations, that seems unlikely.
I certainly can understand why Joe would not like this at all.
I will never understand how alleged F1 fans can possible say, “Oh, no! I want less racing.”
Translation: “I don’t want to spend a few more hours watching F1, and my preference for doing other things should deprive others of the pleasure.”
It will end in tears, too many races and too much money involved.
Three additional races per year will increase revenue by approximately half a billion dollars over a five year period, based on the current working model of an assumed $25m per race revenue, increasing each year by 10%, over 5 years. It’s just a guess but you can see the numbers get bigger each year.
FOM must be on some sort of financial performance agreement with CVC.
The fans wont suffer as they can watch re-runs of the race on the F1 website, courtesy of Tata, when it is eventually up and running.
if the teams can’t cope with the extra workload then perhaps they will split into two, with number one battalion covering the first dozen races and then handing over to number two battalion. With the extra income from FOM, they can afford to do it.
If CVC are only in this for the money, which i doubt, then perhaps FOM should be looking at Sovereign Wealth Funds who will take a long term, culturally resonant, global view, promoting sport and peace.
There is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of FOM to get this right
CVC isn’t only in this for the money?
I expect their investors would be very surprised to learn that. 🙂
Random,
Formula One doesn’t just provide a revenue stream for CVC,
it has many other benefits…
No. Absolutely not.
CVC receives no benefit that even begins to compare to the monstrous profit they’ve has made on their F1 investment.
Hospitality? Prestige? Please.
On CVC’s list of priorities, they and their investors rank earnings 1st, 2nd, 3rd, -repeat another 100 times- then perhaps the ancillary benefits like hospitality and prestige.
Global networks,
access to governments,
think it through….
As compared to the stunningly massive revenue they’ve made? CVC seems set to make a 600% return on their investment!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/privateequity/9352699/CVC-accelerates-to-bumper-return-on-F1-investment.html
Global networks? Access to governments?
Compared to that 600% return, those don’t even begin to rate. Further, if CVC did assign any real value to those aspects, why would they be rushing to sell their shares of the sport?
Answer, they wouldn’t.
Reality has left the building! F1 is well on the way to becoming a laughing stock at this rate and methinks it may well deserve it.
I’m presuming that Ecclestone will ultimately choose 20 but use the threat of other viable venues to squeeze more momey out of Argentina and the like in order for them to be on the calendar.
C’mon fellas, those newly arrived fund managers need all the help they can get….
I’m sure I’ll be able to fit the extras into my viewing schedule, sleep might be a bit short tho. Bit OT but I wish Indycar would take a look at programming aspects for telecasts. Period after Indianapolis seems very hard to determine when viewing will/might happen.
The more the merrier I say, the important thing is what tracks will the races be held at. hopefully no more Tilkedromes.
Shanghai was a fantastic race this year while Monaco with so much history was so boring.
To many for me 😦
As a fan, I’d like racing every weekend. However thinking about the mechanics and staff in the teams away from family and friends for so much of the year it would be very hard. At what point would there need to be two crews, ala NASCAR style? There will be obvious impacts on the resource agreements (if anyone abides by it anyway). But most importantly would be the costs involved. It would require a bit more effort to try and tie regional races together to save shipping everything back to Europe between races.
I have no life, so my absolute limit is 52 races. Bring it on.
( Who wouldn’t want to see Georgie that many more times?)
Joe – how does the additional races factor in with your F1 floation values? Do you think this is how they have justified $10bn or is this on top of that figure?
Unfortunately I believe the Korean race will not survive past 2012. That will leave one slot open.
There has been no activity at the track since the last race (including cleaning-LOL), so I can’t imagine the city taking another $30+ million bath after this year.
We are planning on going this year come hell or high water, but haven’t gone to any of the previous races because of the chaos and lack of organization.
Hopefully I’m wrong…
What an absolute waste of money to even build a track down there.
Was there even any options to build the track in another location.
I reckon a street circuit in Seoul would have been best.
Even if the event was not a complete success they wouldn’t have wasted the
money on a track.
23 races for me is a bit too much. Having only around 17 races a year seems perfect. I like the idea of race wins being savoured by drivers and fans, not just a bunch of back to back races where you can barely remember who has won what. Not to mention the prospect of more snore fests like Valencia or empty race circuits like Bahrain. F1 is supposed to be a “glamorous” sport for those on the outside looking. Too much and you will lose some exclusivity.
Less races, more test sessions that are for young drivers only. That is a far bigger issue, the lack of testing for upcoming grand prix racers. Extend a gp weekend into the Monday and use that day as a test session (and have only 17 races a year).
Money and power, your right joe the season is too long, the travelling,the hotels,jet lag at some venues and the cost oh and also the huge logistics for the teams to organise and the weary drivers. there i think thats it…..
Oh and we watch it on tv and we have the easy part…..
I’m all for more races…
Just thinking off the top of my head here, but if was in charge I’d increase the number of races, but I’d also look to contain costs / retain sanity in other ways:
– Reduce the length of Grand Prix from 300 km to 250 km, cutting race mileage by a 6th. Also cutting the time length of races – I think 35 – 46 viewing hours over a season is just a bit too grueling for most fans. More races in the Americas would also be good for European viewers, with more races in prime time slots.
– Reduce the number of allowed staff at races, maybe even the size of the allowed pit crew (10-12 people to change 4 wheels at the moment is overkill, IMO), allowing teams to look at and afford having duty rotas for travelling staff. This would also make pitstops a greater challenge (not that McLaren need it).
– No reason that European races couldn’t all be double headers, or even triple. Indycar has had a race every week for the past month and the US is as big as Europe.
– have at least one race a year at a”guest circuit”: one that hasn’t hosted F1 in the past three seasons. There must be dozens of circuits up to F1 standard, and willing to host a GP on an effectively one off deal (think Imola, Dubai, Valencia’s permanent circuit, Motorland Aragon, the A1 ring, IMS, even Brands Hatch or Donnington).
Been a few reports recently in the local press here in Thailand that we are negotiating for a race from 2014. Rumour is that it might be a night race like our southern near-neighbour. Thailand is also hosting this and next year’s post-season Race of Champions.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/84707/is-thailand-closing-in-on-hosting-a-formula-1-race-in-2014/
Positives: Geographically easy to slot next to either Singapore or Malaysia.
– Ties in nicely with Red Bull (RB has always been majority Thai owned).
Negatives: No track! The only FIA certified track, Bira (Prince Bira was a Thai F1 driver in the 1950s), is way too short.
– Ticket prices would be way out of line with most people’s income here, so would likely have to be a tourist & expat -fed event rather than for home crowd. With Singapore, Malaysia and Macau already catering locally to us racing fans in Southeast Asia, is there room for another one?
As someone who started following F1 in the mid 90s with 16 races per year, that’s a number I’d rather see than 23. Devoting every other weekend in the year to F1 (yes, I watch all the practice sessions) is just too much, even for a hardcore fan.
They should put the Grand back in Grand Prix.
I agree. Sixteen races + the old point system of 10-6-4-3-2-1 is what I prefer as well. Too much… dilutes the brand.
There is no other sport on the planet that requires moving that many personel and equipment about for a two hour event to that many different countries… its madness! It must place an incredible toll and stress on everyone.
Total minimum race distance would be almost 5 laps of Wales.
Cost cutting could too come thru leveling down the highest salaries in the teams and organizations involved in the circus. It was time that was already implemented, instead of still having to watch the big bosses claiming for it, like di Monte recently; maybe increasing the number of races will help push for that.
Race promoters are not going to remain passive in these financially hard times, and may have some success forcing down a bit the fees to run races, now that some of them have apparently grouped under the direction of mr. Walker, from the Australian GP.
And having races spread over practically a whole year increase chances of having at least one been disrupted by natural, political or economical causes – it will imply that F1 becomes resilient (if not yet) and overcome a possible situation of a failed event.
If they allow teams to drop their worst couple of results it might have some merit but it’s a heap of extra work… and money.
If the calendar is planned well 23 races would be ok….the moon gp will be next, good downforce would be key…
No air on the moon to generate downforce?
Based on what has been reported/speculated/rumoured in the media, I can’t see how there could be 23 races on the calendar:
All of the current races make 20 events.
It has been reported that Valencia and Barcelona will share the Spanish Grand Prix. That makes 19.
Add in New Jersey to get 20.
Add Argentina and Mexico to get 22.
A return to France has been widely reported, but almost every report shows their desire to share the event with another race (usually named as Spa), so that keeps the number at 22.
So where is race number 23?
Bernie
… Take away Korea, but add Sochi. Then add Long Beach.
Democratic Republic of the Congo next?
Sochi won’t be ready until 2014.
As for Long Beach, I know Joe ran an article about it a few weeks ago – but I just can’t see a third race in America being viable until Austin and New Jersey have demonstrated themselves to be feasible. If they can’t attract crowds, then I can’t imagine that organisers in Long Beach would be itching to get Formula 1.
As for Korea, I suspect the whole thing is a ploy to lure Hyundai into the sport. The race was announced in 2006, with a 2010 start date – but most circuits get ready in a year or two. Russia has a four-year waiting period, but only because their Olympic facilities need to be built first. Bernie has said that dealing with the Koreans “was hard enough the first time”, but the race has somehow managed tog et a considerably better deal out of him after just two years. The circuit is in the middle of nowhere, with its nearest town being an industrial centre with a major port nearby – a city where Hyundai has had a pretty strong presence in the past. And the circuit itself is a glorified test circuit; each sector demands an extreme in one area of car setup. We saw this last year when cars were setting similar timess in qualifying, but wildly different sector times.
The original plan looked like Formula 1 was trying to tempt Hyundai into the sport in 2010. They have expressed interest in the past. But then the recession hit, and they took it hard. Any motorsport projects they had were quickly cancelled. The race runs at a massive loss, was run with a level of incompetence we haven’t seen before (when the teams arrived in 2011, they found food from 2010 in the fridges) and Bernie suddenly makes a better deal with him. I think he’s trying to lure Hyundai into the sport for 2014.
There will not be 23 races in 2013.
It would be suicide (publicity wise) to go to Bahrain – next year some sponsors I know will demand cars run unbadged if they go after this years debacle…..
NY (NJ) is the only certain addition with possibly Mexico.
Barcelona promoters have been complaining about attendance for 2 or 3 years and with the stadium section 1/3 empty this year have made it clear they will alternate with Valencia….whether BE likes it or not.
Valencia has lost $100m trying to be a “player”.
Korea is really struggling – the local govt loses $50m every year, no one goes to watch and the teams don’t want to be there….
Hungarian promoter died this year – has someone else the appetite to take it on?
Belgium, Japan and Singapore are out of contract this year. Belgium already indicated it can’t afford an annual race and was to alternate with France…..but the new French Govt has clearly put the kybosh on that for 2013.
Its all hype to talk up the extra $5bn of possible revenue over 8 years for the valuation….all of which is looking more of a moot point every time CVC sells off a chunk of shares…..plus BE may be indicted in Germany…..plus the FIA could say they were robbed by MAX and Bernie and want a lot more cash…..plus the teams may decide with rising costs for new engines they want more than 50% of the revenues…….
My humble guess is the base line number of races will be increased to 20 races in 2013 – and as now an option for another 3 will be agreedas and when…..but there will be only 20 races next year.
In terms of is it doable? Having spoken to the logistics guys in a number of teams, they prefer back to backing the European events anyway (ie roll out of one city and head straight for the next one and the following weekends race). It just decreases the development time for the boffins…..
So Spain, England, Germany, Hungary, Belgium(France), Italy could all be nailed in 6 weeks. Creates plenty of time….and reduces travel cost significantly as most teams are UK based….
Also, for every one person in the F1 circus who finds it all too much – there’d be scores happy to take their place…..
Be that as it may, but that is what Mr E said to the World Council the other day… I doubt he would have said that without a reason!
Yes, there’s almost always a reason behind Bernie’s statements.
That suggested above seems quite reasonable. Why wouldn’t Bernie try to artificially inflate the value of the F1 companies? He runs them and he and his family still hold close to 10%.
Given legal realities, one expects Bernie is looking for an exit strategy. The current valuation of the sport is at an all time high. A valuation that could plummet were the teams to get antsy about signing a new Concorde agreement.
The only reasonable way to accommodate more and more races is to start the season sooner and end it later. I can’t see how you can reduce the time between most races to just one week unless the locations are conveniently close, or lose the mid season break.
And all of that leads to less time to build and shakedown a new chassis/engine combination every year. Which probably leads to the need for more in season testing.
This is a great way to reduce costs, isn’t it?
As for viewing opportunities, the more chances there are the less regret I would feel when life gets in the way and I miss a race.
Maybe they need to sell the series to the France family? They have figured out how to run 43 races across a continent, with custom built (lower technology) cars, on a budget of $15-$20 million a year. I will now seek shelter from the barrage of incoming responses to this last bit 🙂
Apology for the typo, 36 races and 43 teams!
A few more of This, a few less of That… who’s really counting? (except a few F1 fans who wish to ration the pleasure other fans get from it, that is ;-))
personally i think its a brilliant idea because this season is very exciting because 8 different winners in 8 different races and its great for people to watch on TV because it is exciting racing
Hi Joe, first time on the website, and judging by you bagging out the people that make you money by visiting your website, you seem like a tosser.
By the way, that has to be the shortest blog I’ve ever read. Could you have at least done some investigative journalism and written about where some of these extra races may be held?
This blog is very simple. It it my house. You have walked in and the first thing you say is that you don’t like the curtains. You need to learn how to behave in a more civilised manner. Why don’t you try going out and come back in again being a little more polite.
Sometimes you do that in a way that’s absolutely perfect. This was one of those times…
on June 21, 2012 at 23:07 | ReplyJoe Saward
What a lot of crap. F1 people go around the world like no other sport. You think if I’d easy? You’ve never done it.
Pot, kettle, black?
It is simple.
Formula1 is in money trouble. The teams and venues that is.
Even though it is the most successful sport enterprise globally.
Weird right.
If you sell something for billions of dollars to someone “broke” the new owner needs to borrow money and pay loads of interest and charge venues much more than before to make a profit. That is CVC.
When CVC wants out they want to make a profit and the price is even higher than before so the new owners need to have an even higher income stream to make it profitable.
That is why we went from 15-16 races to 20 in the first place and now we are looking at 23+. Next time it will be closer to 30 and the only thing that matter is who puts up the most money.
And all this time the venues cringe and want to lower the cost. Korea, Turkey etc. Most old Europe races is forced out for new countries with no history but with loads of money and wants some excitement for a few years but then it is not that exciting any longer.
F1 is making billions a year. It is extremally popular. Drivers is payed most of all athletes in the world. Still everyone involved in running the circus, venues, teams, etc are all living on a tiny edge. Even Ferrari has problems with cost.
Something is rotten. F1 needs to own F1 and not hedge funds with no interest or passion for racing. Something gotta go. Maybe the forming of a new series wasn’t that bad of an alternative anyway. Then F1 would get owners knowing and caring for the longterm.
CVC or anyone could not survive without the teams. FIA have to choose if they should support the new series or the old and if the old dissappears they can rebrand the new to the old. Problem solved.
Bernie has done a great job. When he wanted out all the problems started.
It is time to listen to the fans, teams, team owners, drivers and deliver a great product.
Circuits(countries) with supporters.
Circuits with history is always preferable if available.
Teams getting the largest cut of the cake.
It is time for action or the spiral will start to spin out of control.
It will end ugly.
I disagree with about half of this.
I think F1 hit the ultimate mark with the 20 races.
I often think: NASCAR has around 30 races per series. If you add the three main series together, you get almost a 100 races per year! And many NASCAR fans watch the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series ALONG WITH the Sprint Cup Series, for a race – either one of the former ones – serve as basically a warm-up race to the big run the next day. With the same top drivers.
Now tell me: wouldn’t you watch GP2 and GP3 (as many F1 fans are already doing so) together with F1 more if the field had e.g. Vettel, Alonso, Raikkönnen, etc. in them?
Joe, you’re right. I apologise, and keep enjoying the sport that we all love. By the way, is it as cool as it seems being an F1 journo?
Not on Sunday nights!
It has always been about the money. Look at Australia, Adelaide one of the best always big crowds and well run, Melbourne poor crowds and little local interest not a motor sport city. Adelaide was very popular with the drivers and teams, as the last race they took the chance it maybe a fizzer but what a party.