The FIA has issued a calendar for next year, with the continuing stupidity of expensive stand-alone fly-away races, no doubt designed to get the teams to ask for back-to-backs, with the ultimate goal being to expand the calendar beyond 20 races. Singapore and Japan have been pushed together, which will save money, but by the same token, Brazil is now a standalone, as Austin has been paired with the new event in Mexico. Australia, China, Canada, Russia, Brazil and Abu Dhabi all remain stand-alone races. The extra race means an extra week, which means that the team people will be getting home from the last race on the last day of November. As usual, the calendar has been created by those who do not have to live it and so they take none of the human damage involved into account as it does not bother them. It would be logical, for example, to pair Australia and Malaysia, Bahrain and China, Russia and Abu Dhabi and perhaps it would be more logical to twin Canada with Mexico. This would cut costs considerably.
The calendar announced is as follows: Australia, March 15; Malaysia, March 29; Bahrain, April 5; China, April 19; Spain, May 10; Monaco, May 24; Canada, June 7; Austria, June 21; Britain, July 5, Germany, July 19; Hungary, July 26; Belgium, August 23; Italy, September 6; Singapore, September 20; Japan, September 27; Russia, October 11; Austin, October 25; Mexico, November 1; Brazil, November 15; Abu Dhabi, November 29.
joeblogsf1 
Are you sure that you dont want to say 2016 ? Le 12 sept. 2014 à 13:50, joeblogsf1 a écrit :
> >
Hi Joe, how much of the pain with the extended calendar would go away if teams spend a little more money on extra team personnel rather than a few extra parts or development?
It wouldn’t.
It’s not just the teams is it? You also have the media, support staff and everything else that goes with the traveling circus!
How thoughtful to pair Austin and Mexico, robbing off each other.. And this is a sport wanting to expand in the Americas!
40% of the Austin crowd is from Mexico. This just put the nail in the coffin for Austin.
No way 40% of the Austin crowd is from Mexico. Not even close. Have you been to the race?
The 1st race in 2012 you did not need to speak English. The parking in the Shopping centers were full with Mexican plates (and Hotels). We stayed in the Austin area until Monday and the Mexican’s were gone. This past year it was less Mexican Presence but Austin is doom with the Mexican race 1 week after. Austin date can not be changed much since weather in summer is very hot. Time will tell. Mexico’s racetrack will need a small miracle to be a nice place to go. Few race venues I do not look forward are Brazil, Mexico, China (too far from the city and poorly keep) and Malaysia (too hot)
*cough* Long Beach *cough* New Jersey
South Korea, Turkey, India, Valencia all came and went. If it can happen to them it can happen to Austin.
How thoughtful for me, might drop demand at Austin so you can get a decent ticket and hotel price going forward. Market forces were needed. Austin is not the deal that Indianapolis was, which was paired with Canada. So yes, keep Austin and Mexico paired.
I have no doubt that Mexico will draw very, very well. Austin? Who knows. There is potential for much bigger crowds here than they’ve drawn thus far. COTA should be able to draw capacity crowds regardless of a race in Mexico. They haven’t come close yet though.
I am not sure what you mean.
Which part can I clarify?
COTA may or may not suffer somewhat from the pairing, but it can be avoided with good, proper promotion. The Mexican contingent of USGP attendees has been vastly overrated (some absurdly claiming 40K people coming up from Mexico). The Mexican GP isn’t going to prevent a COTA sellout. They’ve never sold out a race of any kind. If COTA’s attendance continues to suffer, they need only look to themselves, not Bernie.
Austin is about 930 miles from Mexico City, plus they are in different countries.
rocketred has a point
He does have a point, but it may be undermined by COTA F1 race promoter’s own failings to more successfully pursue domestic (US) ticket sales.
Unfortunately I’ve no access to internal data that would support this, but purely anecdotal evidence leads me, as a US-resident motorsports fan (passionate about F1) to wonder about just how effectively the promoters are actually “promoting” their event.
That it isn’t coming close to “selling out” is, while not “surprising”, certainly as much of a poor reflection on their efforts as it is an indictment of FIA’s calendarizing and FOM’s extortive bizinessing.
Again, purely anecdotal, but I have close friends in Austin who’ve been exposed to no impactful & effective marketing for this year’s event – and they do access the internet and sometimes buy the Statesman.
As an aside, Joe, even if F1 had been publicly floated, there still wouldn’t’ve been access to detailed per-race ticket sales, right? b/c those sales are by promoters whose operations are completely legally separate from FOM’s, yes? So we wouldn’t have known how many GP tickets were sold to purchasers paying w/ Mexican credit cards/bank accts, vs how many American vs. how many rest-of-world?
I’m sure they would say they were ‘freeing up space for the USA to grow into’!
Pretty much nailed it, rocketredf1.
It is unfortunate now that Austin is “established” to an extent, the novelty factor for 2015 will be in Mexico’s favor. From what I understand, a significant portion of the USGP attendees have come from Mexico.
I think this creates an opportunity for CoTA to re-evaluate its pricing for tickets, and consider lessening the cost to attract more fans. The natural tendency may be to increase cost to compensate, but that would probably be a terrible mistake. CoTAs sanctioning fee is essentially covered by the State of Texas via the Major Events Trust Fund. The fund pays out money based on the supposed increase in tax revenue from tourists in town for the event. In order for this to happen, you need to have quite a few people spending money in the state. If they price too high, and there is a significant drop in attendance, that will not bode well for securing funding from the State. Therefore, I think the smart money is on decreasing ticket cost, increasing or maintaining attendance for the USGP, and keeping that funding in place.
At some point the folks running CoTA are going to need to consider this. I have very little faith in the folks at the top to realize this, or even care.
It is also my hope that Tavo would not seek to destroy the USGP in an effort to get even with the man who muscled him out. I doubt he would, as he has always spoken favorably of the event itself, even if he is not on good terms with the current owners of the track. The USGP, and the track, are still his baby. Perhaps someday he will have the ability to muscle them out, so he may step back in and run things better.
Hey Dale! While I agree with most of what you posted, I still can’t get past this popular notion that a large portion of USGP attendees are Mexican nationals. Where does this come from? IIRC, someone from COTA ‘casually’ mentioned it (40K) to some lazy reporter who then went on with it as fact, as they typically do. And it stuck. What do your eyes & ears tell you when you’re at the races? Does it really seem like more than 1 of 3 people there are Mexican nationals? Truthfully, if you told me that even 1/6 or 1/8 of the crowd has been from Mexico, I’d have a hard time believing it based on what I experience on race day.
Yeah, having been twice, I can say that it is nowhere close to being 40%. I think it would be more fair to say Mexico has a majority of the INTERNATIONAL crowd. It would be logical that a majority of the total attendance is coming from the states, and more than likely from Texas. The fans I talk to at the track have been mostly from Texas.
Which is good news. And you are right, they have never come close to selling out, but to be fair, capacity at CoTA must be ridiculous with the amount of General Admission space. Now, can the parking handle it? Whole ‘nother story!
Good to see you here, Tim!
Agree: I was there in 2012 and it was never 40% from Mexico.
Note that plenty of people who wear Mexican flags and cheer for PER or GUT may actually be Texas residents.
Given the distance I doubt that a race in Mexico City would hurt Austin much. As others have noted, Austin is hurting itself through weak promotion to its local market (Texas).
Oh how time flies, it’s already time for the traditional F1-ditch-the-new-guy-for-the-even-newer-guy-for-a-few-more-dollars slap, aka being Korea-ed, or India-ed, or Turkey-ed. What a shame, sorry Austin.
How silly can the FIA be for heavens sake ..
That must be a rhetorical question as I doubt you want to know the evolving answer.
Part of the logic with the introduction of the new hybrid engines was the need to remain relevant in the automobile industry, but also in an attempt for the sport to “go green”.
Surely if their intentions are genuine the same logic would be applied to the carbon emissions from the teams travelling the world? Like most things in this sport it defies logic.
Joe – I will try and lay off the potty mouth, apologies. I do feel I have contributions that are meaningful and relevant.
We should read 2016 right ?
Concerning the radio blitz: this is the best measure I have heard of for a long time (along with an extra set of tires on the friday morning).
The drivers should rely on his feelings only for the tires degradation, his lap time, fuel consumption, using all his dash board display and information! Communication from the pits could only be done by pit boards.
The Drivers could comment from the car the situation he is in and the decision he has to make accordingly…
He could comment on the consequences of his actions, racing incidents (for safety), and also describe his race with on board live information for the public…
Should be quite entertaining…
Anything that helps Lewis at Nico’s expense works for me…
lol
Hey Joe, Was it ’89 when there was a triple header of Canada, USA & Mexico? Would this be feasible now?
I don’t remember that
Hey Joe, Just checked the calendar. Mexico & Phoenix were back to back but there was a weeks’ break before Canada. I presume the cars and equipment stayed on the continent while the crews went back home.
That is more like I remember
Back in the 60’s and 70’s, the Blazers, none of whom had much commonsense on other motor racing issues, did at least, organise a sensible calendar, and the end of the season was usually Canada in late Sept, followed by USA at Watkins Glen in early Oct, and Mexico would be the final round a week or two later. Of course, in those days, F1 and motorsport, was sport for adults, and the drivers didn’t go round having Twitter feuds and handbagging each other, and spectators could see a whole race finish and be pretty sure of the winner, without pathetic penalties for this and that etc etc.
Personally, this calendar allows me to attend four races next year, something I wouldn’t have been able to do had Australia and Malaysia been paired together and Singapore and Japan not paired together.
Le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres Joe. Hopefully we see you again in St Kilda in March!
I will be there.
Would it be better if Brazil was just a week after Mexico?
It’s logical to have a calendar that glides in a straight line from one circuit to another rather than this zig-zag approach seen here, after all Formula One should keep it’s carbon footprint low and appear to be green.
As it’s so expensive to go to the races themselves, I prefer to go to the pre season tests ( a week, half board in Jerez or Barcelona is the same price as a weekend ticket for Silverstone – and keeps the missus happy). So it’s disappointing that there is still no announcement regarding test dates.
And strange that the new calendar hasn’t been published on the FIA website – it seems they’re too busy waxing lyrical about Formula E.
Hey, Formula E could be pretty cool! No need to knock it just to dump on FIA…
Rubbish. The industry is not ready for serious races.
Sorry in advance, Steve, for appearances of taking a pot shot – but can we assume this is because you’re gone longer?
Better deal than that Steve is 5 days at Salou for the WRC Spanish round, hotel b&b + dinner, flights and hire car, for £300 a head, with 3 days of full on rally action and sit more or less where you like, usually it is sunny and quite warm as well…got to be the cheapest high end motorsport spectating that can be had by a spectator or fan.
It also clashes with about 4 Formula E races, something the FIA said would never happen.
Bernie wins again!
Formula E is not something that F1 will worry about.
Some driver might though.
That obviously wasn’t optmaximal1’s point.
The short-medium term future is hybrid, not electric. Sound is one of the primary constituents that MAKE motorsport, and even hybrid has provided mixed opinion in terms of its (lack of) “racing” sound. But even ignoring that observation,
Where’s the fan base for E?
Where’s the practicality?
Where’s the marketing machine that shouts out “here’s our fabulous electric race car, it doesn’t run out of grunt after every 15 minutes?
Where’s the lightweight powerpack?
In terms of electric, karting is just about acceptable for a weekend stag or hen do, but for serious racing…
Most definitely is ‘serious racing’ benM.
I mean, from Joe’s blog piece ‘For the record’ average race speed of 79.2 over 19 laps, what else could it be…..?
With respect Peter, in your opinion. That’s an average that’s slower than a lot of Formula Ford racing ;-), and FE is supposed to be a future substitute for F1 ! Still, I guess the Environmentalists and Co. will eventually win the day and screw up our (as in purists among us) beloved spectacle one way or another.
I agree with rocketredf1. Running the US race a week before Mexico is definitely going to take people from one or both. Twinning with Canada makes so much more sense, however may it have more to do with the length of time needed to get the track in shape in Mexico for a race. Perhaps June is too soon?
The Mexico rae will do just fine. Its market is massive. And yes, June is much too soon.
Stupid. Any cost cutting measures should be welcomed, but there’s no logic to a chunk of those races and where they’re postioned.
Does Bernie still own or get a profit from the air transport he provides?
If so less efficient calendar = more profit.
The group probably does
+ air freight + hotel bookings + … etc
Joe, do you ever get opportunity to voice any of this to the FIA etc through open forums. Do they not hold any kind of communications group to work how they can interact better with the sport?
No comment.
Lost me
Tell them 1.5 billion people in the world now have smartphones. If they can’t get people to the racing a good start would be to put the damn sport in peoples pockets.
I have converted many a folk to the sport with this video over the years. Its not rocket science:
Ohhhh, the sound of that through the tunnel… puts the hairs up on the back of my neck.
Pity the video will almost certainly be taken down now, though. 😦
Blinding lap by Jarno! Pity he’s now driving a milk float (and out on lap two…)
oh the irony.
lol…
Well that’s a relief to read, Joe. They have some sense.
excellent
Can’t pair Mexico & Montreal. That’s not nearly enough time to finish the circuit & new facilities.
OK, pair Canada and Austin
Weather is tricky to schedule around for the North American races, I would think. Texas in June, or Montreal in November? Neither are good options.
Fine with me. I live here and am thus used to the heat. Are you ready for the 95F+ mid-June Austin heat?
BTW, another reason the summer is no good for Mexico City is that May-September is the rainy season. November is very dry by comparison.
Autumn is the best time for both Austin and Mexico City and Austin-Mexico City-Sao Paulo is a natural progression.
And it is the best time of the year for São Paulo too, not regarding confort in the track or the city, but the racing itself: October/November are spring in southern hemisphere and chances are that, if wet the weather on race day, gonna have light showers, even drizzle, instead of downpour, this the usual in the autumns here (like in the ’93 GP, still run on March – nowadays a storm like that would bring out a safety car leading for good part of the race, or red flag – as opposed to that, remember the decisive races in 2008 and 2012).
Being a hardcore fan, every year I just hope the ‘capos’ do not move Brazilian GP date out of the period on which it has been run for the last ten years.
It would clash with Le Mans and who the hell wants to be in Texas during the summer?
Le Mans. Good point. And it’s just damned hot. I know that for much of the summer I’d rather be out on some little Mexican island where it’s actually cooler.
At least Austin in June is conducive to more string bikinis…
Heh…one of the benefits of living here!
^ Joe Papp wins the “most legitimate point of the day” award. Seriously though, that is a legitimate point. People watching fills the time between track sessions.
Maybe we’re to feel good that Britain and Belgium are on the calendar at all, and they’re (you’re) not traipsing off to yet another new developing nation…
“As usual, the calendar has been created by those who do not have to live it and so they take none of the human damage involved into account as it does not bother them.”
Wouldn’t Bernie prefer less travel costs, or is the old setup with travel cost reimbursement gone and did I miss that? Is the FIA not following Bernie’s calendar (I assume he would want it a bit differently, no?) just to try and stand ground (in stead of standing ground on much more important occasions)
FOG companies make money arranging air travel, air freight and hotel bookings for teams, while the payout is relatively fixed, iirc.
Hopefully the Joe Saward doesn’t mind me quoting from another source:
I was going to lament EU competition commission not having gotten involved yet, but what’s the distinction b/w simply brutal but legal ruthless bizness-making – and criminal/monopolistic conduct?
Thanks for that piece Joe…..one has to wonder…
I can’t think of any sport in these times, that isn’t being plundered and ripped off, for the benefit of a small coterie of insiders and manipulators. In fact this isn’t even new, it’s been building since the 1970’s, in all sports.
Sport is just as corrupt as finance, and probably far more fiscally rewarding, and easier to consume with greed, as Authorities rarely examine it’s finances and core practices, since they too, are generally benefitting from collusion with the Organisers. Sad fact but true of pretty much any sport you can mention….and don’t even start to think of the corrosive effect of gambling on sport!
I suppose a lot of this is due to organisers wanting their “traditional” dates?
It surprises me that this is an issue every year and I must therefore ask the question. Do you believe the calendar complaint has never been raised clearly enough or perhaps the teams ask for some more delays as a fortnight provides more time to develop the car? From the list above it looks like only 3 back to back races, despite 8 races in Europe only two are paired, with the rest having a fortnight between them.
I certainly agree and see your point of the human impact of these stand alone races, however if the team personnel are getting back to base between races to do more work (because they can afford to) and the only ones really miffed are the journalists because spending 14 days on the road in the south pacific is something that makes it really expensive to do perhaps they are trying to knock the old stalwarts from the bleachers and want to bring the media coverage more in house in the long run, once voice to be broadcast from FOM, and picked up and pieced together by the internet monkeys.
Have you looked to see if there are local issues causing these bookings, perhaps a national holiday in Malaysia prevents it from being the week after Australia (just a random guess not something I researched)
Also to the suggestion of more personnel, a second crew team was banned a few years ago and there have been so many restrictions on wind tunnel work etc I doubt you will hire twelve extra spanner turners to make up for a few extra flights to and fro. Plus it is easier to train 12 people to do a job right than 25 allowing them to have rests.
and to add insult to injury, the FIA has banned team personal from communicating with their families.
What does this mean?
Thanks
Rob
What??
Given the proximity, isn’t there a danger of Austin and Mexico splitting each other’s potential crowd? If Mexico was twinned with Canada, you could conceivably get some going to both, but when they are paired up, that seems less likely…
At 935 miles, Austin and Mexico City are much farther apart than a few of the European pairings. Mexico will be fine. Austin *should* be fine, too. It’s up to them.
I am beginning to think that by the time the Sochi GP comes around F1 will be in danger of sanction breaking. In fact Russia have threatened to stop all flights over their territory. If that is HMG have not already advised UK citizens not to go there.
Interesting times.
The deal was done before sanctions were announced therefore it is allowed. Whether it is a good idea is another matter
Why not have Canada, Austin, Mexico and Brazil together and make them 2 back to back with a week gap in between, that must be more sensible. Or arrange the calender to make it read like a road trip so you always go to the closest venue to the one just gone.
As you say Joe, it needs planning by people who have to live it.
OK, then when do you do that? In the summer, when it’s nice in Montreal, & Sao Paulo, hot as hell in Austin, and rainy in MXC? Or how about the fall, when it’s steamy in Brazil, nice in Austin and MXC, and cold in Montreal?
As much as I’d like them to, they just don;t all go together.
I wonder how the teams will approach the back to back of Singapore and Japan now that they are only a week apart. As the teams have been operating on european time for Singapore, will this change for them with FP1 in Japan being only 5 days after the race?
I thought the calendar was ultimately decided by Bernie Ecclestone and he goes to all the races. So he does live the calendar he created. I agree that some races could be coupled together however geo-location is not the only parameter. One should also take into account the weather in the location at that time of the year. Interlagos has floated back and forth a lot before finding a good place that could mean a wet or dry race, but avoid the “monsoon”.
He doesn’t go to all the races and hasn’t done for years.
Well, at least they didn’t put Austin 2015 in conflict with Halloween, as they did this year. I know the Europeans are scoffing right now. Go ahead. But to any businessman with basic sense, it would make sense to avoid conflict with big holidays (although Halloween isn’t a Holiday it’s a very big event in Texas that keeps people at home or draws people to parties) or other other large crowded events (University of Texas football game conflict in 2013?). Of course I have not checked the UT schedule for 2015…
Halloween is a big deal in Austin, drawing tens of thousands from out of town, packing downtown streets as they celebrate & party. I think that’s actually why COTA wanted that date. I think they actually seek conflicts with big Austin & Texas events (Texas Football, Halloween, NASCAR in Ft. Worth, Fun Fun Fun Fest so far). That way, it’s harder for state officials and the public to gauge the true impact of the USGP working all alone. I checked the 2015 UT football schedule and it hasn’t yet been set beyond September.
Which I take to be a unwanted byproduct of the way a race is valued.
Brits do scoff at Halloween,but i think it’s because our attempts at partying are lame in comparison. The amount of preparation and planning some put into Halloween, is amazing. And, a very visible component partying are scifi fans, gamers / cosplay enthusiasts, who, though I can’t attest, but will guess, are not the first crowd to dismiss a sport like F1. In any event, I think it’s a silly clash. Or a opportunity, since it’s too late to change, now. Will F1 work on some local promotion, to tie in? Throw their own parties downtown? It could be made a positive thing, catch a lot of attention, very inexpensively. Recoup expenses by sending Kimi trick’o’treating… Could be a nice, impromptu, way to get noticed.
A sad side effect of any packed calendar, is how little time everyone spends, locally. Same reason I argue I haven’t traveled much, when it’s been landing for a meeting, to go home right after. It’s a bit of a dream, but at least for new or newer venues, the circus ought to stick about a bit, to make themselves known. Simplest marketing ever. That, and I get mad at unsold seats not being given out to schools or some other way. If you were a kid, never seen any race, and this turned out to be your kind of thing, wouldn’t you be on a buzz for weeks? Empty grandstands have to be combated intelligently.
Kimi trick’o’treating? Now THAT would be awesome. I don’t think the Kimster would accept candy. Only Ice cream or vodka please.
😉
I once liked splashing Bailey’s onto plain vanilla…
I just so hope F1 will only realize how it just doesn’t cost to do cool things. I say you can take three races from the calendar and spend that time locally, and lose nothing for the teams and circus, and make so much for the host cities. The economics and much besides, is too suspect. What is never suspect, is propel coming out in a good mood, and making contact with their hosts. How many demographics are we missing? What about young girls? Okay, drivers are a bit on the short side, but not a repulsive bunch. How powerful is teen girl interest? And how do they ever get the chance to even see any of the drivers? What about the twelve year old boy, who knows he can’t nag his parents to spend his college fund, how does he get close… so close and yet so far…
I’m trying to imagine what F1 could be, with almost no effort. You know what? I think it could be cool. Cool does not need explanation, cool sells itself. Cool does not strive or struggle to be cool. Almost all cool has roots in close contact with regular people, on their level. I’ve too much to say, but I know in my bones that F1 is due finally a real upheaval, and I reckon the sure fire best way to weather any worrying gusts in the storm, is to get out there and be friendly. Think like the kids you want to be fans would: you sure you can resist showing off your toys, now? And so on…
Someone who can draw might make a amusing cartoon, with Kimi, and the purple candy apple, I linked above 😉
Indeed, Halloween is more impactful than many/most official national holidays in the US and across an incredibly diverse age/demo group.
someone already has that covered, for Infiniti branding: http://i.imgur.com/0uQnMCY.jpg
I find it amazing that people are still banging on about such things as time change, freight cost and the twinning of events. Wake up people, the only thing that matters, to CVC/BCE, are the dollars. The rest is a non starter as far as they are concerned. The business model they use has no reason to care about the fan, just the ability of a race to pay ahead of time and if they dont want to pay, move on.
Waiting to see this Formula E thing. Staggered seeing this in the rules:
“Pit stop will involve a change of car: when the battery runs out a driver will make a planned pit stop and switch into a new fully charged car.”
Sorry? The cars can’t even do the race distance? Hardly a great advert for electric power, is it? I think maybe a proper Formula H (Hybrid) would have been in order, instead of this Brian Rix-style farce. Oh, hang on – we already have a proper hybrid formula. It’s called F1. 😉
This is why I think it will fail. The series shines a spotlight on the weakness of the industry. Why would an electric company support that?
You might well be right but the race this morning was actually quite entertaining. Especially the last lap shocker! I’ll tune in next time although whether I’ll still be watching by the end of the season remains to be seen. Overall I’d give it 7/10 so far.
Just watched the first Formula E race. Despite the car-change (I do agree with you that this is a lousy advert, Joe), the inane DJ, and the amazingly-stupid-but-thankfully-irrelevant-to-this-race “fan boost” idea, I actually rather enjoyed it, much to my surprise. Nice to see so many familiar faces (ex-F1 drivers) too.
Biggest problem? Next one isn’t until 22nd November! Talk about keeping up the momentum…
F1 may be a true hybrid powered sport but you would never guess as it’s not being promoted by F1 or FIA and it should be, the E series does promote electrically propelled vehicles and the car change could have been avoided by making the races shorter and having 2 races as they do with some other series. We shouldn’t complain about what motor sport is trying to do to develop new power systems, but I would like to see more done to promote it’s successes.
100mph. Oooh! My little Fiesta nearly does that. Turned off after seeing the novelty of a driver changing cars. Like A1GP and F2, Formula 2 will be dead in a couple of years.
Formula E, even.
Exactly right. The whole thing just might blow up in their faces (no pun intended). Very risky, imho.
absolutely, as my comment above
Out of interest, how about this for a revised 2015 calendar?
Australia, March 22
Malaysia, March 29
China, April 6
Hungary, May 3
Spain, May 10
Monaco, May 24
Canada, June 7
Austin, June 14
Britain, July 5
Germany July 19
Austria, July 26
Russia, August 23
Belgium, September 6
Italy, September 13
Singapore, September 27
Japan, October 4
Mexico, October 18
Brazil, October 25
Bahrain, November 8
Abu Dhabi, November 15
Gives plenty of back-to-back weekends, plus a four week break after the first three races and another four week break in July/August.
Austin in mid-June won’t be good for anyone. No shade at COTA. People would be dropping like flies. You’ve also put it on the same weekend as Le Mans. Not bad though. Solid effort, imho. Not sure I’d personally want two 4-week breaks, and ending the season with two of the most boring tracks might not be so good.
Frankly, I see no reason to put Hungary in May if you could slot Russia there. And I think it’d be much better to pair Silverstone with Austria than to make w three week break in June.
Joe, isn’t part of the problem for twining with Canada that the New York street race just can’t find the $$$’s? Weren’t they supposed to paired?
It is way more complicated than that, but in essence that is the problem
Silverstone twice, Monza twice, Spa 3 times, Suzuka twice, Canada, Austin, Interlagos twice, Bathurst, once at Monaco for the Flavio Briatore types – job done. That would be a good season.
Yeah, I support that 🙂
Ah, dammit, Gareth, I was going to try a variation on that, but you can’t trump a good idea that just *sounds* so right.
Argentina, Brazil, SA, US West // Monaco, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, France / GB, West Germany, Austria, Holland, Italy // US, CA.
Was how it was the year I, belatedly, not that that’ll be believed, opened my gob to talk. I don’t think it’s so stupid: if a calendar sounds good to people, it will just sound right. Line it up how it feels nice. No matter how.
Watery eyes aside, it would be the most brilliant thing, to do a few trips about Silverstone and Spa.. bring back PQing… see how new drivers test.. push the top drivers to perfection.. You’d get more sales for a set of three tickets to Spa, like you put forward, than just one, it would be absolutely intense.
Is that not a fundamental problem with F1: that drivers never really get to see the same circuit again? Always a new car, a new team mate, new rules… NOOO! Let’s stop this, and come back and see how everyone is a fortnight later, after a different challenge in between maybe. Would any driver not love that?
I feel like I might resurrect some of my plaints to have non championship extras and other tweaks to the choice on the calendar.. and how they might even allow third cars without spoiling things ruinously. The short of my thought is to have a hard core to the calendar, and have all else around that, and you can accommodate so much. It is just ridiculous how straightjacketed the thinking is, as if it is all rigor mortis, when there’s almost infinite possibility to have the most incredibly entertaining racing season. Only stupidity stops F1 from being the most amazing thing, from being seen as such so very widely.
Sub Imola for one of the Spa’s
Everyone wants a perfect calendar. Unfortunately with all the myriad factors in play, for example local weather, holidays and competing events, I’m quite sure this is the absolute best calendar that Bernie could have come up with. So, don’t complain, and get on with it.
No it’s not. He is trying to get the teams arguing for more races.
There’s infinite possibilities to make for fantastic seasons. We need to break out of the pathetic rules set by whatever Bernie agreed and look at what makes for a exciting year. That might include, some years, putting Mexico in the wet months, or getting so radical as to have a bunch of races close together, physically, and even repeating a track twice. Surely these are the ingredients. If once this all or nothing horrible politics gets stopped, and a promoter comes in and says “look, we’re going to put on the best show we can, end of story, that is our first priority, and if we have a second priority it is to make everyone in the racing teams and the rest, feel happy and feel like this is a lot of fun again, and if the second doesn’t happen, we’ll change the first thing”… if you just say that and mean it, all your woes start to go away.
40 races with different drivers and crews for their respective 20. Think of how many sub-par pay drivers we could see. Move over Esteban, because Nicolas Prost just swerved into you!
Personally, I prefer the old schedule….. start in January and finish in Watkins Glen in October. And just 16 races…..
F1 is so often called a business.
Okay, I can describe myself as a professional salesman, depending on a few factors. So I set about on a sales campaign. No way, no way do I set to selling 24/7 or even five days a week. The *vast majority* of my time is spent, not in selling, but analyzing and engaging in what and who I have spoken with and about, in research about their circumstances and their colleagues’ circumstances and impressions, and I feeding back a majority of my effort that is not selling, into the actual selling engagement.
Not such a great analogy, analogies too easily descend into worthlessness, but my point here is that despite I engage full time in selling, actual selling is a small proportion of my job, when I do. It is not a “numbers game” when I am looking how to get the best results from a new situation or opportunity. Too many people, I think, believe F1 is mature and robust and not basically at best a spotty teenager of a business, needing commensurate levels of care and feeding and consideration. Don’t be distracted by the money, F1 is a nascent business that has had its development interrupted, by very misguided attempts to make it the only game in town, thank you Bernie and Max, for strangling all the lower series that could distract any interest.
F1 is in real danger. But the biggest danger is internal, of self perception and immaturity of business understanding itself, and of recalcitrance, and a false appearance of maturity caused by unpleasant politics and big money.
The calendar should never be about balancing “business interests”. Sorry that is bunkum utter rot. The business itself is so neglected, any interest posing as “business reasons” should go home and be told you need to complete tri SATs in marketing and economics, before puking stolen phrases from a third rare MBA textbook. No, get the calendar serving fans, serving making the best show, most interesting possibilities, even including what tracks suit different possible team advantages, for I think making things hard it part of what a promoter must consider, a golf club owner would think to relay a hole that everyone eagled… then you can think about these interests, if you have time. Pandering to anything other than what enables the teams to deliver the best show with the least expense and least headache, is the job of the promoter. None of this, as expressed by some commenters here also, “lump it” and “get on with it” approach. That is what is causing the problems, though the problems are far deeper than a calendar.
Sorry, a typo or three made that end differently to my meaning, but I think my meaning was clear enough, well I almost didn’t notice, so I hope it’s clear.. my apologies for the mess.