Yes, and it's a guaranteed loss for the promoter with F-1. that is why its usually national or regional governments that host the races... which to me is stupid.
No, F1 has to take account of market forces. Promoters would queue up to organise GPs if the fees asked by Liberty were fair and reasonable. If Liberty was raising less money, it would redistribute less to teams, which in turn ... etc ...
Careful, market forces want zero-carbon in 20 years. This is basically Bernie's doings. But $25M per race makes for hideously expensive tickets. Less money means less strenuous development and FIA could relax for a while ...............
In the long run, market forces always come in to play, and every business has to align on them, IMO.. Yes, Bernie introduced some mechanisms to finance the teams, but doing so opened a pandera box. Allowing advertising was supposed to take care of F1 costs, but the promoters were made also to contribute more. The fact is that during the tobacco era, teams were awash with money, and quite got used to it.
Or just less money for F-1 and Liberty. that is the Ecclestone way. I have a love hate with Bernie. He started F-1 on the road to riches, made everyone millionaires and then just got to the point of let them eat cake... and made it way too expensive. you have to alow a promoter to make a profit.... you cant take everything for your self, and then make it so that a govt has to pay you to come ???? the economic impact studies are inflated at best... cities don't see the huge revenue that is promised, and then they gouge everyone during the weekend... its pretty pathetic. that is why F-1 is reducing in its fan base. you have to pay to watch on TV... stupid, You have to pay big time to see it in person from a grand stand seat - stupid, there is no pit/ paddock access at all all weekend so you never see the drivers and cars up close.. stupid, and you cant walk the tracks any more ( or very few of them ) and see the race from different perspectives. you only get to sit there, and watch it on jumbotron... or the 2 sec when they pass by.
Yes. If you go to an IMSA race or WEC race the cars are just as advanced... and they don't have anywhere near the same cost structure... why cant F1 come down a few pegs? Indy car is now where near as expensive ... and you get a lot of access to Indy car races... finally I think they need to alow Tobacco again. its stupid to ban it.. have always been against it. Both my parents smoked when I was growing up, and I;ve never smoked cigarettes, and may be a dozen cigars in 40 years. ... seeing Marlboro on the side of the car never made me want to go buy a pack... but I loved it because it allowed good racing.
I like the American way of doing things in motor racing, I really do. Maybe that organising 2 major national series (Indycar and IMSA) is easier than administrating world championships. I am thinking in terms of logistics, audience, TV network, etc ... F1 pitches countries against countries, and some would pay anything to have a race just for the prestige of it. I don't think you have so much of that among US circuits, for a start. Also each Indycar team arrange for its own haulage, unlike F1 teams when they play far away. As for ease of access, and looking after the public, you cannot get better than the USA tracks, I would say.
Its good and bad. F-1 certainly had / has the cachet of international and exclusive, but with the internet etc... it all seems smaller. back in the 80's 90's it was still exotic but its kind of mundane - NASCAR for the rest of the world. IMSA, and Indy do a good job with fans yes. they are very open, and frankly - most people attending don't know the drivers that well anymore. their TV has suffered ... but they have managed to keep the series going, and some of the tracks are really fun. administering F-1 is not all that hard, any more - they have the logistics down to a science. Yes its more expensive to ship all the stuff... but my contention is do they need all the stuff? most of it is the Garage kit, all the paddock club stuff.. etc. F-1 has 4 sets of each teams kit - that gets staged around the world. when they are in asia they have two that get deployed in advance so it looks seamless,but there is a lot going on behind the scenes which adds to all the extra cost. I wish it was a little less glitz, and more about racing. I mean mos people don't ever get into the pit and paddock, and the rest of the pit setup is for TV... why do they need so much bespoke stuff. when you go behind all the fake walls in the pit, its crazy - and it looks like a racing team... that is where IMSA , WEC and Indy all look the same. I think F-1 has run its self into a cul de sac with all the show stuff, and giant offices and transporters etc... that nobody really sees... other than the uber wealthy.
