I have had a late night over this one so I am hoping that it makes sense, if not just ignore me, I am babbling on thinking of a sleepier place with fluffy pillows.
Bernie Ecclestone as of late has been somewhat under fire for his decisions, the more high profile ones being:
- Still no Grand Prix in the USA.
- Brazil no longer the last race of the season, now it's Abu Dhabi.
- Silverstone given the chop, Donington Park in.
These are the big ones, but rest assured I could go on. Dealing with all kinds of on goings, the little niggly things that really make us ask that big question, just what the hell is Bernie playing at?
I have been doing a lot of research into why Bernie is dropping the tracks that he is dropping and why he wants to move certain GP’s away and hand a deal to less established GP countries like Russia and India. I am trying to get on his level (which is hard because I am 6’2” tall) and understand what his mindset is with these changes.
Well it just so happens that I think I might know what is going on in that little man’s head, I have a theory anyway. Obviously I don’t know for sure because I don’t know the guy, but this is just my attempt to fathom out what he is doing to our sport. Read on to see what I think and see if you agree.
See below the breakdown of the GP’s up to and including the 2007 season:
- 1) Australia - Albert Park - 12 GP's (96-07)
- 2) Malaysian - Sepang - 9 GP's (99-07)
- 3) Bahrain - Bahrain - 4 GP's (04-07)
- 4) Spain - Circuit De Catalunya - 17 GP's (91-07)
- 5) Monaco - Monaco - 54 GP's (50, 55-07)
- 6) Canada - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - 25 GP's (82-86, 88-07)
- 7) USA - Indianapolis - 8 GP's (00-07)
- 8) France - Magny-Cours - 17 GP's (91-07)
- 9) Great Britain - Silverstone - 41 GP's (50-54, 56, 58, 60, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87-07)
- 10) Europe GP - Nurburgring - 16 GP's (54, 61, 68, 74, 84, 95-96, 99-07)
- 11) Hungary - Hungaroring - 21 GP's (86-07)
- 12) Turkey - Istanbul Park - 3 GP's (05-07)
- 13) Italy - Monza - 56 GP's (50-79, 81-07)
- 14) Belgium - Spa-Francorchamps - 40 GP's (50-56, 58, 60-68, 70, 83, 85-02, 04-05, 07)
- 15) Japan - Fuji Speedway - 3 GP's (76-77, 07)
- 16) China - Shanghai - 4 GP's (04-07)
- 17) Brazil - Interlagos - 25 GP's (73-77, 79-80, 90-07)
TOTAL – 355 World Championship Grand Prix held.
Looking at the list, we have a number of well established tracks who have been key players on the F1 calendar for years. Big guns like Monaco, Canada, Silverstone, Hungary, Monza, Spa, and Interlagos. Tracks that you would think will never be dropped from the calendar, BUT a giant has been slain, Silverstone fell at the hands of the David in this Goliath story.
Bernie is a lot bigger than he actually seems. He has now proven that he won’t take any back chat from the BRDC and warning after warning has been launched, but they have fallen on deaf ears. Now Bernie has lost his cool and taken action, so it’s goodbye Silverstone and hello Donington Park in 2010.
So let's compare 2007 to 2009. There is still no mention on a USA GP and we are getting more new tracks confirmed in the shape of Abu Dhabi, Valencia, and Singapore. The 2009 calendar shapes up below:
- 1) Australia - Albert Park - 14 GP's (96-09)
- 2) Malaysian - Sepang - 11 GP's (99-09)
- 3) Bahrain - Bahrain - 6 GP's (04-09)
- 4) Spain - Circuit De Catalunya - 19 GP's (91-09)
- 5) Monaco - Monaco - 56 GP's (50, 55-09)
- 6) Canada - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - 27 GP's (82-86, 88-09)
- 7) Great Britain - Silverstone - 43 GP's (50-54, 56, 58, 60, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87-09)
- 8) France - Magny-Cours - 19 GP's (91-09)
- 9) Germany - Nurburgring - 23 GP's (51-54, 56-58, 61-69, 71-76, 85)
- 10) Hungary - Hungaroring - 23 GP's (86-09)
- 11) Turkey - Istanbul Park - 5 GP's (05-09)
- 12) European - Valencia - 2 GP's (08-09)
- 13) Italy - Monza - 58 GP's (50-79, 81-09)
- 14) Belgium - Spa-Francorchamps - 42 GP's (50-56, 58, 60-68, 70, 83, 85-02, 04-05, 07-09)
- 15) Singapore - Street Circuit - 2 GP's (08-09)
- 16) Japan - Suzuka - 21 GP's (87-06, 09)
- 17) China - Shanghai - 6 GP's (04-09)
- 18) Brazil - Interlagos - 27 GP's (73-77, 79-80, 90-09)
- 19) Abu Dhabi - Yas Island - 2 GP's (08-09)
TOTAL – 408 World Championship Grand Prix held.
Yes I know the figure is higher, BUT we haven’t lost Silverstone on this calendar remember. We have gained Nurburgring, plus there are another two races on the calendar. So because nothing has been predicted for 2010 yet, we can only work on rumors.
Let’s say that Magny-Cours gets dropped, that's 19 total GP’s gone. Then Silverstone has gone the journey, scratch 43 out. That’s 62 less in total, already dropping us below the level of 2007.
I hope your still with me.
It’s rumored that Korea and India will both get a GP in 2010. So does Bernie want to make the season longer or is he going to sacrifice more big guns? If he sacrifices more of the long players, then your GP total will be dropping out of the 300s. And lower still, with the Canadian, Hungarian, Turkish, and Italian GP all still without a confirmation for 2010, it looks likely that we could lose one of them.
So why Bernie? What are you doing?
Why have all these new circuits in place of older more established ones, surely we lose the history, the nostalgia. These are tracks that the regular true fans of the sport come rain or shine, win or lose. The ones who sit or stand there every Sunday that a race is on have come to know and love.
We have many, many great stories about races that have taken place on these tracks. Yet it looks more and more increasingly certain that we will have to say goodbye to old tracks like we say goodbye to old friends.
My thoughts on this is that he is trying to give the sport a brand new fresh face, a new era for Formula One. For the first time ever, I am getting on board with Bernie, I think I kind of understand his methods and what he is thinking.
Let’s think what happened to Formula One while Michael Schumacher was dominating proceedings. As great as he was, we lost a lot of publicity and people lost interest. Ratings dropped and the sport was dubbed as “boring.”
Love him or hate him, when Lewis Hamilton was promoted to the ranks of F1 as the McLaren rookie, the ratings, especially here in the UK, rocketed. They quite literally exploded.
People could relate to the youngster. Not only as a young man with a talent who could succeed alongside the world champion at the time, Fernando Alonso, but as a young, mixed race man in a sport predominantly competed in by white males.
This injected a new passion for our sport, we captured a whole new audience. Not only the original male audience, but a younger male audience, a young female audience, and of course an older female audience. The type who would love to mother Lewis and maybe bag themselves a boy toy in the process.
The UK have a driver in a competitive car who has a great chance to win something. Us Brits like to win but it's unfortunately something that we don’t get to do so often, so when it comes around you can be sure we will be right there behind our hopeful.
So, in the same vein let’s look at the new guys coming through who are dominating the headlines of this sport. Of course we have Lewis Hamilton, also Robert Kubica, Sebastian Vettel, and Heikki Kovalainen, sorry if I missed anyone. But let’s not get sidetracked, you know what I am getting at.
These are the drivers of tomorrow making an impact today, they are the future of the sport. New guys coming through the ranks in GP2 like young Bruno Senna is nipping at the bud to get to drive.
So, what next? Let’s have a look at car technologies. With the traction control taken away, the slicks being added next year, and the introduction of KERS (See my article on “2009, a new era for F1” for details), the sport is becoming more exciting and faster, also I suppose in some ways more unique to all other motorsports.
These are big changes. Which other sport can boast about being at the very top of the pyramid, the top of the chain when it comes to groundbreaking technology advancements.
Can anyone see where I am going yet? I hope so because my head hurts.
So with all this taken into consideration we then have Bernie and his new tracks. It now seems to me that bit by bit he is trying to give F1 a complete overhaul, a brand new look, a re-design, a fresh outlook for the future.
New drivers, new technologies, and new tracks. Maybe it is time to move to a new era of the sport and capture even more of an audience. With that being successful, surely there will be more money, more sponsors, more media interest, and on the whole all of this can’t be bad for the sport.
Ultimately Bernie Ecclestone is “future proofing” the sport of F1, it’s his “master plan.” Now do you see where I was going with this? I think if I am right, then I am actually behind Bernie.
But surely he must know the bad name he is getting for not only himself but for the sport by not really giving reasons for his decisions. He should be out there beating a drum about what his future vision is.
Now that I have looked at things from Bernie’s point of view I am nearly onboard with Donington Park being the temporary new home for the British Grand Prix, it kind of makes sense. But as it stands, I am still sore and I still want to see a Silverstone track on my calendar. Let's get it updated and get our British Grand Prix back at the home of British motorsport.
So there you have it, my point of view from the man who goes by the name of Bernie Ecclestone, the 77-year-old F1 Supremo, the “Big” chief, the gaffer, the man who holds all the cards.
Do you agree with me? Do you think you can get on board with him should this actually be his master plan? What would you maybe do differently? How would you like to see the future of F1 go? Do you think that all these new tracks are good or bad news?
Let me know people, this is your soap box, use it!
Ben, Over and Out!
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3 months ago
Ben, I am with you on this article, but it is more than all the points you mentioned above. He is moving where the money and markets are moving. He is looking for places where people are willing to invest. He is moving to Asian Circuits because that is where big guns such as Microsoft have moved. South Korea is about the Hyundai car company deal. India is about the Tata's and Jaguar deal as also Orange Holdings the owner of Force India team (part Indian-part British). Abu Dhabi is about oil money. Bernie is an intelligent man. Why not the US despite the money? Because, he is not certain of something, can't put my finger on it.
Bernie Ecclestone is a very intelligent man, and I have earlier said Max and he are playing a very well tuned game and today I read in the main stream media that they are best buddes again. He knows his gameplan and I am sure he has a good set of advisors, not ordinary types, big business types. Donnigton is about bringing the Information Technology industry into Formula One. Melbourne is back on the caledar till 2015 despite huge losses on the circuit, dunno the figures for all the GP circuis, if you put it all together, then it will amount to colossal figures.
But Formula One Management is not losing money. In fact, it is getting pretty good returns. In the end it is not about car companies spending money on 1000 hires and producing 2 cars but a whole lot of other dynamics.
Gotta stop now!
from 3 months ago
Let me add, a fantastic piece of writing and analysis in the Ben Auty Tradition!
from 3 months ago
Hey Sara ... I was going to strike a vein and branch on to talk about the finances and get into why he is going to the places he is for the investment reasons, but I wanted to keep the article in the sense of the sport reasons, to try and get everyone passionate about it, I didnt wanna get into facts and figures but you make some GREAT points and I agree with you 100% ... He is going where the major world markets are bulging, where investors go and where the big money is you are exactly right ! Great analysis and great comments. Thanks Sara. I hope I scored highly ? Ha ha ! ; )
3 months ago
Ohhhh, Auty strikes again, top top writing Mr Auty, great stuff, how do you think this stuff up? You have some great points in this article, I think its right that you will maybe get quite a few people on your wavelength because you boast some very valid points. Another great piece wrote with passion and feeling, you certainly know your stuff Mr.
from 3 months ago
Thanks Miles matey, once again you come up trumps and stick in another great comment, ha ha ha ... When you gonna write one anyway, you said you would yet here we are still waiting ? ... Thanks for comments anyway big guy, appreciate it ! Onwards and upwards hey ?!
3 months ago
OK Ben, I'm going to both agree and disagree with you on this article, 5 stars to you before I start!
For the disagreement: Many tracks have an historical significance towards us, and that's fine. However, I would like to see a change of scenery simply because if you have a GP that's always held in the same place at more or less the same time each year, it just doesn't hold that element of surprise. Take a look at somewhere like Turkey where Massa has won three times in a row. It was predictable that Massa would win this race because that's the precedent. If there is a track that has no precedent to it, then it's a total draw, from an F1 perspective. I personally would like to see new tracks, but also to not get rid of the old ones. This sounds like a terrible idea for the conservative and established F1 fans, but why not alternate tracks every year?
For the agreement: I agree that Schumacher had made F1 so boring, and a race was more of a sleeper than anything else. I'm glad to see that a new market has emerged with Lewis Hamilton as the guy leading that emergence.
Great article, but I respectfully disagree with the notion of the calendar change. Let there be new locales for F1 to go to because it adds a hint of unpredictability...
from 3 months ago
Hey Shak, First off thanks for the stars matey, appreciate it !
As for your disagreement, your not really disagreeing because thats what I am basically saying, that the tracks with the significance towards us die hards ... Well we like them and we want them to stay but at the same time predictability can be annoying ... So new tracks are awesome, love seeing new circuits making the calendar ! Its great and change isnt a bad thing !
Thanks again mate, appreciate your input !
3 months ago
Great piece, it really outlines the transition period F1 is going through at the moment. Personally i'm not convinced about Abu Dhabi to end the season. Maybe its the irritation of the teams, who won't be able to have the traditional end of year party, or maybe it will be the 2006 Bahrain case. Despite the Alonso/Schumacher duel, that race didn't really have the same party atmosphere as Australia, and if the title-race comes to an unsatisfactory end at a poor circuit we'll know who to blame.
I'm quite an F1 traditionalist really (probably because i remember 1994-97 best); it seems old, gravel-trapped circuits are being deformed and the essence of driving is slowly being stripped. Abu Dhabi, like many of these new tracks, will probably fall to this disease. Looking at Copse today during qualy, it seemed so much easier than the previous gravel. I'm sure Bernie's trying his best, he's been in the sport so long that he should know what he is doing (unlike Max "clueless" Mosely) and, yes, safety is important, but the main problem has to lie with this lack of unpredictability
Roll on no winglets and wet races!
from 3 months ago
Ohhhhh ... Gonna have to tip the balace, I agree with some points but disagree with some ... Okay ... Here we go ...
Abu Dhabi as a season ender, I think it could work, I am going to live and maybe die by the phrase "change is good" Check out the track on the official website ... Its pretty smart ... Okay its obviously not lined with history and doesnt have a place in our hearts for whatever reason but it seems cool to me ?
I am normally quite a traditionalist but by writing this article I have changed my own mind, although I dont think you can beat a good old gravel trap, too many of these tracks are just massive concrete run offs which are so forgiving when a driver runs wide.
As for Moseley, he shouldnt even be in the job which he is ... He needs to go the journey, I honestly think Bernie might be a good guy, ha ha !
Winglets are one of the main features of modern F1 cars ... Why take a step back, this is the future, lets make these cars as fast as we can, dont go back in time !
Anyhooooo cheers for the comments matey, appreciate it. Glad u enjoyed !
3 months ago
Good article Ben. You never cease to amaze me with these bad boys !
I am still quite indecisive about this if I am to be brutely honest. Maybe its the soreness of losing Silverstone still niggling in my head or maybe its just the way I am looking at it all.
All things need to be kept up to date with a face lift. You are never going to keep anything going if u stick with the same old. Its kinda like trying to get a blu ray dvd to play on a black and white telly. Just doesn't happen, something has to change, but you cant overhaul it as much and as quickly as Bernie is doing in my opinion. Things like this need to be done over time. Making massive changes on annoys people and then then move elsewhere.
Yes, I can agree with the Donington move - to an extent - i still think that the 10 yr contract is too much. 5 yr would be sufficient to get the pits sorted at Silverstone and move it back.
His decisions are far too BIG and there is not enough explanation behind them.
Well thats my look on it whether you agree or not.
from 3 months ago
wow - and how full of mistakes is that ! maybe i should start checking with things with F7. lol
from 3 months ago
Yeah I think a ot of us Brits are waking up with a sore head, a Silverstone hangover ... Its a big thing losing our GP and especially to a bike track !
It certainly will take time and I dont know whether the 2 years is long enough so we might have a problem, I guess only time will tell ... This is just going to be our transition period.
Yeah 5 years would have been maybe acceptable... Or 3 years ? Or how about NO years ? ... Its work that can take place while racing takes place.
3 months ago
well yeah - no years was always going to be a winner. but big wigs dont see it like that. they need to justify their positions and stir things up.
from 3 months ago
Ohhh dont ya just love politics ! Ha ha ha ...
3 months ago
he is actually referred to as the walking scrotum by all the pro journos. i cracked up when james allen said that.
good article ben, again haha.
i asked bernie this mornning if the fans could vote on this, and he said no, i may be small and grey (really?) but i am not that stupid. what an insult to the fans.
from 3 months ago
Ha ha ha ... Thats fascinating ... I would love to hear the journos off record saying what they really feel !
Cheers for the comment mate ... Maybe if Lewis does log on he will check a few of them out and throw some publicity my way ?
Yeah Bernie does have a habit of insulting us lot dont he, not very nice, oh and yes he is small and grey !
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