It’s well known that F1 race promotes and circuits pay a vast amount to host races, with some of them struggling to break even and losing money.
Former F1 boss Ecclestone was the mastermind behind the current F1 race deals with promotes, charging extortionate amounts.
So, it’s ironic and pretty funny that Ecclestone has now gone back on the deals he made, saying F1 races are charged too much.
Ecclestone was replaced as F1 CEO by Chase Carey at the start of the year with Liberty Media’s takeover. Having sorted all the current F1 race contracts, he now – strangely – feels the fees are unsustainable (no way).
He told Motorsport.com:
“I did some good deals commercially. They are paying a lot of money, and most of them if not all of them are not making any money, quite the opposite. Sooner or later I’m frightened that the governments behind them will say enough is enough, and bye bye.
“If we could reduce the fee they pay they could then charge less for tickets and sell more tickets. So if you want to look after the fans, that’s the way to do it.”
Ecclestone was then asked why he didn’t cut the rates himself in the past when he was sorting out F1 race fees, replying:
“I know I could have done, but I was trying to make money for the company, that was my job. It appears that it’s not [Liberty’s] prime objective, to make money. Their objective is to please the fans, which is good.”
The Malaysian Grand Prix recently dropped off the calendar, something Ecclestone was involved with, and Singapore was in doubt too:
“Malaysia has gone. A lot of these things are left over from what I was doing, when I was doing the day job. We really didn’t have a lot of choice. They were going to stop. I think I’ve convinced Singapore to stay. We’ve changed the conditions and terms a little bit there. They haven’t decided yet, but they may still not continue.”
Here’s hoping Liberty can bring in smaller race fees in the future, to help current events to survive and be more financially stable.
