Bernies new idea : track rotation

[Jason]

Great news! Spa is a must for F1, specially after loosing so many other great tracks.

I agree, why don't bring back the old Hockenheim.

[Steven]

Well I think it's a bit of a short sighted view.

His idea of venues making more of a hype is possibly true, but the plan is quite hard to realise. Several reasons that I see will prevent that from being a success:

- F1 fans wish to have their favourite tracks on the calendar, as they provide good racing.
- Regular race visitors will be unhappy with a home race every two or three years, and knowledge of the venue is an important factor to go somewhere. If you know a hotel to stay, it's easier to arrange something. Apart from that, the habit of going every year will be broken and those people may lose interest going to their GP.
- Building and updating an F1 track costs a fortune. They do invest as they have an event every year, but I think it's very unlikely to see equal investments when F1 is only coming by once in several years.

[Principessa]

I think you're totally right Tomba, but I have to say that the 'hype' thing isn't as Ecclestone suggests. I think that everyone going to a GP is really excited and wants to go to a GP every year, but if GP's keep moving around and around!

Who has the money to go to other countries to go to a GP? Imagine people from Europe have to go to Mexico to see live F1 when all the great race tracks are in Europe!

[Spencifer_Murphy]

I agree, why don't bring back the old Hockenheim

You're completely right Jason, it would be much better, BUT they simply cannot do it, the old part of the track has been completely ripped up...its now just forest.

That hairpin at the end of the really long parabolic curve is where the old Senna chicane used to be (They should have kept the Sanna name!)

[DaveKillens]

As soon as I read the headline, my thought was.. "how will Bernie engineer to make more money and avoid the political embarassment of having to axe dear and cherished established GP tracks?"
If he has his way, tracks will have to bid for a GP, more money for Bernie. If some nation comes up with a fantastic bid, he can easily and quickly fit it into the next season's calender. If a track is playing hardball (like Silverstone) he can easily axe it by just not renewing it's race when the next three or four year cycle comes around.
For Bernie, it's a stroke of genius. For tracks and established die-hard fans, it's pure agony and crap.

[m3_lover]

I hear the BDRC (or whatever it is called) has postponed the retrofit for silverstone. I hope they know what they are doing

[mcdenife]

It becomes clearer. Here is an extract from the mole:

Yes, but how can he get more?" she said.

"The next plan is to try and make each Grand Prix more of an event," said The Mole. "When a race comes to a city each and every year, the locals tend not to make much of a fuss. Bernie recently watched the fireworks at the end of the Commonwealth Games and concluded that every city should treat F1 in the same way. F1 should be more of a party."

"And how do you do that?" Penelope asked.

"Well," said The Mole. "You find 60 venues around the world that want a big event. It's actually not that hard to do. Then you ask them each for $50m for a big event once every three years. They do their number-crunching and realise that compared to other big events that is a pretty cheap deal and they sign up. Do the sums. Sixty venues multiplied by $50m. That is $3bn over three years."

"Yes," said Penelope.

"Compare that to 18 countries paying $15m a year, multiplied by three."

Penelope was doing the numbers in her head.

"That's $270m a year multiplied by three. Equals."

You can find the full text here:
http://www.grandprix.com/mole/mole16595.html