This could be a positive development. I want as many races as possible. I want races instead of winter testing. I want more southern hemisphere and African venues that can host races in November December and February like South Africa, Marocco, Dubai and Qatar.pitpass wrote:Ecclestone confirmed to Sylt that when it comes to adding races to the calendar he "can't go beyond 17." However, this hasn't stopped him and he adds that "Rome is due to come in in 2013...we will have 20 races and the teams will be happy with it."
F1 has never before had as many as 20 races on its calendar and this is down to the increased cost of travelling to more Grands Prix as well as the longer period of time team staff would have to spend away from home. However, one key to getting the teams to agree to it was the appointment of McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh as chairman of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) in January. Ecclestone says that "you've got very sensible guys now like Martin Whitmarsh in charge of everything and he will understand because he is a business person."
This move could have a huge impact on the business which Ecclestone runs. The race hosting fees for Canada and South Korea come to around £40m annually with Rome likely to pull in another £26m making up for the fact that the Italian GP at Monza only pays a tiny sum. In addition to this £66m there will be trackside advertising revenues of around £30m and corporate hospitality revenues of nearly £20m since F1 averages a haul estimated at £6.5m per race. In total, the addition of Canada, South Korea and Rome will bring extra annual revenue to F1 of around £116m.
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More races means more money for F1 and so the good news for fans is that beloved Grands Prix are not likely to come under more threat from Ecclestone. Both Germany and Turkey were believed to be at risk but he has quashed these rumours.
"The Germans have no problem," says Ecclestone, adding that he will not scrap the Turkish Grand Prix despite just 36,000 spectators attending the three days of the race last year. Ecclestone's business runs the Turkish round and in December he reportedly asked the government to double the promotion fee he receives. However, he says that the race is here to stay and eventually the crowds will come. "It's an enormous market in Turkey. Eventually they will get themselves sorted out."
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