FIA confirms 2016 calendar The 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar in full: March 20 - Australia April 3 - Bahrain April 17 - China May 1 - Sochi May 15 - Spain May 29 - Monaco June 12 - Canada June 19 - Baku* July 3 - Austria July 10 - Great Britain July 24 - Hungary July 31 - Germany August 28 - Belgium September 4 - Italy September 18 - Singapore October 2 - Malaysia October 9 - Japan October 23 - USA** October 30 - Mexico November 13 - Brazil November 27 - Abu Dhabi *race start to be scheduled to avoid conflict with the conclusion of the 24 Hours of Le Mans **subject to agreement with the promoter and the ASN
They'll have a 2016 USGP. They're not gonna leave $19.5M just sitting there. They're just trying to get someone else to cover the shortfall. They need to have the race if for no other reason than just to show cash flow to sell the place.
US Grand Prix F1 race expects to know its future by end of February - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com Circuit of the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein is to confirm by the end of February whether this year's United States Grand Prix Formula 1 race at Austin will go ahead. Epstein conceded in November to being concerned about the future of the race after the Texas state government announced a significant cut in its contribution towards COTA's hosting fee. That prompted Epstein to remark just over two months ago the future of the race was "not looking good". Earlier this week F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone expressed certainty the October 21-23 event - currently on the calendar as provisional - would go ahead. Asked about Ecclestone's remarks, Epstein told Autosport: "I share his optimism on it. "We all want it to happen, and usually when that's the case, things get done. "I certainly can't confirm anything at this point, but for sure there will be something within the next 30 days. "We'll have an answer definitely before the end of February." The state originally promised $25million per annum of funding over the 10 years of the contract prior to the race's debut in 2012. That has now dropped to around $19.5million after a different formula was applied to calculate the GP's economic impact on the area. With ticket sales slowly declining, and last year's event severely hit by the storms that significantly affected the overall attendance, the funding cut was another blow to the GP's long-term viability. "We're proud of what we've accomplished here," Epstein added. "Time has gone by pretty quickly, with this our fifth anniversary year, and no one wants to miss it."
Mexico had an impact to be certain, but the weather really delivered a blow to the vendor sales and the related loss in tourist tax dollars collected. Also what doesn't help is when the politicos move the goalposts halfway through the contract. This situation smells of a shakedown when the governor'office states that 1. They are using a different formula now (ok, if the former administration's formula was bogus, then a change is understandable), but... 2. The governor's office is also on record stating that the tax dollars only supported a payment of $15M. If that is true, then it's true. So why pay $19.5M if it's not supported by the new formula? Pay the true amount of $15M and let the merry band of billionaires (Epstein, McCombs, DeJoria, et.al.,) make up the difference. But politicians are politicians, and this new group were likely left out of backroom bargaining when CoTA was being built, and they want a "taste." This has "shakedown" red flags written all over it, imo. At the end of the day, however, I can't believe that a group of billionaire businessmen didn't have a better contract in hand. It's not like they couldn't afford the best legal representation.
