Bernie: GP ticket prices set to fall

Bernie Ecclestone says the moves by the teams and the FIA to reduce the cost of competing in Formula 1 will ultimately result in a better deal for fans as ticket prices for races can also be reduced.

The sport's ringmaster said that one of the reasons why tickets for grands prix had become so expensive was because the teams needed as much revenue as possible from the races – and that if the teams' financial needs were lessened, that saving could also be passed on to F1's fans.

"The problem is the cost of running teams today is just crazy, but now we are getting the teams to come to their senses and reduce expenditure dramatically – or the necessity to spend money," Ecclestone said in an interview in the latest issue of F1 Racing magazine.

"When that happens we won’t have to produce so much money for them and, therefore, we can ask for less money for the promoter and the ticket prices will come down.

"We want that to happen as soon as possible."
Ecclestone added that the onus was on the drivers and teams to offer fans a better deal in terms of access to their heroes as well.

"I still think we should be doing an awful lot more to make the drivers more exposed to the public," he said.

"We have a few things, like autograph sessions and things like that, so they are slowly coming round.

"The trouble is, if one or two of the top guys won’t do it, the other guys say, ‘Why should we if they won’t?’

"I’ve always said that the guy who’s world champion owes an awful lot to the sport, so, if he took the lead, other people would follow."

The Formula 1 Teams' Association has made improving fans' experience one of its key aims, but Ecclestone said he found this ironic as in the past they had been less helpful on the matter.

"The incredible thing is, as I pointed out the other day, when Michael Schumacher was driving for Ferrari, he had a contract with a television company saying that he wouldn’t have an interview with anybody else until he had spoken to them," he said.

"So this is the sort of thing we have always been up against, I’m afraid. They don’t want to. They could but they don’t want to.

"But you can’t make people do what they don’t want to do. If they are doing it but not being sincere about it, it’s a waste of time."