The fact of the matter is though, Bernie still has plenty of countries eager to jump on board the F1 bandwagon, and he even has countries that have been on-board once before, who are happy enough to pay the price and have another go at it! (The USA, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Since Bernie took over the commercial side of F1, name a season where F1 has struggled to find places to race! And even when races fall by the wayside (think France, Turkey and the USA at Indianapolis for a start), Bernie still makes his money and walks away with a back-up country available already! Also, take a look back at how well Bernie came out of the whole British GP at Donnington park fiasco! - He must be one of the few businessmen on the planet who can be involved in a massive business failure and yet make money out of it and get exactly what he wanted from his original business partners who no longer wanted to do business with him! As it stands today, F1 has survived the global recession pretty well and we're now currently in a situation where certain teams are getting concerned that there are too many races on the calender again! You say it's not a sustainable business plan, but so far, Bernie's done pretty well in making it work and proving people wrong, and it doesn't look like there's an end to it in sight in the near future (Unless he ends up behind bars! - Then F1 could start to self-destruct!).
Donnington fiasco? That played according to Bernie's script from beginning to end. It was a feignt to get Silverstone in line. Unlike the pre economic correction days the only ones lined up for new GPs are venues that believe they can make it pay. Bernie's made terms much more attractive to facilitate new venues lately. Gone are the days when the governments of developing nations will write blank Checks for the honor of holding a race.
Yes Bernie used Donnington, and he made a shed load of money out of the whole thing because people saw a opportunity to be a part of F1 and were fooled into believing that he genuinely wanted F1 to go there. In reality, he never wanted F1 to go to there, but he got paid a load of cash by the Donnington people, and at the same time got Silverstone to upgrade their circuit and sign a lucrative long term contract, making him even more money! That's a business double Whammy! - Paid for a race that never happened and paid for a race that did!: Now that's clever business! As for how Bernie does his business today, He's smart enough to adapt his deals to suit the current conditions and maximise his earning potential. Again, that's simply good business practice. People actually pay him a dividend to not run a race when it suits them (Bahrain springs to mind instantly). India have got issues and want a year off to sort themselves out and then come back the following year. Do you think Bernie is going to lose out in that situation? - I don't! One way or another, Bernie will make money out of it. There are some doubts about whether the proposed Russian GP actually goes ahead! - I'll bet Bernie doesn't come out of the deal out of pocket if the race doesn't go ahead! Will New Jersey happen or not? - I don't know but again I bet Bernie will make some money out of it one way or another. France, Mexico and Argentina are all looking into the possibility of having an F1 GP again. Austria are actually getting an F1 GP again! Canada, Spa, The USA, they've all come back into F1 over the years. Melbourne had had enough of F1, and yet they signed another long term contract. The teams are now getting concerned about the risk of having more than 20 races in a season. It's not that long ago they were threatening to take action if there were more than 16 races in a season, and yet Bernie has managed to creep the number of races up above that limit. As many a person has found out, You underestimate Bernie Ecclestone at your own peril!
I dont see Bernie doing a day in prison.... Indictment against Ecclestone raises big questions - Pitpass.com
