F1 2024 - News/Regulation change/Developments

A great post LOL!

 

What's next, the COTA Tunnel of Love?

 

Who would have though COTA was an amusement park ?!?

 

Its a Fast World after all, its a Fast World after all,
Its a Fast, Fast World...........

 

Well if the racing is boring, one can go ride that lol! A shopping center is next up lol. Helps justify absurd ticket prices possibly!

 

FIA lowers superlicence age, allowing Antonelli F1 opportunity
Mercedes youngster Andrea Kimi Antonelli's hopes of making his Formula 1 debut in 2024 have been boosted as the FIA has reduced the minimum age restriction to 17.

 

British GP still chasing sell-out as Red Bull F1 dominance takes its toll
Red Bull’s dominance of Formula 1 has been cited as a key factor in British Grand Prix tickets still being available for next month's race

--“You can still buy a buy a three-day weekend ticket today that includes Friday night with Stormzy, Pete Tong, Rudimental plus all that other stuff, and weekend grandstand seat, for £359. It is £100 to watch one game of football.--

 

I saw this post on another platform, and the comments are nearly universally about the outrageous price increase from the British promoter. Quite low to blame Max when it's their own greed that's causing the issue.

 

But it wasnt a problem when the sir stain was on top right?

 

@SS454 What a lot of nonsense !!!

Like every year, if lucky, the British promoter will probably just break even after organising their home GP; their finance crippled by the fees imposed by Liberty.
That's where the " outrageous [ticket] price increase" comes from if you want to know; the high ticket price is justified and necessary if they don't want to go bankrupt ! The BRDC isn't a charity.
To be honest, I don't even know why Britain insist having a GP, such is the financial burden that comes with it.
No wonder France and Germany have given up having GPs already.
In Germany, no promoter wants to go near organising a F1GP with the extortionate fees asked by Liberty.
In France, I read the promoter of the last GP is still left with €29millions debt to clear !

Yes, you can talk about greed, but you are barking up the wrong tree !!!

 

I guess Formula 1 and Britain and France, etc are doing something wrong. Silverstone has one of the lower hosting fees at around $26m, compared to over $50m for most of the middle east races. Silverstone 2023 had a weekend attendance of 480,000. Even if that was 160,000 weekend passes that sold for an average of around 469 euro or $600 USD, that gives a gross revenue of $96 million dollars just in ticket sales alone.

Vegas reported massive economic revenue from the Vegas GP in it's first year.

The NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are currently going on, and Edmonton reported $179 million dollars in revenue just from the Oilers being in the playoffs, and that does not include them being in the Finals.

 

For some reason that nobody can put their finger on,
British people like to cheer for British drivers.
French people like to cheer for French drivers.
Spanish people like to cheer for Spanish drivers.

And idiots can't seem to resist putting their foot in their mouths.

 

You keep comparing apples and pears.
GPs in the Middle East, the Far East and a few other places are financed by governments.
The hosting fees don't matter to them; they are paid by the state, not by a promoter or local fans.
All these places look for isn't the attendance to pay the bills but worldwide exposure on foreign TV channels.
Of course they pay much more, they don't care about it !!!
Then, you confuse revenue with profit; in fact you can have high revenue and make no profit.
You can see example of that everyday by the number of apparently thriving businesses going bust !!!
Finally don't confuse Silverstone with Las Vegas.
Silverstone is a countryside racing circuit paying to host a GP. Motor racing is its only activity and income.
Las Vegas is a gambling town with many sources of revenue rather than just having a street GP.
If I am not wrong, the Las Vegas promoter is Liberty itself, so no hosting fees, I guess.

 

I chuckle at your post because it is quite true. However what does that say about the British fanbase if it was the case? Because Lewis isn't winning don't bother going to see a race? I hope its not that shallow. Sainz and Alonso aren't dominating anything and Spain does well. Nobody cares about Lance Stroll and yet Canada still sells out. USA has no real driver or teams, and those races always do very well. Lando, George, and Albon are all Brits doing a fine job. Do they not count for anything? Most of the teams are still based out of GB, can't support them?

I honestly don't think it's down to Lewis not winning, or Max winning too much. I would say its more down to the price and the state of F1. Is the value there for the people? Evidently it is not.

 

So again, I guess GB and France are doing something wrong if others can do it.

Given I said GROSS revenue, I am very aware about profits.

Liberty may in fact avoid hosting fee's by being the promoter, but they do have to find the funds to pay for all the new facilities which apparently cost $400 million. Silverstone has been around for decades so construction costs will be nothing in comparison.

Middle Eastern tracks taking over with all the oil money, okay it is what it is. But I can't begin to grasp how Silverstone could be a money loss year after year given it's supreme popularity. The economic benefits to any nearly by town or city is always massive during a worldwide event. Hotels and restaurants flourish. The millions and millions earned at the track with food and beverage sales its off the charts. Especially when the gouging is so bad for even bottled water. If Silverstone hasn't earned a profit out of $75-100+ million, then they are doing something very wrong or there is some horrible corruption going on. Or both. If you are comfortable with them jacking the prices, then that's fine. The overwhelming response by the Brits commenting is that the prices are outrageous now.

 

so hold on, Silverstone increasing their price YoYoY and then starting to sell fewer tickets...is a load of nonsense? Come of it.

 

In UK, F1 has quite a lot of competition from other series, and isn't judged good value for money anymore.
With its high prices, F1 has become too elitist for the grassroots in UK, I believe. We watch it on TV.
Silverstone is a place for the die-hards anyway, difficult of access, far from airport, hotels, transports.
It certainly doesn't encourage foreigners to come, like Monza for example.
For the price of an entry ticket to the British GP, (a one-off event), a motorhead can afford to follow half of our national championships (cars or bikes) at traditional circuits all over the countries. It's a no brainer.
For us Brits, it's easy to go to Spa, or Zandvoort, although I doubt if many do it now. But many go to Spain, I know.
I have London friends who could easily afford a ticket at Silverstone, but prefer flying to Germany 8 weekends a year to watch DTM races.

 

In the end we agree. The value to go to Silverstone for an F1 event in 2024 just isn't there and the ticket sales reflect it. It's funny to me when I think of the races Europeans have access to with ease. In the time it takes me to travel across a single province in Canada, I would go through several countries in Europe. Why would someone go to Silverstone if other events are taking place for cheaper and are only a few hours different in travel time?

It would not surprise me (because it's been done many times in the past) that the event promoters raise ticket prices even further to try and recollect expected revenue from 2024. In turn even more people will refuse to go. The cycle continues and in no time the event becomes in serious jeopardy of being removed from the calendar.

 

In case you don't know, ticket to sporting events in UK are subject to entertainment tax, which means the promoters certainly doesn't make the profit you claim, but the government makes £millions.
Apart from maintening the track all year round, there are plenty of side expenses when organising a large event: cost of policing, fire brigade, rescue vehicles, helicopters rental, preparation of the track, cleaning of the installations, paddock area, pits, security personel, etc ... What about insurance cost? That can be £millions.

Also, Silverstone being right in the middle of nowhere probably doesn't make the lucrative catering profit you are thinking.
The nearest towns are Northampton at 16.1 miles, then Milton Keynes at 16.4 miles, and Oxford at 31.4 miles.
That's where hotels and restaurants are, more further afield.
Do you think that having attracted the crowd for the GP, Silverstone circuit can levy part of their gain for that weekend? I doubt it.

 

Brit fans speak on Autosport. Ab example:


The dynamic pricing was affected by their own website - incentivising people to part with their money is one thing but putting the price up whilst you are in the queue is completely different and the attitude now shows how little they understand what actually happened.
I've been the the British GP many times as well as overseas but not this year - the prices are insane. I've got tickets for Budapest this year for the same cost and I get a holiday.
The justification that it's £100 to watch football is also ridiculous - it may be possible to pay that but justifying your lowest price against a off the scale high price just isn't in any way like for like. A season ticket for my team is £500 so no it's not 100 a match.
Silverstone did a cash grab last year and this year they are paying for it and I hope they realise that the fans that have been going for years are not as moronic as Pringle thinks we are.

 

So...It's not a whole lot of nonsense. What @SS454 posted was completely the truth, it has nothing to do with Max winning everything why Silverstone can't sell all it's tickets...it's the pricing!

It's cheaper to fly to Spain/Hungary for 4 days including accommodation etc then it is to go to Silverstone General Admission (!) and camp/float in some farmers field miles away from the track for 3 nights.

British GP = overpriced.

 

I am not defending Silverstone pricing, just trying to explain it. All I know is that promoting a GP there is a perilious enterprise that hardly made money over the years. In Ecclestone days, many new infrastructures and track changes costly tenths of £millions were imposed on the circuit owner (the British Racing Drivers Club) to be allowed to host the GP. Bernie had high ambitions for Silverstone and wanted to make it a star event then. In fact the club was in the red for many years, its management kept changing, and there were doubts about the future ownership. Rumours were that Ecclestone wanted to bankrupt Silversone to buy back it cheaply. There was a time, under Tom Walkinshaw, where the costs were spread over the year, to make the British GP ticket more affordable.
That led to many different series events being cancelled because the cost of hiring the circuit became prohibitive; most club events vanished from the calendar or migrated to other circuits.
It looks like now, the new management wants the GP to pay for itself, rather than borrow money or make other event "support" the cost of the British GP. Hence the high ticket prices .
Comparing Spain and Hungary to Britain is pointless. We know it's cheaper abroad ! Different economies, different costs of living, different taxation systems !!!
It's also cheaper to manufacture cars in Spain and Hungary ! Spain is cheaper for accommodations, Hungary probably too, etc ...
In fact the countries that have financial issues with hosting a GP are the leading European economies (Germany, France and Britain) must say something. Maybe the whole licensing system needs to be reviewed ?
From a pragmatic point of view, if people find ticket prices too high at Silverstone, stop moaning, vote with your feet and go abroad !! And if the British GP has to disappear because of market forces, so be it !! Germany and France don't have GP anymore, and are not worse for it. Liberty has plenty of other locations to choose from. It's no biggie !!

 

But the promotor blaming Max for it is completely wrong, which is exactly what SS454 is saying, and you called it a load of nonsense.

850 quid for a 3 day ticket on the Hamilton straight. Ludicrous pricing. His poor negotiating tactics led him to sign this deal with Liberty, who themselves have such an enormous ego that they're willing to let traditional circuits die out in favour of yet another street track, middle east or some piss poor country willing to give public money to host a race. Red Bull/Max definitely is not to blame.

 

I think race results are so predictible now that some people consider F1 less entertainint, and stop attending.
There is some truth in what the promoter said, although blaming one driver for it is going too far.
Even on this forum, people admit not watching, or watching intermitently. F1 is becoming boring.
Inevitably the blame Hamilton got during his years of dominance is now passed on to Max for doing the same.

I agree with the rest of your post concerning Liberty's strategy and traditional circuits being phased out.
F1 passing in the hands of American entrepreneurs has the effect of a cold shower for long standing fans.