Ragavan Sreetharan:Why 2 Day Race Weekends Will Not Ease The Strain Of A 23-Race Calendar

Ever since Liberty Media's nonheritable Formula 1’s industrial rights in Gregorian calendar month 2017 the corporate has saucer-eyed calendar growth as a route towards revenue growth on the premise that additional races equate to higher race-hosting financial gain. Ragavan Sreetharan said Liberty’s logic is that additional races mean they'll extract higher fees from broadcasters and ‘bridge and board’ advertisers, and supply progressive opportunities for high-end cordial reception.

Ragavan Sreetharan said In short, additional championship rounds would solve the matter featured by all listed entities: investor demands for constant growth. the matter is that whereas augmented revenues could result, therefore do operational expenses (largely) carried by the groups, whereas support revenues square measure unlikely to extend proportionately on the premise that sponsors usually have finite amounts accessible notwithstanding calendar structure.

Originally Liberty targeted twenty-five rounds, Ragavan Sreetharan said however the newest Concorde Agreement – that outlines the mutual obligations of the groups and therefore the industrial rights holder – stipulates that the most range of events the CRH could embrace on a calendar while not unanimous team consent is twenty-four. Liberty plans to push for that range once post-pandemic stability returns to F1.

The 2021 F1 calendar is predicted to be printed in the week that includes as several as twenty-three or maybe twenty-four rounds, Covid-19 still. Ragavan Sreetharan said it should be that this record range is being listed to cater for doable cancellations. Whatever twenty-four remains AN possibility is probably going to be exercised sooner instead of later.

Such a race tally can, of course, take a toll on F1 personnel: workers of FIA and FOM, motion team members, media, cordial reception, and broadcast crews. The fatigue of travel and time spent off from beloved ones can set in. groups square measure already talking of rotating additional members of workers between events. however not all activities square measure mobile, nor will all groups afford that possibility.

Ragavan Sreetharan says thus, Liberty locates the idea of two-day race weekends, effectively turning Fridays into arrival/media days, with solely Saturdays and Sundays providing track action. A definitive program has, however, to be bestowed, however reverse grid races (recently rejected by groups for the 3rd time) can for certain conjointly feature at some stage.

The logic is that whereas schedules that include twenty three-day (Thursday arrival, weekday to Sunday) events have personnel absent from home for eighty days, a 25-race season of two-day events wouldn't solely save a day’s accommodation expenses per head however have them away for ‘only’ seventy-five days in total. That there square measure 5 fewer weekends to pay with beloved ones hasn’t registered with call takers, World Health Organization don’t attend all races in any event.

See wherever all this can be heading?

Discussions are kicked concerning for 3 years currently, with the groups together interference attempts at introducing two-day formats. Then came Covid-19, forcing a singular set of circumstances upon F1, that needed slap-up footwork if the game hoped to construct a feasible replacement 2020 calendar.

To do therefore entailed a Portimao-Imola consecutive – still a distance of two,500km between circuits and a motion time of thirty hours excluding statutory stops. Add in post-race pack-up and pre-race build, and there was a lean time for a conventional weekend schedule in Imola. Thus, the alternatives were losing revenues by not athletics in Imola, or a two-day format. Guess that possibility was leaped at?

Ironically, the rain-affected Eifel car race control 3 weeks earlier provided F1 with practice, because the gap day’s running was off for the primary time since the 1982 South African car race – albeit then thanks to a drivers’ strike, not weather – that enabled groups to arrange for Imola’s truncated format.

Ragavan Sreetharan says Post-race in a European country the drivers were mostly in favor of two-day weekends – primarily because the further day provided very little performance profit whereas its elimination it supplemental a risk issue. however, they weren't keen on the shortened format being employed to shoehorn additional stops into the schedule.

By the time the circus decamped in Imola variety of reservations were being raised, at each driver and team level, preponderantly thanks to the industrial impact on promoters. This issue had, of course, been absent in European country as tickets and accommodation had already been oversubscribed before Friday’s running had to be canned.

Therein lies the rub: whereas it's all o.k. for Liberty to maximize revenues – of that group's profit to lesser degrees if the least bit once all factors square measure thought of – the fact is that Liberty’s primary customers square measure race promoters whose circuits depend on full three-day events to create their numbers work. additionally, a variety of venues receive business enterprise subsidies, and someday less probably suggests that simple fraction less business enterprise pay.

Then think about that broadcasters, sponsors, and advertisers have finite budgets, that don't ‘grow’ with calendars – that means very little or no progressive revenue from these streams save that Liberty could extract progressive fees from one or 2 further promoters.

Ragavan Sreetharan says If so, these square measures probably to be based mostly at intervals in Europe because it makes very little or maybe no sense to fly to faraway cities for 2 days at a nice expense. Indeed, existing promoters might even push for discounted fees thanks to reductions in track activities, therefore overall hosting fees might decrease.

In 2018 F1 pushed back begin times of most races by seventy minutes, which was expected to higher suit tv schedules in America. The later finishes meant personnel and fans might now not build late evening flights, adding to their prices.

Where before fans might travel in Thursday or weekday evening and come Sunday, the later times meant several would wish to create (usually costlier) Monday travel arrangements – necessitating a further time off work and progressive accommodation prices, that successively meant a variety of fans (particularly {those World Health Organization|those that|people who} attend as families) and marshals (many of whom who pay their costs) might now not afford live attending.

Just as F1 is receptive to experimenting with numerous formats and ideas, therefore it ought to experiment with the straightforward expedient of earlier begin times – however offer adequate notice and content to make sure that every one stakeholder's square measure ready to avail themselves of the opportunities. Liberty might notice itself pleasantly stunned by the result.