Beginning of trouble for Formula One?

The chickens are starting to come home to roost for Bernie Ecclestone.

When he embarked on a mission several years ago to squeeze every last cent out of countries and/or promoters willing to put on Formula One races, a number of "traditional" host nations fell by the wayside.

We were in that group for a year. Canada didn’t have a Grand Prix in 2009; the United States hasn’t had one since 2007. Nobody – governments or individuals/businesses – would pay the outlandish prices Ecclestone was demanding. (He caved on Montreal, simply because he couldn’t have a "world championship" without a presence in North America and the teams refused to go back to Indianapolis.)

So he started doing business with a number of countries where, to put it mildly, the democratic rights of the citizens who live there are not anywhere near the top of the ruling classes’ list of priorities.

Those countries now include (as represented on the 2011 F1 Grand Prix schedule): Bahrain, Malaysia, China, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi).

So now we’re watching the start of popular revolutions – bloody uprisings, actually – in the Middle East.

The first cancellation of 2010 came Monday, when the royal family of the Kingdom of Bahrain officially called off the Grand Prix scheduled for March 13. This followed by several days the shooting deaths by security forces of at least six people. Several hundred others were injured.

To its credit, the royal family has initiated a dialogue with opposition groups in an effort to try to reach some sort of accommodation.

But if what’s happened in Egypt and what’s happening in Libya is any indication, there’s an unstoppable force at work in that part of the world and other Middle Eastern plutocracies may soon be caught up in it.

And who knows what fires might be started elsewhere by the sparks coming from there?

Bernie Ecclestone is the genius who took what essentially was a European open wheels series and turned it into a true, international, world championship.

But then, instead of letting Formula One grow naturally and on its own, he upped the ante so much that his short-sightedness is threatening not necessarily to destroy it but to severely hobble it.

Bernie should have remembered what some of us learned in Sunday School: As you sow, so shall you reap.

The chickens are starting to come home to roost for Bernie Ecclestone.

When he embarked on a mission several years ago to squeeze every last cent out of countries and/or promoters willing to put on Formula One races, a number of "traditional" host nations fell by the wayside.

We were in that group for a year. Canada didn’t have a Grand Prix in 2009; the United States hasn’t had one since 2007. Nobody – governments or individuals/businesses – would pay the outlandish prices Ecclestone was demanding. (He caved on Montreal, simply because he couldn’t have a "world championship" without a presence in North America and the teams refused to go back to Indianapolis.)

So he started doing business with a number of countries where, to put it mildly, the democratic rights of the citizens who live there are not anywhere near the top of the ruling classes’ list of priorities.

Those countries include (as represented on the 2011 F1 Grand Prix schedule): Bahrain, Malaysia, China, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi).

So now we’re watching the start of popular revolutions – bloody uprisings, actually – in the Middle East.

The first cancellation of 2010 came Monday, when the royal family of the Kingdom of Bahrain officially called off the Grand Prix scheduled for March 13. This followed by several days the shooting deaths by security forces of at least six people. Several hundred others were injured.

To their credit, the royal family has initiated a dialogue with opposition groups in an effort to try to reach some sort of accommodation.

But if what’s happened in Egypt and what’s happening in Libya is any indication, there’s an unstoppable force at work in that part of the world and other Middle Eastern plutocracies may be caught up in it.

And who knows what fires might be started elsewhere by the sparks coming from there?

Bernie Ecclestone is the genius who took what essentially was a European open wheels series and turned it into a true, international, world championship.

But then, instead of letting Formula One grow naturally and on its own, he upped the ante so much that his short-sightedness is threatening not necessarily to destroy it but to severely hobble it.

Comments

[Adam]

The FIA executives appalingly never called for the cancellation of the Bahrain GP. This is the autosport leadership we are talking about. (Ecclestone, we know, carries no moral limitations, only follows the smell of money.)
The FIA president Jean Todt has been missing in action, having no opinion.
The Formula 1 people publicly have not voiced their opinions, all the constituents deffered the decision not to go there, while it was clear from day one that the race could not be held both on moral and security gorunds.
Formula 1 is run like a large corporation, where nobody is aksing questions, raising concerns and voicing opinions.
If they really want to flaunt it, they should start fixing the race results. It will not matter.

[racingmaniac]

Singapore and Malaysia are not exactly in the same category....

[APP]

and he makes all that money but he's still too cheap to get a bodyguard.

[DJL]

It sounds to me like you're asking two questions. The first is: What impact will the unrest that is spreading around certain parts of the world have on F1 in the years to come? And the second is: Was Bernie short-sighted in his expansion of F1 into regions and nations that aren't real democracies?

Let's deal with the second question first. Keep in mind that F1 is a lot like a rock band. Local promoters rent the concert hall (track), and then pay the band (F1) to come and play (race). And like all financially successful rock banks, F1 has gone where promoters have been willing to pay the most. But F1 has no money invested in any of the places it races at, and as I understand it, the contracts between Bernie and the local organizers allow F1 to walk away from a race for all sorts of reasons at no cost to F1 (except for the possible loss of income).

Now walking away from Bahrain so close to the actual race day (with a lot of equipment already in transport) means that they can't move the race to someplace safe, and so they've likely lost a significant amount of income for this year (although I wouldn't be surprised if Bernie found a way to add another race to the current calendar towards the end of the season in order to try to recoup some lost income). But there's always been a chance that a fire, flood, earthquake, or even political unrest could result in a canceled race somewhere on the calendar. For years F1 held races in France even though it's a rare year where there are no politically motivated riots in France, but that never stopped F1 For years F1 has held a race in Turkey, even though Turkey rates no better than Singapore when it comes open democracy, but that never bothered anybody. For years F1 has held races in Brazil even though doing so has long required a large number of heavily armed guards (The violence last year was not a new thing in Brazil). F1 is a business, and it goes where people are willing to pay. If Bernie passed up an opportunity to make a boat load of money for F1 just because he didn't like the local politics, he'd likely find his contract as the commercial rights holder under review. To put it simply, it didn't cost F1 anything to start racing in Bahrain and since 2004 they've made a boat load of money racing there. And if they can't go back to Bahrain anymore, well, I'm sure Bernie will find another race somewhere else to add to the calendar. It may not be a race that pays as well, but as long as Bernie continues to make a profit for F1 (and himself), I think he really has nothing to worry about.

Now as to the first question, will the political unrest that seems to be spreading like wildfire have an impact on F1 in the years to come. I suspect that the answer is most certainly, yes. But not necessarily for the most obvious reason.

Right now there are two groups at work in the so called 'popular uprisings'. The first groups is made of people who are sick and tired of the current situation and want a change, and a voice, and equality. The second group in the uprisings are the fundamentalist and extremist Islamic groups that are interested in overthrowing the current power holders and replacing them with a so-called Islamic Republic (like Iran where the only people who can run for office have to be approved by the religious leadership and everybody is forced to live their lives according to a strict interpretation of the Quran). In nations like Bahrain, the first group may be able to negotiate for some of what they want. But the Islamic fundamentalists and extremists will never be happy until they are in power, and that's not going to happen anytime soon. Which likely means more bloodshed. And in the same way that the insurgency in Iraq attracted Jihadists from all over the middle-east, the (partial) success in places like Egypt could possibly encourage uprisings in other predominantly Muslim nations like Turkey or Malaysia. Likewise the (partial) success of a 'popular uprising' in Egypt may encourage popular uprisings in non-Muslim nations where civil liberties are heavily curtailed (ex: China).

But politics aside, if there is a significant increase in civil unrest in places where races are currently held, the unrest will likely lead to a (temporary?) end to those races. If that's the case, F1 will have to go looking elsewhere for places to race, and those places won't be able to pay the kind of licensing fees that "new wealth" nations like Bahrain and Abu Dhabi have been paying. Over the last 10-15 years the fee that F1 has been charging the local race organizers has been going through the roof. Part of that dramatic increase has been because incredibly rich "new wealth" nations like Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, China and Korea have been able to outbid the organizers in countries like France and Canada. If middle-eastern races get dropped, and if the unrest spreads to elsewhere (Turkey? Malaysia? China?), the going rate for an F1 race may drop considerably. That could see a return to racing in places like France. And it could also see new races added in places like Russia or California. But the real problem is that a drop in the going rate for an F1 race, and a short term reduction in the number of races on the calendar, could result in a significant drop in income for the teams in F1, and that could end up having a more significant impact on F1 than the loss of a few races.

[Eric]

Bernie has made a deal with the devil to pull all the crap he has pulled so far. I was outraged that greedy old man cancelled the GP in Montreal, thank GOD it is back. I along with MANY other North American F1 fans can only hope there is a special place in HELL for this arrogant, evil, old bastard.