More races in the United States and fewer in Europe?
The United States Grand Prix is expected to return to the calendar next season, in 2012. A second Grand Prix in the United States, specifically near New York, is planned to be introduced starting in 2013. However, Bernie Ecclestone is considering organizing even more races in the United States, aiming for two more to reach a total of four Grand Prix per year in the land of Uncle Sam.
Bernie Ecclestone allowed Formula 1 to return to the United States, with a Grand Prix to be held in Austin starting in 2012 if the circuit is completed on time. Another race will take place near New York starting in 2013. But the chief financier of Formula One doesn’t plan to stop there; he would like to see four races in the United States and therefore fewer in Europe to avoid overloading the schedule.
« We had three or four races in the United States, so we still need to have two more. It’s a big country. We have nine races in Europe (more than eight in 2012 after the Turkish Grand Prix was stopped), and the United States is the same size. So maybe we should have four races in Europe and four in the United States,’ » Bernie Ecclestone told Auto Motor und Sport.
But not everyone in the paddock shares this opinion, and this is particularly the case with Ross Brawn, who does not want to see historic races disappear from the Formula 1 calendar.
«What we do not want is to lose important races, and we can all come together to decide which are the important races, but we do not want to lose races that have a history,» Ross Brawn stated.
Ross Brawn believes that historic races are the ones that attract new countries, as they want to be part of a calendar featuring races with history.
“They are what makes Formula 1 so attractive for countries like India, to be part of this series of races, to be a race like Monaco, Silverstone, and Monza. If we lose these historic races, then I think Formula 1 will become less interesting,” added Brawn.
Bernie Ecclestone’s reasoning is nonetheless surprising because he is the first to not want multiple Formula 1 Grand Prix in the same country, which led Rome to abandon its Grand Prix project, also resulted in an alternation between Nürburgring and Hockenheim (in addition to financial difficulties), and which could end the European Grand Prix in Valencia or create an alternation between Valencia and Barcelona for hosting the Spanish Grand Prix.
But for the United States, the FOM boss would be ready to organize four races in the same country, which is almost as large in terms of area as Europe but much less populated – there are about 310 million inhabitants in the United States compared to almost double in Europe.
The teams, however, might be against adding new races to the calendar – with the number 20 often cited as a limit by team directors, and next season, there are already 20 Grand Prix races on the calendar, while others are planned for the coming years, particularly in Russia or New York and others under discussion like France, even if an alternation with Belgium seems possible.
Other Grand Prix races could therefore disappear from the calendar in the coming years, for example, this could be the case for Bahrain, whose contract with the FOM ends in 2013 and whose image has been tarnished by the cancellation of the race due to political problems and violent repressions this year.
