F1 News: Liberty to shaft some European F1 races for global expansion

Several European F1 races are going to get the shaft by Liberty Media in order for the company to add new races overseas.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Global expansion goals includes:

A new race in Africa
A 2nd race in Saudi Arabia
A Race in Argentina
A race in Thailand
A return to South Korea
A return to France
A return to Germany

In order to accomplish this expansion, several existing European F1 races are going to be forced to lose a lot of money by only hosting an F1 race every other year.

Related Article: Barcelona not keen on F1 ‘rotation’ idea

“We have some news to share very, very soon with regard to some rotational European Grand Prix and some other new options coming later,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said on a recent Liberty Media investors call.

“This is something that, of course, we will clarify in the due course. It is true that we have a large demand of new possible venues that want to come in, and our choice will always be balanced between the right economical benefits that we can have as a system and also to leverage in the growth on the market that we can see potential that will be beneficial for us to grow even further our business.”

Speaking at a Globant event during the United States Grand Prix, Domenicali named Argentina as a venue where he would like to see F1 return.

“We believe that the balance we have in terms of numbers is the right one, so 24 is the balanced number that we feel is right,” he added.

“I do believe that all the propositions that are coming on our table is just giving us the possibility to make even better choices for our future.

“So as always, we need to be balanced, knowing that we cannot follow only the pure direct financial proposition, because that is different from region to region, but it’s up to us to propose to our stakeholders the right choice.

“I think that we are in a good momentum to make sure that the strategy for the future is even stronger, and that’s why we are so confident about the fact that this will help to enhance our platform on the sport, on social and business perspective.”