2. European Events Are Becoming Rarer
Who would have thought at the turn of the century we would be having discussions about whether the French Grand Prix would be going BACK onto the calendar? With the Nurburgring and Spa potentially being lost from the schedule to be replaced with more races in the
Eastern hemisphere is it not worth taking a step back and thinking: "Will chasing bigger pay offs alienate our core audiences in Europe?" While there are legitimate reasons for certain races not being held, like the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola (because of poor facilities), some tracks like Istanbul are dropped in order to make room for emerging markets like India and Singapore - incidentally that grand prix has had to renegotiate it's contract with Bernie Ecclestone because
the staging fees were too high. After the departure of Renault (albeit still an engine manufacturer), BMW and Toyota it could be said that the competition has dwindled over the years. All these companies, including Mclaren and Ferrari, would battle each other not just on the track but off it as well trying to adapt racing technology to fit their road cars. It seems strange now that Toyota seems to be a lot happier in the WEC where it has developed an innovative Hybrid Drive system to compete against Audi's E-tron Quattro. That level of development for what was only their first year of prototype racing could probably not be achieved in F1 - especially after the announcement that
electric power in the pitlane is to be delayed.