The desire of many organizers to host Formula 1 races is going to get a bit more uphill. If it was already difficult for some to cover the expenses and fees that this entails, this will get worse. And the answer is in Tokyo.
Since the Second World War there had not been such a convulsive Olympics from an organizational point of view. Those responsible for Tokyo 2020 They were unaware that they were being given a poisoned gift when that September 7, 2013 his name sounded over the loudspeakers at the 125th assembly of the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires. The entire country of the rising sun was launched as only they know how to do without knowing what would have to delay its celebration at least a year, without foreign visitors, and at a cost of no less than 13,000 million euros according to recent estimates.
As a result of the pandemic, the difficulties encountered by the Japanese leaders, and the fear that a succession of waves of Covid will end up becoming a tsunami for their nationals, have liquidated the Suzuka Formula 1 Grand Prix, his MotoGP test, and a string of related sporting events in which the world can be rolled if more people get together than necessary. Against all odds, Japan is one of the countries with the lowest vaccination rate in the developed world, and with an added bonus: they are an island. Everything that happens there, for better or for worse, may turn out to be endemic, proper and exclusive to a territory surrounded by a wall of water.
Domenicali is already warning it, this is going to rise with a rebound effect like a rear suspension spring
The Olympic Games are after the World Cup the most watched sporting event on the planet, but with certain exceptions: they are not held every fifteen days, or worse, not even every year, and this is something that happens in Formula 1. Global sporting events are an (un) payable media resource that drags on the public image in the places where they are held. Little or nothing would we know of Monza, Interlagos, Suzuka, Silverstone or Montmeló if not for the international races that are disputed in their municipalities. Local public entities fight – and pay – to host events of this caliber for various reasons and sometimes are an inherent part of their industry, society and ultimately their economy. If money is put into this, it is because directly or indirectly the same or perhaps more is taken out.
A Formula 1 gepe is basically a marketing tool for zones, areas of influence, and regional environments that pay a lot of money for an advertising service that would always cost many times more if it were hired directly. Add to this that there is no better advertising than that which does not seem like it … but bears your name. Living in the age of show business, there is a lot of business to attend and without a show, without teaching, you will sell little or nothing. When you pay the 20 or 30 million of a canon, you are not buying just a holiday weekend in which your president or minister is in the photo. You also make your city, region or country an epicenter in which millions of pairs of eyes are fixed. If you are also lucky and something special happens in your career, an accident (God forbid), a controversy, something big is announced or someone is proclaimed champion, you will be living in the headlines for weeks.
With the pandemic, racing in remote and distant destinations, for logistical and medical reasons, has retracted the category towards its winter headquarters, old Europe, where things work somewhat better than in the rest of the world. But when all this fuss is over, and Stefano Domenicali you are already warning, this is going to go up with a rebound effect like a rear suspension spring. The Italian has already given names to the classic tracks that face the door and some of them have been bad for breakfast. Monaco, Spa or Monza, three inescapable appointments on the European calendar, hang by a nylon thread of the finite. The boss of careerism warns them that ‘those who live by tradition tend to live little’, and asks them to speed up their organizational processes. Liberty Media, the masters of the show, do not understand traditions, history, or hobbies but business, because this is nothing more than a sport-spectacle enclosed within a business, and whoever does not understand this is that they have not understood the world where you live. That show is global, planetary, and North America knocks on the door, Asian countries want to be in the picture, and Arabs have various reasons for wanting the same.
For all this the possibility, remote but not impossible, of losing his Grand Prix terrifies the managers of the Montmeló Circuit. They know perfectly that since they lose their place, recovering it is extremely difficult. Leaving the group is very easy, but the return turns uphill. At the door are Croatians, Indonesians, South Africans, those from Miami, New Jersey, Las Vegas and a city in the north of USA, Qatar, Philippines, China who wants a second race, India, Malaysia and Indianapolis who want to return, and cities like London, Rome, or even Jerez have raised it … The list of those who are waiting is long and it is enough that they find the financing and reach a agreement to occupy an irretrievable space for others.
And what about Tokyo
The Tokyo Olympics have shown one of the ugliest, saddest and most undesirable faces of an event of this kind: the crazy cost that it entails. With those 13,000 million euros that they say their games have cost, you have to pay for the best Formula 1 circuit in history, about 500 million euros, and then you have money to pony up a generous canon for more than three centuries of competition at about 40 million / year. In return you collect that you go out on planetary TV for a week for 312 seasons. Is it profitable? Obviously yes. It adds that the Olympic Committee does not grant its games to cities with less than two million inhabitants and its requirements are really tough, that the works end up being forgotten, or the pickaxe in the best of cases, and has a strong response by the taxpaying public. There will always be those who oppose, but when costs 300 times less there can always be the possibility that you will run into 300 times less opposition. Compared with this, F1 is a cheap price, a bargain, and if you get fed up after two or three years, cut the thread and the boats, the things that Red Bull rides, or talk to the National Team and have them come to play at your stadium, and you can ride something.
If before the cities hit each other for mounting the Olympic Games, Olympics for friends, even if it is incorrect, from now on this begins to become a hedgehog of interests, take it wherever you take it, you are going to prick yourself. For all this, the gepes of cars and motorcycles are going to revalue, they are going to rise in price in the face of a foreseeable increase in demand. Not? You will see it, and you will see how the organizers sweat to further slit their wallets in search of funds to pay for it. That, or looking for other media products with which to appear in the papers … that we will always like less.