Bernie Strikes Again.

If you had not heard, there will be no German Grand Prix this year. Neither the Nurbergring, nor Hockenheim was able to reach a deal to host the German round of the Formula 1 championship this year.  If you follow the behind the scenes politics of Formula 1, this announcement should't come as a complete surprise.  The saga of the German race's troubles has been several months in the making.  Specifically, neither track is able to make the race financially viable given the high cost of hosting a Grand Prix, and the dropping fan attendance at the track.

And this illustrates what in my opinion is the biggest problem with Formula 1 at the moment.  Frankly, Formula 1, (and more then likely Bernie Eccelstone in particular) has let the idea of Formula 1 being the world's foremost racing series go to their collective heads.  The result of that thinking appears to be a giant middle finger to the fans, but not all the fans, just the one's who aren't rich.  For reasons I don't fully understand, Bernie Ecclestone has decided that every day men and women don't deserve to be fans of Formula 1 unless they are willing to throw significant amounts of money his way.  

To put things in perspective, just today, I bought tickets to the Lone Star Lemans at Circuit of the Americas.  A three day grandstand ticket plus parking pass cost less then $150.  A similar package for the Formula 1 race at COTA would cost just under $1,000.  I love car racing, and I love being at the track, but that kind of price for a two hour race is bat guano crazy.  If you were taking a family of four to the F1 race at COTA, you could easily spend over $2,000 just on race tickets.  The reason the fans aren't showing up to the race in Germany isn't because they don't want to, it's because they can't afford to.

The fact that Formula 1 is quickly becoming cost prohibitive to simply watch in person is going to hurt the sport in the long term.  The more Formula 1 becomes an exclusive playground for the rich, the more I see everyday people losing interest, and are there really enough rich folk who really love Formula 1, and not just looking for a cool party, to keep the sport alive?  Probably not if you ask me.  Instead, to keep interest in Formula 1 healthy, (and the value of the Formula 1 TV rights high) you need the interest of everyday racing fans, and a big part of that means keeping the races affordable to people of everyday means.

Completely criticizing Bernie Ecclestone isn't completely fair however.  Say what you want about Bernie, but he's no idiot, but he is making decisions that are in Bernie's best interest, not Formula 1's best interests.  As a result, racing fans suffer.