13/06/2024
NEWS STORY
Zak Brown warns that Monaco cannot take its place on the F1 calendar for granted, and unsurprisingly its money that's the problem.
When F1 revealed the proposed regulations for 2026 last week, the teams were all too eager to take to social media to praise the move, telling the world how good it was all going to be.
Just 48 hours later the drivers and team representatives were picking the regulations to pieces, warning of all number of dire consequences should they be imposed as is.
With F1's owners exploiting every possible avenue in order to increase what are already record revenues, the teams are fully on board, and as Liberty CEO, Greg Maffei so succinctly put it recently, the approach is entirely different to the previous management.
Indeed, it's much like Aesop's fable about the North Wind and the Sun, who argue over which is the stronger.
Spotting a man walking, they wager over who can force him to remove his coat. The North Wind blows with all his might, however the man simply pulls his coat tighter, whereas when the sun merely shines the man gently removes the garment.
Though wondering if anyone has ever compared Mr E to the North Wind before, the fact is that with the promise of lots and lots of dosh, and lots and lots of susceptible new fans to whom the teams can sell all end of expensive rubbish, Liberty has them mesmerised and almost every single conversation comes down to money and how much more of it they can make.
Ever the marketing man, Brown, who recently valued Williams at $1.5bn - that's right, the team with facilities 20 years out of date - believes the race promoters should be paying their way also, and with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Bahrain all thought to be paying $50m a year, the McLaren boss believes that Monaco - said to pay the lowest fee on the calendar - should be paying its fair share.
Indeed, unless the Principality shells out more moolah, Brown believes that sport could "bail on" the historic venue.
"Could we bail on Monaco? We could. This sport is so strong," he tells Bloomberg. "I'd be surprised if it didn't stay on the calendar," he adds, "but in a way, would it create a lot of noise in the short term?
"Would people move on and Formula One be as strong as ever? I think it would.
"They need to get caught up there," he warns, "because we are a commercial sport, and one could argue: 'Wait a minute, some of these other venues are driving similar TV ratings, great racing and contributing a lot more to the growth of the sport fiscally'. You've got the Miamis, the Vegases, the Singapores... these are all awesome races."
As one might expect, Brown who likes to have his cake and eat it, wants to keep the likes of Monaco, Monza and Silverstone on board, but as he, F1 and fellow team bosses eye more big hitters like the aforementioned Qatars and Bahrains, in order to retain the classics whilst welcoming more cash-rich promoters the older circuits would need to be used on a rotational basis.
"I'd love to see us in Korea," says Brown, who has probably forgotten that the previous venture failed miserably. "I'd love to see us in Thailand... we almost got into Vietnam," he adds, without a hint of irony.
"I'd love South Africa and some of these other territories so we can continue to expand our global footprint.
"India would be a great market to be in," he adds, having possibly forgotten the three excursions to the Buddh International Circuit.
"Monaco could fall into that (rotational) camp if you'd like," he helpfully suggests.
Surprisingly, the marketing guru seems to have forgotten that other than the racing, the Monaco Grand Prix is a major event on the social and business calendar, and with the great and the good usually appearing down the road at Cannes it attracts more than its fair share of 'celebrities'.
However, other than the beautiful people that fill the grid and tell us how much they love the sport they have followed since episode one of Drive to Survive, a lot of very important deals are done over the Monaco weekend - and not always related to F1 - as businesses use the iconic event to entertain and impress potential customers... some of those new venues Zak talks about won't have anything like the same allure.