Formula One and Race Locations

Formula One and Race Locations

Formula One's traditional home is in Europe and that is where it has the most fan support. Not only that, all of the teams, for the most part, are based there. As are the great, historic race tracks, that are so awe inspiring. Despite this, the higher ups in F1 are and have been keen to take the racing out and away from Europe. There are less European circuits on the calendar. And there are more, new races in Asia. And more are proposed all the time. But now it appears it is beginning to backfire. Bernie Ecclestone has stated that Australia's race in Melbourne may be chopped. Why, you may ask? Because the time zone differences between Australia and Europe are so drastic, the TV ratings are suffering. The US Grand Prix has terrific ratings because its time slot lines up with prime time TV in Europe. So Ecclestone wants the Melbourne race to become a night race. This would make it so that the race would be on in Europe during a more attractive part of the day.

Instead of trying to force the Melbourne race to become a night race, F1 should ditch the new, Asian races. The new tracks in Asia are among the worst on the schedule. It is fine for F1 to expand to new locations but they need to be smart and reasonable about it. They should not be cutting so many traditional races. Just because some country has a pile of oil money and is willing to spend it on F1, should not mean that they get a race. F1 needs look at the facts and plan the races accordingly.