F1 news: F1 lost $450 million in 2017 and posted a $19.5 million loss. (Gif: Giphy)
The Grand Prix of Monaco will be shortened to a three-day event starting in 2022, according to an announcement from Formula One CEO Chase Carey.
Carey, who discussed F1’s future Thursday at the Wharton Business School’s Future of Sports Summit, said F1 would no longer host just one race per season.
“In order to really innovate the sport we have to start down the path of a different schedule,” Carey said. “I believe if we want to get ahead of the curve, it’s necessary to go that route.”
The Monaco Grand Prix will be given a home race in 2019, but Monaco’s promoter described it as “too difficult” to organize a race over three days.
The race will be expanded to 20 cars and expand from Monaco to Turkey. In 2022, F1 will return to its typical calendar of 20 races, including Sunday’s pre-Christmas finale in Abu Dhabi.
“If you go back to the heyday of F1 in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the only race every weekend was the home race,” Carey said. “To be able to fill the calendar with as many race and as many races as we do for as many months, we need to understand that the sport needs to grow.
“As much as it was exciting for the fans and the participants to go to one place every weekend, we have to continue to evolve and modify and modify to serve the fans.”
The F1 executive said discussions will focus on opportunities to expand geographically and on global rights fees.
“What we see is expansion into new markets,” Carey said. “There are lots of interesting places around the world that we’re looking at, but we’re not going to make any commitments to any countries at this time.”
Carey added that the 2018-2022 TV rights deal could be done before the current agreement expires in 2020.
F1 took a $450 million bath in 2017 and posted a $19.5 million loss, which marked its third consecutive year of losses. This year, F1 signed an agreement with Liberty Media to increase its presence on streaming platforms and give a more prominent role to its second-tier teams.
Carey said Formula One’s American partner, Liberty Media, was committed to supporting the sport and had plans to build its network. The company said in October it would double its investment into F1.
Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatino
Like us at facebook.com/foxnewslatino