WORRIED F1 TAKES SUMMER HOLIDAY NOW
FORMULA ONE bosses yesterday took the first step to save the sport from financial meltdown by bringing forward the summer break from August to now. And in a further attempt to relieve the burden on the smaller teams struggling to stay afloat while racing is suspended, a summit will take place today between the sport’s major stakeholders. As for the rescheduled break, confirmed by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, it sees a mandatory, consecutive 21-day factory shutdown that must be carried out before April 31. This is a week longer than the usual fortnight hiatus in August. It is only a start towards loosening the financial squeeze, but has two helpful effects. It cuts factory costs immediately and frees up the summer to stage several postponed grands prix, coronavirus permitting. As it stands, F1 owners Liberty Media have officially ruled out racing until the end of May, though that looks an optimistic target. A Liberty insider indicated that they think 17 or 18 races can yet be crammed in. The teams have spent the last few days discussing a programme of measures to keep poorer members afloat. Their next step is a conference call with FIA president Jean Todt and Liberty bosses Chase Carey and Ross Brawn today to thrash out, among other initiatives, a revised calendar. Another major concern is the cost of the radical new regulations that are meant to be introduced for 2021. The teams now wish to kick this proposal back a year and to stick with the current cars through what is left of this season and next. Other plans include holding three consecutive races and cutting the weekend schedule, possibly even dropping Friday practice. Three races in three weeks was tried in 2018 but was unpopular and axed. It is a sign of desperate times that it is being contemplated again. One team executive told
Sportsmail: ‘I don’t think you can overstate the financial implications of there being no racing, but the mood among the teams is to work together to make sure everyone gets through this.’ These talks take place against continuing falls in the value of Liberty Media’s Formula One company, which plummeted on the NASDAQ yesterday, by more than 11 per cent at one point.