FIA’s CEO Bernie Ecclestone has been quite stubborn and grumpy this year since the chief reached the age of 80 a couple of weeks ago. Bernie has been a true mastermind and he is quite clearly the Roger Federer of the FIA management. He is one of the main
reasons why Formula 1 is where it is today as he believed that in order to flourish the sport, the FIA would have to think way ahead of time and revolutionise Formula 1.
Ecclestone has truly been more like Stephen Hawking since he became a part of the management system of the sport as he took Formula 1 to the next level and as a result, Formula 1 is becoming more of a “playing ground” for engineers and teams rather than
just a sport. Bernie stated that Formula 1 would have been just another motor-sport if they did not take any risks and enable their workers to work so independently within their own respective fields.
This year, the first ever Korean Grand Prix took place at the Korean International Circuit and since the track was designed by Hermann Tilke, it was a spectacle within itself but the event was not as big as it was expected to be.
Bernie came up with excellent ideas like the Russian Grand Prix and a US Grand Prix in Austin Texas but the 80-year-old CEO made a handful of absurd and pointless decisions and statements as well to keep a balance.
Yes, FIA’s CEO is becoming grumpier as each day passes by and it seems that he is becoming extremely stubborn as well as he just does not listen to what the rest of the organisers in Formula 1 think about his decisions.
One of his outrageous decisions was the idea of holding an African Grand Prix. Frankly speaking, Formula 1 is currently going through the biggest financial crisis the sport has ever faced. The Korean Grand Prix will take place once again in at least 2011,
but the money Formula 1 lost at the event damaged the sports’ reputation since most of the fans were not even aware of the basic facts about the sport and on top of that, they did not even know anything about the teams or drivers either.
An African Grand Prix would be something more like a Korean Grand Prix even though Africa is definitely way ahead of Korean in many ways and Africa will without a shadow of a doubt offer a Grand Prix weekend that would be better than the Korean Grand Prix,
but still it would not be as big as any of the European events or even Abu Dhabi or Singapore.
Other than that, Africa do not have major sponsors in the sport and the sport has never seen a driver from the continent either. The African Grand Prix is expected to take place in South Africa but that would not make any difference in anyway.
Since Africa does not have an active market for Formula 1, taking the sport to a place where there is not a huge fan following is not a good decision as the sport will lose more money. What Formula 1 currently requires at the moment is that they should go
to countries like the US and Russia where Formula 1 is expected to make money. Holding an African Grand Prix after 10 years might be a good idea but after looking at the current financial situation of the sport, an African Grand Prix will not help the sport
expand in any way therefore, it will be unprofitable for the organisers in every way. The FIA should have learnt that after a dreadful experience at the Korean Grand Prix.
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