Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei blames Bernie Ecclestone for causing the uncertainty over the current 2020 Formula 1 calendar.
Currently, there could be as few as 17 races next year with five seeing their contract expire after 2019 and only the arrival of Vietnam in return.
What has made the topic so pressing for many though, is all of the Grand Prix’s under threat have been a foundation of the sport, particularly Britain, Italy and Germany.
Another common theme across the quintet, which is made up by Spain and Mexico, is cost as all want a reduction in the fee to make hosting F1 more profitable.
“Bernie had done a very good job, arguably too good a job, and had drained the promoters,” Maffei was quoted by Motorsport.com, referring to the high prices Ecclestone managed to agree.
“We got a lot of blowback partly because we’re public now and they can see the prices, and also partly because Bernie suggested to a lot of them that they were overpaying. That didn’t help the cause.
“Exacerbating that are governments trying to pull back subsidies, in Mexico, other places – Spain. So that creates some challenges.”
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What is also concerning fans is Liberty may take the route of replacing historic races with those willing to pay more for the place on the schedule.
“We remain working on Miami, but there are obstacles to a lot of that,” Maffei began, when talking of new destinations.
“We’ve looked at other alternatives in the US, including Las Vegas, we’ve looked at other alternatives in Africa and we’re trying to solidify some of the western European races and bring those in.
“That core fanbase is strong, and there are some in the works that may very well come to pass in those traditional western European places.
“You’re always trying to balance both solidifying where you are strong and then adding other things, like the expansion to Vietnam, potentially a second race in China, potentially a race in Africa.
“We’re not yet prepared to announce any, but there’s a careful mix or blend of where you want to grow and where you want to solidify.”
New European races may include Holland and Finland, while in Asia, the Philippines has recently emerged as an option while South Africa continues to be the most obvious African host nation.
