Should BMW or Mercedes Bail Out the German Grand Prix?

BMW as well as the other car manufacturers involved in F1 have been under the gun to help bail out grand prix hosts and they’re not buying it.

I’ve talked at length about the Canadian Grand Prix troubles lately and with good reason. I felt that the cancellation was unjust and I had an idea that other hosts may follow the same lead and raise doubt in how races are financed and so far they have. The latest one being the German grand Prix stating that in this time of global economic uncertainty and with mounting losses, the grand prix may not be financially responsible. They are probably right!

For fans around the globe, losing your home grand prix is a difficult thing and we along with the promoters look to find any solution to keep their grand prix. With the loss of the Canadian Grand Prix there was and still is a tremendous uproar in Montreal headed by the hotel and restaurant industry who are crying foul and asking the car manufacturers to prop up the event considering that they stand to lose as well, but they are being met with deaf ears. Now and predictably, Germany is doing the same thing by requesting a ‘bailout’ package from the car manufacturers, but is BMW or Mercedes in Germany obligated to do this? I say and painfully so that no they are not. Grand prix hosting countries simply cannot crawl to these companies begging for money when the issue is far further up the chain. The band aid approach simply won’t work and neither BMW, Toyota, Honda, Ferrari etc., should be used in this way.

The car manufacturers are having their own extraordinary financial loses so remaining in F1 is a task in itself. Their responsibility is to the sport of F1 and not the hosts. Norbert Haug has weighed in on the issue by saying the same thing I say:

“The teams and manufacturers are responsible for the sport, not for the financing of the race meetings.”

Organizers and FOM are ultimately responsible and it is my opinion that an entire restructuring is in order. If not, F1 could see many more countries threatening to pull out due to cost, a cost Bernie Ecclestone says is not unreasonable. Do we want to see F1 featured only in oil rich countries? Not me.