Formula 1 racing company owner Liberty Media Corp. is seeking additional funds from the Principality of Monaco as part of advanced talks over a new contract to extend the historic car race beyond 2025.
Monaco will pay around $20 million a year to stage the event, the lowest total on the 24-race calendar, and Liberty Media representatives are seeking an increase, according to people familiar with the discussions. The parties agreed to the current three-year deal in September 2022. This year the action begins on May 24.
Like all major tourist attractions, the Monaco Grand Prix provides a major economic boost to the region, filling hotel rooms with spenders big and small. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, two other race hosts, earn more than $50 million a year, according to some estimates. The fees provide Formula 1 with money that it uses to pay out prize money at the end of each season.
A Formula 1 spokesperson declined to comment on the current talks but said the company was not considering withdrawing from Monaco. The Automobile Club de Monaco, which organizes the race, did not respond to a request for comment.
Under Chief Executive Officer Greg Maffei, Liberty Media has grown annual Formula 1 revenue by more than 50% since 2019 to $3.22 billion last year. The company has focused on expanding Formula 1 to countries outside Europe, where the sport has its origins. The US now hosts three races – in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas – and there are persistent rumors that a race is coming to another US city.
In 2022, New York Mayor Eric Adams offered Randall’s Island as a potential location, but Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali disagreed with the viability of that location, a small island with ball fields that would be difficult to access for the more than 300,000 fans who were expected. such an event.
The Prime Minister of Thailand met recently with F1 officials to discuss a race in Bangkok.
The glamorous Monaco Grand Prix, held on the sun-drenched streets of Monte Carlo, is considered a bucket list event in motorsport. Monaco’s organizers have been unwilling to change their business model so much because they are confident that the history and prestige of their nearly 100-year-old circuit outweighs financial considerations, one person said. Many of the drivers live in Monaco.
But Formula 1 fans and prominent racers including Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have criticized the two-mile circuit as oppressively boring, as the size of modern racing cars prohibits them from making the daring passes and three-on-one post-races that allow for more modern circuits. allow.
“Thank God that’s over, that was the most boring race I’ve ever participated in,” said seven-time world champion Hamilton after finishing third there in 2022.
The principality has been forced to change in the past. Two years ago, it given up the right to produce his own television coverage of the race in exchange for a new contract.
“Monaco embodies what F1 is,” says Vincenzo Landino, an F1 analyst and consultant who publishes the Qualifier, a newsletter about the sport. “You’re done with that, now you have a brand crisis as far as I’m concerned.”
