Are racing without an audience feasible: ''It's not profitable at all''

The question remains if the races should go on this Formula 1 season. The subject was already discussed on Tuesday in a column on GPblog.com, but more people are dealing with it. For example, not everyone is in favor of races without an audience.

Races without an audience unfeasible?

Hans-Joachim Stuck won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, was twice on the podium in Formula 1 and was President of the German Motorsport Association for a long time. In conversation with Motorsport-Total.com, the 69-year-old speaks out against racing without an audience.

''In my opinion, it is not at all feasible to race without an audience. It is therefore no longer profitable as a sport at all, because you don't attract the number of viewers for a race that you would normally have. There must be a lot of people at a Grand Prix without an audience, so how are you going to arrange that?''

1,000 men on the track

"People sit in small spaces behind the garage to monitor everything. So where are you gonna draw the line? Of course, economic interests play a role now, but I think there are a lot of important things going on. You have to be smart now and wait until it's over,'' says the German. However, TV expert Christian Danner disagrees with him.

''Of course it's a compromise, but you'd rather drive with one spectator than have no races at all. The important thing now is that we drive so that the sport can survive. Teams can make it with 50 to 60 men, the question is who broadcasts it? For F1, logistics is a much bigger operation than in a football stadium. In total there will soon have to be 1,000 people on the track'', concludes the former F1 driver versus n-tv.