When are F1 races with an audience again? "That's the big unknown"

As soon as Formula 1 starts, the first races will be held without an audience as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This will have an impact on revenues and that is why Liberty Media is restructuring the capitals to ensure the survival of the sport. However, the big unknown is when it will be possible to race with an audience again.

The unknown

At the annual meeting with shareholders, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei spoke about the current situation. That they suffer from the standstill of Formula 1 is one thing, they are also affected by the standstill of concerts worldwide. After all, Liberty Media also deals with this and at the moment no concerts can be organized, not even without an audience.

The most difficult thing is that one cannot anticipate when public events will be able to start again, that is "the big unknown", says Maffei. "I think we have to be careful in believing that things will adapt and that things will change", notes Motorsport-Total.com. In other words: Liberty Media is expecting an uncertain situation for quite some time to come.

Revenues

If more is possible in the future, the income will be lower than before. That too is something to take into account and that is why everything has to be looked at step by step. Maffei says they have to be "careful." One of the actions Liberty Media has already taken is to transfer a subsidiary, which made about 1.4 billion dollars available to manage the crisis.

"One of the reasons why we have strengthened the balance of Formula 1 was the prospect that it may not be so positive in the future and that we may have to support some of the teams". Nevertheless, Formula 1 will have a steady source of income as soon as the season starts, after all, there are the television registrations that make them money.

At the moment, Liberty Media is mainly preparing for a situation in which things will get even worse, although one prefers to remain optimistic and look ahead. "I would say that the most important thing is that everyone has made an effort to improve their balance sheets so that they don't have liquidity problems when it really hurts", says chairman John Malone.

In addition, Malone expects that there will be a good solution to the coronavirus, and that of course "sooner rather than later".