Red Bull’s Dietrich Mateschitz has denied that he has received any special discount from Bernie Ecclestone after it was announced that Formula 1 would return to Austria next year.
The billionaire businessman bought the A1-Ring in 2007 and redeveloped it and renamed it the Red Bull Ring. The circuit, located near the Austrian city of Graz, will play host to F1 for the first time in ten years a year from now.
Mateschitz insists he hasn’t received any special discount from Ecclestone, staunchly replying “no” when asked by SpeedWeek.
But whilst all but one of the current 19-races receives state funding, the Austrian Grand Prix, like the British event, won’t. Instead, he himself and the Red Bull brand will pay the hosting fee, expected to be in the region of £16 million, whilst he expects the money raised through tickets will cover the organisational costs.
“With the gate receipts, at best I will cover my organisational costs, but not the license fee,” he said. “I have to put that up.”
Additional grandstands will need to be constructed as at present the circuit has a capacity of just 40,000 – which would make it the lowest on the calendar – but Mateschitz is expecting many more to attend
“I expect [similar to] the average European race, at around 60,000 spectators. Plus or minus twenty percent, depending on the weather.”
Discussion about this post