The Mexican Grand Prix has attracted bumper crowds for every race since it returned to the Formula 1 calendar but it has a new test to pass to secure a long-term deal beyond 2022.
Like many races, Mexico dropped off the 2020 calendar because of the COVID-19 pandemic but it returns this weekend with what is expected to be its largest-ever crowd.
Mexico’s F1 round has been an impressive addition to the calendar since it rejoined in 2015 – with a full-weekend attendance of more than 330,000 people every time.
Despite the immense popularity of the race it is only on a short-term contract because this 2021 is the first grand prix since the organisers switched to a new business model.
The first five Mexican GPs were state-funded but that financial support was lost and a new deal was done with Mexico City government assistance attracting backing from local businesses.
“We signed three races in that new model,” said Alejandro Soberon, president and CEO of race organiser CIE (pictured below).
“The first one was meant to be last year’s which got cancelled, this was meant to be the second and next year it is the third.
“We are trying to get deeper into that model, trying to make it sustainable in the long term without public funding, which is pretty difficult, actually, because the cost of staging this race is different if you have an enclosed racetrack.
“This is a public park. So everything that you see, basically has to come up and come down. And you have to do it and redo it every time.”
If the new way of funding the race satisfies the relevant stakeholders following this event then Soberon will be empowered to discuss a new deal with F1.
A combination of home driver Sergio Perez driving for Red Bull, pent-up demand because of the pandemic, the Netflix Drive to Survive docuseries driving a lot of popularity in the Americas, and the F1 title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen has created extra appetite this year for an already popular event.
Soberon says around 350,000 tickets have been sold and reckons 40,000 more three-day tickets could have been sold if there was capacity at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
And while he believes the race is benefitting from people being “starving” for live sport again, Soberon reckons the “new energy” will be sustainable – and backs the race’s underlying popularity to be the crucial factor in earning a favourable new deal.
“It’s in the best interest of Formula 1 and us as promoters, to really capture the tremendous demand for fans,” he said.
“You really want to go where there’s more interest for your event, because that interest draws more interest from sponsors and that interest draws more interest for TV views.
“We all need to work out and figure out which is the best sustainable business model for the future.
“But I just can’t imagine that when you have the ability to sell 350,000 tickets, you just don’t want to go to that market.
“Maybe you doubt if there’s a market in which you sell 20% of the tickets, but there’s other strategic reasons to go there – maybe one of the reasons is that the money is good.”
Unlike other cancelled races, like Canada, Mexico has not yet done a deal to roll over its abandoned 2020 race in contractual terms.
That means next year’s Mexican GP is the last confirmed race and Soberon said 2022 will be “very interesting to make negotiations for a longer-term contract”.
He believes it is possible for Mexico to lock down a much more secure deal but admits it does not have the financial backing to do that as easily as the likes of ultra-wealthy Qatar have done.
“It’s going to take some evolution in the model between Formula 1 and us,” he said when asked if a long-term deal like that is the aim.
“But I think it’s achievable. I think this is something that can be sustained for a much longer period. But we need to think a little outside the box and be more creative.
“I believe that anything can be done and achieved. Because we have a wonderful market.
“If we wouldn’t have a market, and we wouldn’t sell tickets or a sponsorship and there was a lack of interest in the community, everything becomes very, very difficult.
“But with such a massive interest with a good product, we just need to find a way.
“We created a model in a way that it is possible.”
