Liberty responds: "Maybe do other things to help F1 teams"

"We have scenarios for zero races, everything between 15 and 18 races, and races with no fans present and only the teams," Maffei hints at in a conversation with Wall Street analysts. So it is certainly not excluded that there will be Grands Prix without spectators, but that would also have financial consequences for Liberty Media. "Profitability is lower and maybe even gone."

Teams depending on F1 sales

Now that the sale of a stake in event promoter Live Nation has released no less than 1.4 billion for the royal class of motor racing, there is sufficient capital available for the coming season. "For 2020 we can handle that, but there are F1 teams that will incur costs, especially those that do not have minimum F1 guarantees. One of their most important, if not the most important source of income is their share of F1 sales."

That's why everyone benefits from being able to drive again as soon as possible. "There is a degree to which we organise profitable or unprofitable races, but the teams still make all their costs. So that is a challenge," Maffei explains. "That's also one of the reasons why we have to think carefully about how we start, that it's not just good for us, it's good for the ecosystem".

Liberty comes to the rescue

Liberty has in any case already given some teams an advance on the prize money and it might not stay that way in the coming weeks. "We've already advanced some teams money from the team payments. There are cases where we are going to do that more often. And there are also other things we might do to help teams that need help", concludes the top man.