Its just money. Singapore street circuit was paying Liberty $60million at the peak (they have brought that down at the last renewal two years ago). I think Liberty see Asia as a huge market that they can expand. Europe have several races, so losing a few is a manageable risk if the potential benefits are seen to be large enough. The American public weren't really interested in F1 until the last few years. Then Texas '10, Mexico '15, Miami '22, & Las Vegas '23 GPs were created. Now every F1 race is watched by millions of newcomer American fans and the revenue is up -without the European audience reducing. Liberty want to do that with Asia too. This is what F1 claim...
I don’t doubt that but I’d be interested to know where Portugal are getting their funding that the Netherlands can’t manage.
Well maybe Portugal filled a gap, whilst the Liberty scalpers find serious cash rich race locations who will take up the slot soon. I think its only Holland & the UK that don't have government subsidies of one form or another to underwrite their F1 races.
