Tony Cascarino Where am I Alongside the wire fence that keeps the Formula One paddock off limits to the gawping passers-by is a line
of white yachts. The bikini-clad women are still on deck topping up their tans, their expensive bracelets and diamond rings glinting in the Monte Carlo sunshine. But if diamonds are for ever, Formula One’s bling is looking a little faded. The cars that will contest the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend are just as fearfully fast and the motorhomes that line the Quai Antoine just as vast, but Formula One, the ultimate in conspicuous sporting consumption, is finally feeling the pinch. Whisper it in a Principality dedicated to money, but the smell of recession is even more potent than the whiff of high-performance petrol. The streets of Monte Carlo are noticeably quiet and about three quarters of the seats in the stands around the famous swimming pool section were empty yesterday as Jenson Button steered his Brawn GP car through the two practice sessions. More humble fans, usually coming to the one grand prix in their lives they want to see, have found prices soaring. With sterling almost at parity with the value of the euro, three-star hotel rooms that were already an eye-watering £250 a night last year have almost doubled, while a weekend ticket for a good grandstand view can cost up to £1,000.
Even Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder whose genius turned motor racing in Monaco into a money-spinner, is worried. “People think it’s wrong to spend money,” the billionaire said. “They don’t want to be seen to be lavishing the cash around, which is quite right.”