What had started as a marketing genius quickly became an organizational monster. To bring together around twenty youtubers, train them, ensure their safety, sign technical and commercial partnerships, you must anticipate over several years. Squeezie had also announced it from the first edition: “I already have ideas to finish in style on the GP 3, but there will be no 4ᵉ edition”.
If some fans have taken this sentence for a simple formula, it turned out to be prophetic. The organization of the GP Explorer is based on precision mechanics: circuit reserved for months in advance, creators held in secret, intensive training plan. The youtuber Michou, participating in the first two editions, recently explained why he was giving up: “I regret every year, but inoxtag, my pair last year, was not available enough. He was training hard to climb Everest. This year, it is I who don’t have enough time to really take advantage of the project.”
Between millions of euros and white nights
Behind the cameras, the numbers make you dizzy. An event like the GP Explorer represents a budget between 3 and 4 million eurosmostly self -funded thanks to views, ticketing, partnerships and sponsors. But nothing is guaranteed. Squeezie entrusted it from 2022 in the Popcorn program: “Yes, that’s at this point. An event like that is between 3 and 4 million euros”. And economic reality is relentless: “It was a monumental pressure stroke. When we engage, we sign and there are less 2 million and we do not even know if the Internet brands will follow us.”
Despite exceptional visibility, the project is not a cash machine. Unlike certain television events, the profitability of GP Explorer depends on an unstable ecosystem, based on sometimes unpredictable digital platforms. “All this is based on a balance, an ecosystem and it was the teams that have given everything,” he said. And when the contracts are sign with a loss of deficit at -2 million, the pressure becomes physical, mental, and permanent.
An assumed end … and a future to imagine
It is therefore not out of interest that Squeezie brakes, but to avoid wear. The GP Explorer does not completely disappear: its creator imagines a more flexible and more open suite. “I would like the GP Explorer to become a league. It would not be present all year round because it is too difficult to manage and that the Formula 4 championship already exists,” he explains. The idea would be to open the doors to talents that cannot afford to access traditional disciplines: “But I would like to make a league from which we would bring people who have had no chance.”
In France, a full season of Formula 4 can cost up to 230,000 euros By pilot, according to the FFSA Academy. A colossal brake for young enthusiasts of self -sports sports. By transforming the GP Explorer into an access gateway to the circuit, Squeezie could well write a new chapter: less spectacular perhaps, but more durable.