Making Way For New Grands Prix

[ioan]

Looks like we would need at least 30 races to accommodate everyone's wishes!
I think people are way to demanding.

[Shifter]

It's hard to argure for the elimination of Hungary where the fans do love the event. IMO, the only difference between Monaco and Hungary is the glamour factor, and at both tracks, even if passing is difficult, I for one really enjoy watching F1 at both places because of the driver skill involved.

USGP, sure, but our best circuits, however safe they may be, still require millions of $$ of upgrades and even then are still too far outside major metro areas. If it's going to happen, its a street circuit for certain, and probably in the southern U.S. where weenie enviro-nuts are too scared of being beaten up to speak out against racing. Also, I imagine with Montreal on the schedule it would make sense to run it in the south or west.

Considering the collossal investment every country makes, it's difficult to argue for any race to be axed. If I had my choice, it would be Turkey, because the fans aren't showing up and it would send a message that places without much fan interest should be wary of making the investment.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Strange...the guy from Britain thinks that Europe should have 10 races, North America 3, Asia 3 and two in South America.

What makes Europe more valid in today's marketplace than any other continent? Mmmm History maybe, and i? would have to say I would be all for 6 based on this, but maybe 10 is valid only if you put one of the races in Scandinavia, and you don't be giving two races to Spain or Germany.

The point is, Bernie takes this show to places where they will give him large amounts of money, often GOVERNMENT money to host the races. It is clear to me he doesn't really give a rat's behind if the fans are in the stands, because if he did, he would be horrified by the lousy attendance in Turkey and China.

The economical model to sustain the races doesn't work without government support for any of the new events because Bernie wont do what is best for the sport as well as his pocketbook.

I would love to see another USGP, but NOT in Manhattan. It is a pipe dream there and people have to grasp that no one cares much about sport in Manhatten save the odd trip to MSG for a Rangers or Knicks game, or the Yankee's in the summer. Motorsport is far below the radar in in the NYC area it isn't even funny. Putting F1 in there would do great things for the myth of how everything should happen in New York City, but the reality would be a lot of disinterest. The Meadowlands didn't work for CART, and I cannot see anyone ponying up the money to build garages/pits in the style F1 demands for a race Bernie might up and pull out with 4 years later. Americans are too smart for Bernie's little game and THAT is why they don't have a regular date. Tony George, as much as I don't like the man had the best possible business plan for the USGP and had 200000 SEATS he could sell and he still couldn't make this race work economically.

F1 is an unsustainable circus when you have Bernie demanding things for his series that no the race series on the planet would demand. Why? Just because it looks better. Well the sad reality is, the reason we have a rotation of one new emerging nation after another stepping up is because it makes sense for their governments to pour down Bernie's rat hole to subsidize some races to get on the world's radar. The USA doesn't need to do that.

If Bernie is reasonable with his fees, as he was when he realized he needed Montreal FAR more than Montreal needed him, then races work.

Personally here is my wish list of races:

Melbourne
Suzuka
Britain (a must no matter what happens)
France (a crime they are NOT on the circuit)
Belgium (Spa only a MUST!)
Germany
Monte Carlo (a tradition..but a lousy race..but could double up as the French GP in a sense)
Italy
Spain
Scanadinavia (two Finn's are WDC's yet they haven't seen a race in that part of the world since Anderstorp?)
Russia
USA ( build a venue for f1, keep Tilke away from it, and commit yourself to the American Market long term)
Canada
Brazil
Argentina
China (provided they have fans and don't allow Tilke to build them any more boring race tracks)

Abu Dhabi alternates with Bahrain
India.
South Korea
South Africa.

There...I think I hit every continent and hit some historically important markets that have been ignored.

Make teams be more flexable in how they operate at circuits. Make pit facilities that are f1 specific maybe a thing in the past, and a lot of the circuits you don't have under consideration now will become interested.

This series should be bigger in some ways than it is, and by getting people to see the racing live in large numbers, this will help in the long run for TV. Keeping races on per country always would help too.

Oh ya...and avoiding this myth that the f1 circuit is the greatest RACING going. It isn't often that good, and it is a great series with amazing machines, but the on track product must be more compelling than it often has in the past. Do all that, and sky's the limit..

[UltimateDanGTR]

Strange...the guy from Britain thinks that Europe should have 10 races, North America 3, Asia 3 and two in South America.

do you mean me or bernie on that one?

If you meant me, then notice i said 'up to' 10 races, any more would be silly IMO.

In an ideal world of course, Bernie would be a reasonable bloke and not charge extortionate fees for grands prix, thus we would have more races where F1 has more history and is relevant, which means more races in the americas.

and then tracks wouldn't have to charge insane prices to the fans, so the fans in countries new to F1 might actually turn up, and the tracks might actually make a bit of profit.

but one can dream....

[N. Jones]

I wish some GPs would come back (US, Portugal, Imola) and that some new tracks would go away.

[Sonic]

Looks like we would need at least 30 races to accommodate everyone's wishes!

Indeed. There is no way with reasonable logistics to get every desired race on the grid.

A reasonable compromise IMO would see a true Euro GP that alternated venue, to be joined by a couple of other alternating GP's - perhaps a Pacific area GP and an Americas GP.

that ontop of the 16/17 regular races would allow best of both worlds - history and new (or returning) venues.

Sadly money talks so that won't happen.

[goodf1fun]

Its a pity that there is no real interest in F1 beyond a strong small core army of fans in the United States.

If a grand prix could be organized around the streets of Manhattan it would be super - as long as the idiot glitterati and empty headed trendclones who populate Manhattan in droves are not given special treatment.

Organize it around the American FANS Bernie, those people who supported your show when even the BBC used to show edited highlights only. Remember those days? I do.

But it wont happen - too many palms require greasing and some are impossible to deal with, like the paranoid environmental droids that are MANY and live all over Manhattan. Its also the noise - its just not on.

But that there is now going to be a grand prix in Korea and still no US GP - as someone that loves motor racing and its history, I find that offensive.

Other than Monte Carlo, Monza, Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone and Suzuka, I would not care what race is dropped if it meant the inclusion of a US GP again. And please, PLEASE, never ever that horrible road circuit at Indianapolis.

F1 should never have been held at Indy because it was bad form. F1 always looked like the second show. The sport did not deserve that again - remember the car park in Las Vegas? Oi vegas!!

You still believe that F1 can survive in US? One grand prix and they lost it, one team was the joke of the year.

[D28]

I would like to see Panoz arrange to upgrade Road Atlanta and hold a US GP there in the state of Georgia. It is a track with history, a warm climate, people that understand motor racing and extremely pretty - but then I like Georgia.

Mr. Panoz is a very sucessful businessman, who didn't get that way by investing in ventures with no possible return. The very fact that Bernie is threatening recent partners after they have spent millions in facilities, should caution most prudent investors. Bernie's economic model works best if you use other peoples' money (government investment). This model is not applicable to the US. The Tony George saga is too recent for American investors to be seduced into a F1 scheme with Bernie.

[Saint Devote]

You still believe that F1 can survive in US? One grand prix and they lost it, one team was the joke of the year.

The only reason F1 "survives" in most of the countries today is through government directing taxes towards the sport. I disapprove of that and I think it ought to stop.

The calendar would look very different and probably similar to the way it did prior to government involvement. Bernie took it there because he realized he could boost the asking price well above its value.

The result was the destruction of the calendar slewed towards the traditional tracks.

Unfortunately it also associated F1 with entities that have no regard for human rights and absolutely no interest in motor racing.

But there was no complaint from F1 teams because the deals made by Bernie improved facilities and made all extremely wealthy.

Should Bernie be codemned for walking with tyrants? It can be argued on moral grounds, but certainly not that he is demanding an unfair price. Under the circumstances the organizers could have said no, and when have statist governments ever been concerned about wasting money?

It is against this backdrop that the US struggles to secure and keep a grand prix going. Can the US do it? Of course. F1 has fourished in the past with FOUR grands prix at the peak. It has had THREE top drivers on the grid in the past and two world champions - a great history and better than most nations including Germany and France, in a country where F1 is nowhere really and not even trying too hard.

There IS a solution out there, it just takes the desire to discover it.

The day the US really becomes interested in F1 - improbable I know - then it will become giant. No sport, that Americans really decide to compete in, ultimately does not end in American victory.

Anyone that knows that great nation well, will realize that not winning is something Americans generally detest. America itself, is not an accident.

I love motor racing and I do love the United States and the American people - surely the most generous and tolerant in the world.

And that there is a Korean grand prix or Chinese grand prix or a Bahrain or Bu Dhabi grand prix, yet no US GP, is really a disgrace.

How to attract and retain auto manufacturers in F1 - and under the cost control rules as they are? Have at least ONE United States Grand Prix - ideally one on the East coast and another on teh West, like it was once.

And perhaps, the auto manufacturers themselves can join together, and maybe even with oil companies and tyre companies, and organized by someone like Peter Uberoth, and fund a long time contract with Bernie.

It is after all the greatest consumer market in the world and the largest most powerful economy.

Just an idea but something can work and the WDC will not be "whole" until there is once again a US GP.

[Roamy]

I wish some GPs would come back (US, Portugal, Imola) and that some new tracks would go away.

Oh you want the thrill and history of the sport to prevail. Amen brother I have been to Portugal and Imola and will have that etched in my memory forever.

BTW the only way F1 works in the US is Watkins Glen - I just don't know what is so hard about this. Maybe I need a "MOP" haircut and get beat with a WHIP