I am sorry if repost - FIA confirms 20-race 2017 F1 calendar | F1 News Image Unavailable, Please Login
After all the worry about Monza has now been rinsed out, glad is on the calendar. My favourite track.
Yup. Always the same story: The hotels in Austin block the F1 GP date, you can't book them as they are trying to sell those stupid weekend packages of hotel plus tickets. At this point I have a reservation for a motel outside downtown, but that's not where the action is. So I'm hoping that as we get closer to the race (say 2 weeks before) the hotel managers get cold feet being stock with unsold rooms and put them back on the market. Seems to be that way every year. As for Mexico City I only want a hotel near the airport, which is also near the track. But I'm guessing the teams block book those in advance. Nothing available at all. Bummer.
New plans are apparently to build another tilke drome in a godforsaken hell hole. Completely flat and zero imagination. It's very simple: Extend the straight on Zandvoort, extend pitlane and paddock. Plenty of seats can be made on the dunes around it (and cheap, too!). Traffic will need sorting out by giving Zandvoort residents only entrance to the town for driving in/out, close of the entrance almost completely and run coaches and insert extra trains. It's not impossible. Haarlem has many hotels, and only a 6 minute train ride away (even less if they miss the pointless stop in between). Hundreds of restaurants there, Zandvoort has plenty too. Local and surrounding economies will get a HUGE cash injection, frankly.
Andreas, if it is just you, I have a guest room available. If with others, I have a queen inflatable. Not entirely close, but it will be a great weekend. Not luxurious like a Four Seasons stay, but it would be free. The FCA party is already in planning mode and it will be quite awesome!
Thanks Randy. Wife will come along as well and she prefers downtown hotels. See you at the FCA party!
DECEMBER 8, 2016 Growing financial loss at Austrian GP? Austrian grand prix venue, the Red Bull Ring, has recorded an alarming financial loss for 2016. That is the claim of the Austrian weekly business magazine Trend, shortly after it was confirmed that Germany will not host a race next year for financial reasons. Trend said the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, having returned to F1 in 2014 thanks to circuit owner and promoter Dietrich Mateschitz, lost about EUR 30 million in 2016. The report said the higher numbers are due mainly to a decline in ticket sales, following a "steeply falling trend" since the race's revival in 2014. Indeed, 95,000 attended the 2014 race, followed by just 40,000 in 2016. The financial loss in 2015, meanwhile, was reportedly already almost EUR 18 million. "Red Bull has already reacted to the loss and lowered ticket prices for the grand prix in 2017," said an insider.
JANUARY 6, 2017 Silverstone warns it could break F1 contract A new cloud has moved over the future of the British grand prix. F1 business journalist Christian Sylt revealed that a letter from Silverstone owner the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) explained the "potentially ruinous risk" that financial problems could spell the race's end. The Club has a contract with Bernie Ecclestone until 2026, but BRDC chairman John Grant said in the letter published by ITV that he is thinking about "whether we should give notice before the 2017 (race) of our intention to exercise the break clause". If that clause is exercised, Silverstone will cease hosting the British grand prix after 2019. F1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart said Grant's warning must be taken seriously. "I think it's a credible threat and not impossible for it to happen." And F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone added: "If they want to activate a break clause, there is nothing we can do. "Two other tracks have contacted us and we are keen to keep a British grand prix. As far as Silverstone is concerned, it's not in our hands."
