Bernie Ecclestone says the future of Formula 1's North American grands prix depends on the teams' willingness to accept more races. With Montreal following Indianapolis off the calendar, there are no North American races on the 2009 schedule. The teams have repeatedly expressed their frustration at this, insisting that America is a vital market for their sponsors. Ecclestone says he is willing to revive the American dates, but not at the expense of other venues as he wants F1 to continue visiting new destinations such as Singapore and Abu Dhabi. He therefore believes that if the teams are so keen to race in the USA, they should be willing to drop their long-standing objection to the calendar being extended to 20 races. "The trouble is that the teams dont want to do more than 17 races," Ecclestone told Motor Sport magazine. "If they dont want any more than that then we cannot put on a race in America or get Montreal back." He confirmed that efforts were underway to get Montreal back on the schedule as soon as possible. "We are trying to get that back on again," said Ecclestone. "The government is interested." Ecclestone is less certain about America's prospects, as he believes Indianapolis is the only current US track capable of hosting F1. Indianapolis replaced F1 with MotoGP last season after failing to agree a new contract with Ecclestone. "Apart from Indianapolis, where we have been, there is nowhere in America we could go to and hold our head up and say, This is comparable to other circuits we are building around the world,'" said the F1 supremo. He said his preference remains for a new track to be constructed in New York. "It is the one place where someone could make a business out of it," he said. Source: http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45535
Thats a whole lotta BS. The teams have aleady said many times the importance of either a Canadian or a USGP. Whose Bernie trying to fool?
+1 I can't imagine a single team owner who would get a bigger sponsor related benefit out of racing in e.g. Bahrain, Shanghai or Korea vs racing in the US or even Canada. The calendar is so full because the evil dwarf filled it with countries whose governments are paying for the PR but who have no connection to F1 at all. We're not even talking about F1 history here, just who are the current moneybags in F1. I'm all for globalization and proud of it in F1. There has to be an Asian GP. But there also has to be a North American and an African GP.
I have a friend that works for ITV, he said that Bernie hecklestone ,was asking so much for the show they basically told him to F-off. ..he plays one against the other, same with track venues. However I do prefer it on the BBC.
Winsor is tool and utterly irrelevant. However what is astonishing is the fact that you have three main commentators who are pretty familiar with F1 yet they can't stop delivering total drivel half of the time: Every race they come up with some artificial drama and speculation that always prooves to be nothing more than a red herring. It is utterly annoying and I don't get it why they'd do that in the first place. Also I love Matchett's writing, but his own techno segment RPM is complete garbage and targeted for the dumbest of the dumb. The guy has access to a F1 car yet what he shows and "explains" are platitudes at best. So many good resources totally wasted on air fillers. And the worst are the shout outs to the Porsche clubs. Has been like 20 years since Porsche last was connected to F1.
He wants more money, and he is clueless about track ownership in NY - the cost of land for a once-a-year event is nuts, else they would revamp Watkins Glen. See the above: "The government is interested". Canadian, that is. Here is my question: has a country every said NO to having a GP in it ? Maybe Bernie has never been denied before so he is pissed ? I personally don't care if we ever have one in the USA, we can't build a track with enough character and charm, and they won't go to the ones that DO have character and charm, those of which we have discussed ad nauseum over the years. It always comes back to Laguna Seca, which one day will disappear.
It doesn't sound good that.. I'am just so glad there are NO ADVERTS now. Are there no links or work rounds to the BBC feed.?
Bobbins? I no speaka da english! Anyway. Bernie has completely lost touch with what his fan base really is. He says he wants the North American rounds of the championship back but the keeps making new races in Asia and the Middle East and clogging up the calendar. The he has the stones to blame the teams for not wanting more than 17 races. Why the hell do we need Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Turkey? Singapore and Malayasia? Same thing, you don't need them all. He should rotate the Asian and Middle Eastern rounds like is presently being done with Suzuka and Fuji and only have one round each, not 5 races.
Abu Dhabi: F1/Ferrari theme park hence very important (at least to me) Turkey: one of the best tracks on the calendar Malaysia: Petronas is BMW's main sponsor Bahrain and Singapore however could be given up in no time flat. Same goes for China. And Korea is really not required either. Must haves: - North American GP (US or Canada) - African GP (South Africa or Moroc)
I'm not even sure that Abu Dhabi is all that important if you ask me. Last I heard the F1 theme park was put on hold in Dubai. It's only a matter of time before they scrap the Ferrari theme park too. The point is they should have one Mid East race not three regardless of how great the track is. Same goes for Malaysia, Singapore, China and Korea. They should simply rotate the location of the venue yearly.
