The French Surrender Again!!!

Nah, I'd rather see the USGP on the streets of Chicago with some of the track along the lakefront streets.

 

Road America! ...but it will never happen.

 

Honolulu would be an interesting venue. Or if you want crazy, nasty, curving roads in a city - Boston.

 

Watkins Glen, NY but it may not happen either.

 

That gets my vote!!!

I wonder if I can remember how to get to the track......

DM

 

I said from day one that Watkins Glen was and always will be the spiritual home of F1 in America, and that's where the race should be. Unfortunately the cost to bring the Glen up to current F1 spec would probably be astronomical.

I'd vote for Road Atlanta, otherwise; it's about 50 miles from here......

 

What a crappy, crappy day for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This fiasco will cost them millions, and they had nothing to do with the outcome. It sounds like they were willing to accomodate a chicane.

I'm bummed today. Even though I couldn't make the trip to Indy with all the other Texas Tifosi, I was still totally psyched up for the race. What a disappointment.

 

I love Road Atlanta, it's one of my favorite tracks ever, but I was at Indy today (I still am, in the Marriott) and the track is amazing, you really couldn't ask for anything more. Indianapolis was GREAT to the FCA members, the cops were all really nice to the Ferrari guys, blocked off Monument Circle, the Marriott shut down a whole floor of its garage JUST for the Ferrari guys. The traffic police were all really nice, one guy even stopped us at the track entrance just to take a picture of the car.

I've never been here before, but I gotta say that after this weekend I'm really gonna love and miss this city. Minus its potholes .

The track is... amazing. Really, I sat in several different places in the stands (or on hills) and had a great view from every one. If not for today's result, I would easily go back any year.

 

I don't usually watch Indy cars -- but I've marked my calendar for the day Indy returns to the Glen.

But having seen what's happened to Imola, I wouldn't like to see F1 mung up another perfectly good sports car track to try to contain the supercars. The Glen is a classic -- leave it for everyone else to enjoy.

F1 has a lousy record in the US -- from the flying manhole covers at Long Beach to the Michelin fiasco at Indy, FIA and US venues don't seem to mix. Let's face it -- there's enough home spun racing here that few yank organizers will kiss bernie's empennage to get on an iffy schedule that seems to flit with the whims of the FIA bozos.

If F1 is dead in the US, it's because we don't want to scr*w up our race tracks to suit the FIA.

And certainly not for some whiney tire maker.

I'd have hated to see that stupid chicane. My favorite memory of F1 in Indy was seeing the F1 teams having a go at "drafting" during traditional qualifying back in 2000. The drivers were having a blast! Practice and qualifying were more fun than the race.

That turn is what makes Indy unique, and a worthwhile addition to the F1 schedule: Having Indy turn 9 and turn 13 on the same course is exactly the kind of challenge that you need to present to "the pinnacle of motor racing".

You can imagine what all the "lowly" Indy and NASCAR racers were thinking of the "top motorsport" when Michelin annouced that F1 tires couldn't handle that corner.

 

I guess the Indy race at Texas a few years ago slipped your mind. When they cancelled the race because of G forces.

On the plus side Ferrari finally figured out how to win a race this season.

 

Having been to the Shanghai circuit, there is no way that either Road Atlanta or the Glen could compete. It would take more than $250 mm (no typo) to bring them up to the current world class level.

 

IF, and thats a big IF, there is another usgp, it will most likely be at long beach. the only other thing that might save it, is if scott speed is sitting in a decent ride for 06.

 

Long Beach is not the answer the CART race there is nothing but a total joke. The view avaliable to the spectators sucks at best. The race venue is so over developed that they do not have the room to build the garages, Etc for the teams. Long Beach will not get a GP race.

Vegas will be the most sensable location for a future F1 race in the US. It already has more than enough hotel rooms built, Lots of room to build a purpose built track for the event. A large international airport with direct service to Europe, Aisa, and nearly every major city in the US. On top of that plenty of thing for a family to do. This will allow more F1 fans to bring there family creating the potential for even more revenue to the area than a race at Indy could even dream of.

 

Trouble is are there enough F1 fans in the U.S.
who could or would show up in Las Vegas or
anywhere else in this country?
Tremendous amount of momentum in terms
of F1 popularity was squandered yesterday.

 

Just correcting the misstatement -- CART cancelled the race at Texas with only minutes to the green flag. There's still many racefans here who have not forgiven CART/ChampCar for that fiasco.

 

"Trouble is are there enough F1 fans in the U.S.
who could or would show up in Las Vegas or
anywhere else in this country?
Tremendous amount of momentum in terms
of F1 popularity was squandered yesterday."

I might be mis-remembering, but didn't someone yesterday say that the Indy race had the 3rd highest attendance for F1? Not that everyone would forgive F1 for yesterday and maintain that attendance level for another race, but that sounded like an interesting factoid...

 

Thanks , did not remember which series screwed up that one. Haven't followed Indy type cars too much since the spilt.

 

That was a little different- the drivers were experiencing momentary loss of consciousness. The human side was the limitation, not the equipment. But still bad, yes.
In the case at Texas and at IMS yesterday, teams and equipment manufacturers simply did not test or prepare accordingly for the circuit in question.

 

Let's face it the only way you will get broad US audience is by putting NASCAR stickers on Formula one cars. Despite repeated valiant efforts it is not part of the mainstream culture - I liken it to moving all the Coke and Pepsi drinkers back to RC cola... Seriously, what happened yesterday examplifies the different between F1 and NASCAR, one is a sport that tries (and often fails )to be a show, while the other is a show that tries (and IMHO fails) to be a sport.. All you need to do is look at the ratings of Amrican Idol and Survivor to understand what the mainstream audiance wants... F1 will never happen here!

 

Road America - But as was said before, it will never happen.

Besides the track and facilities upgrades, they don't have sufficient accomodations within an acceptable distance.

 

sports fan have short memories...look at the strikes in the nba, nfl, mbl..i bet even hockey gets back up to full speed before too long if and when they resume play...all will be forgetten and forgiven by a majority of the fans....lets face it, most pro sports franchises and leagues of a limited and sought after product, so they call the shots, not the fans, who always get made and but still remain fans...thats why we are called fanatical!!!!!!!!!!!

 

F1 doesn't need another street circuit. Long Beach is fine for slow cars and show stars but its not a great site for an F1 race.

The problem is that F1 tracks need to be close to urban centers - and therein lies the problem. Watkins Glen could be brought into compliance and would be viable AND fun to drive. The issue is where do you put the 150,000 spectators who need to go back and forth to the track every day?