Why a race in Malaysia & NOT in the US?

clever guy....answered your own question!

 

Last I heard Tony George's ego wasn't in Malaysia!

 

Theres probably a few reasons. 1) 2005 didn't go well for F1 in the US, 2) America has other more popular forms of motorsport, 3) To get more and more people into Formula 1 that don't have similar sports e.g Malaysia ( as far as i'm awear anyway), 4) like you said the more money the better for Bernie that his wife will be taking it all lol, 5) They're buliding new tracks for next year like new Dheli and Moscow. Theres probably 10 more reasons why there isn't a USGP.

I would like the USGP to come back if not at Indy somewhere else.

 

There is a huge fee, millions, that must be posted up front by the race venue. Then the circuit must meet some serious criteria. And when you finally put on the GP, you give a huge percentage of the revenue to FOM.

This has nothing to do with Tony George's ego. It has to do with unreasonable demands from Bernie Ecclestone. But since there are a few groups or governments in the Middle East and Asia with this kind of money, they pay the fees and spend the money for the circuits. They get the GP's.

There is nobody in the USA that can or will do that. Except for Tony George. Just that he decided he got tired of getting it in the rectum by Bernie. So he walked away. I would have also, I like sitting down.

The USGP will be back in the next two years, and it will be at Indianapolis.

 

Bernie Ecclestone is doing what most people would do in is place,which is maximizing profits. It's a sad reality but business is business,never personal.

 

Yes, as I would do what Tony George is doing if I were him, I would do the same if I were Bernie. But I would have had a better prenupt agreement.

Not with Tony.

 

The real problem is that most of the auto manufacturers' major market is the United States. Without ANY North American race (or even any in the Western Hemisphere, aside from Brazil), their ROI on massive F1 investments is deeply compromised.

With no return on their $400 million in their number one market, this became the defining issue behind Honda's withdrawl from the sport and a major factor pushing Toyota to do so as well. BMW has recently been rumoured to be approaching the bubble as well with the Quandt family upset with Ecclestone's indifference to such a big problem.

I'm very certain history will not remember Ecclestone's mismanagement kindly.

 

How much money from places like Malaysia and Singapore and Dubai and China come from the ruling government? These are countries that want to put themselves on the world stage, not unlike the Olympics in China.

 

Because Bernie Ecclestone doesn't care about F1 fans.....
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Circuit owner / promoter in Malaysia is the new PM.
Obama isn't in to F1?

 

Even if he were, it would be political suicide to use Federal funds to support a sports event that a very small pecentage of Americans understand, support, or attend.

Have to be private money.

 

Common man. You have no idea what ur talking about. In the past 11 years, it just rained twice here. 2001, and yesterday. Plus, over here, the attendance on race day is between 130-150k people. This year however, because of the economic situation, i heard attendance was down by 20%.

 

Not really.

Former PM. Mahathir was an F1 freak. His son is one of the biggest buyer of Ferraris in Malaysia, and is one of the 400 who got the call from Ferrari regarding the Enzo, which he took.

His son is also the chairman of the circuit. Normally, over here, the PM is the 'boss' of the circuit, but actually, he lets other people do the talking, negotiations, etc. In this case, the main person in charge is actually Mokhzani, Mahathir's son.

Edit : Circuit owner is Petronas and Malaysian Airports Berhad.

 

Very well put imo and I hope your prediction is correct.

 

I think F1 coming back to Indy depends a lot on how well the MotoGP race goes over there. (last years Motogp race was rained out, so not a good measure) Indy made a few track modifications in sector 3 for MotoGP, which they were also hoping the F1 cars would like. last year Indy tried very hard to market this event, if they can make it a success there is no doubt that F1 will return.

 

Spot-on.

But I would not bank on F1 back in the USA, or at Indy specifically.

 

Tony George should start "The Bank Of IMS". Then he could get billions in bailout money and he could afford to pay Bernie's fees.

 

I was wondering when Brian, our resident Malay was going to join in and defend the fantastic race his country has been putting on for the last decade !

There is one thing that people seem to be missing on the thread, F1 is big in Malaysia, i lived in Kuala Lumpur last year, attended many events at Sepang including the F1 race, and i found that F1 and motor sports as a whole are followed with passion and love in the country. Its been a great success taking F1 there, the locals have embraced it, its brought tourists to the country who might have not discovered it other wise, and you have to remember that the prices of tickets are around the same as in Europe, which makes it even more extraordinary that over 100,000 people attend when you consider much lower average incomes relative to those in West.

The Ticket price for F1 at Indy was by far the cheapest of all the races on the calendar, when i attended Indy, i paid around 1/4 the price for my 1st Turn ticket compared to cost of a similar ticket at any other F1 race, and there was still empty seats all around me. The average TV viewership of any one race in USA is around 500,000 people, out of a population of more then 300 million. F1 has a attempted to "break" the USA many times, but its always failed, due to it having its own established forms of Racing. So other then the sponsorship benefits for F1 teams, why should there be a race held in the USA and NOT Malaysia? when its quite clear there is a low local following for the sport?

 

Bernie was totally pissed off when he got to Indiannapolis, they still had posters advertising the INDY500 which took place a few weeks ago, and no F1 promotional posters.

 

I think its realy important that GP racing returns to the USA at some point, but and this is a big but it must be a decent circuit, dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with Indy but the place struggles to shrug off the fact, its primarily associated with the Indy 500.

Personally I dont know the USA that well but I am sure there are other great venues, either circuits themselves or locations where I street circuit could be build....and no I dont mean a converted car park as was used in the past...(at Long Beach I think, though I stand under correction)

 

With our economy as it is, I seriously doubt if anyone will come up with the millions necessary to bring any current facility up to FIA/FOM standards. And I doubt if anyone will come up with the mulitple millions it will take to build a new circuit.

Many years ago, before F1 at Indianapolis, there was a potential F1 circuit discussed between Tony George and then Disney president Michael Eisner, along with A.J. Foyt, to be built on the grounds of Disneyworld in Orlando. The studies showed the location was the best in the USA, the land was cheap. But the cost of the actual facility, and the cost to FOM, even with 150,000 spectators at an average $150/ticket, it would go bankrupt in three years. So they built a one mile oval instead for the first race of the new IRL. That track is still at Disneyworld and is used by Richard Petty for his driving school.

So for now, I can only see Indy for a GP.

 

The reason why we are talking about the rain race and why it was a fiasco is that HRH Bernie decided to run the race several hours later than previous years so that lazy Europeans (big target audience) would not need to wake up too early to see it...

result: DANGEROUS DRIVING CONDITIONS !

Australia: drivers blinded by the sun in late stages of the race
Malay: drivers flushed off the track

Why: because for HRH, money comes before driver security.

It's about time the racers and the teams stood up and spoke out before terminal accidents happen.

My european 2 cents

Frank

 

The thing about Bernie is, his iron fist ruling. It's not democratic. It's either his way, or no way. He wanted both races to start later, and now, he's trying to be cool about the consequences.

U guys have no idea how mad the fans and goverment is here because of this. They spent millions, and the race only completed what..less than half distance?

The local media is blaming Bernie solely for this, accusing him of having no idea about Malaysian weather and timing. They keep saying that Bernie is just too arrogant to listen to the locals, rather he wants to have it all his way.

I prolly agree with this. The weather has been like this for about 2 weeks now, and i've been telling u guys that it's gonna be a wet race. The CEO even mentioned that to Bernie, but he brushed it off. I agree with the above poster. It's time for that dumb@$$ to start listening to teams and people.