I wouldn't put it past ol Bernie to have axed Canada specifically to get the US and Canada into a "bidding war" to land the 2010 North American round and enrich his pockets.
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2008 Formula One Thread
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I wouldn't put it past ol Bernie to have axed Canada specifically to get the US and Canada into a "bidding war" to land the 2010 North American round and enrich his pockets.
I wouldn't put it past ol Bernie to have axed Canada specifically to get the US and Canada into a "bidding war" to land the 2010 North American round and enrich his pockets.
wouldn't surprise me one bit... or he just decided that the IRL can middle around while nascar rules. sadly F1 will never put a dent into nascar.
I wouldn't put it past ol Bernie to have axed Canada specifically to get the US and Canada into a "bidding war" to land the 2010 North American round and enrich his pockets.
Or to put it another way, Canada did not pay.
But that is how it works. Same reason the US lost their GP this year.
The current host can't or won't meet Bernie's demands, so he yanks the race which puts pressure on others to come together and ante up the necessary cash to win one back.
The current host can't or won't meet Bernie's demands, so he yanks the race which puts pressure on others to come together and ante up the necessary cash to win one back.
Similar to the USGP. Tony George doesn't want to pay Bernie's fee, but he also doesn't want to open his books to Indianapolis to get a subsidy.
F1 is pricing itself out of existence in the west. Sooner or later only the oil rich Arab states will be willing to pay the exorbitant fees and the rest of the world won't care about it anymore. I say good riddance. There are plenty of other great motorsports out there. F1 is not even my favorite anymore.
It is.
Then maybe the Canadian organisers shouldn't have signed a contract through to 2011 if they either couldn't afford it, expected a discount, or had no intention of honouring it.
Quite how the blame can be apportioned to Bernie in all of this is beyond me.
Just finished watching the qualifying on ITV's website.
Not good news for Massa having to battle past Kovalainen and Alonso. Kimi is not really in that great a position to help unless he can get the jump on Hamilton at the start of the race.
Should make for an interesting race.
Not good news for Massa having to battle past Kovalainen and Alonso. Kimi is not really in that great a position to help unless he can get the jump on Hamilton at the start of the race.
Should make for an interesting race.
Well Ferrari also has to worry about winning the Constructor's Cup, as well. They ended up legitimately winning it last year even after they were handed it by the FIA, but I would not be surprised if there is a lot of cash between ending as the #1 as opposed to the #2 constructor.
I wouldn't put it past ol Bernie to have axed Canada specifically to get the US and Canada into a "bidding war" to land the 2010 North American round and enrich his pockets.
The problem is that the USA has a single good circuit for this sort of thing - Laguna Seca (and even then I think the cars would struggle with the corkscrew). Montreal is a much better circuit and I don't think anything in the US can match it. Plus, Canada has far more fans of the sport compared to its population than the US does.
As for today's race it was much more thrilling than I expected. I'm so glad it didn't turn out to be a Hamilton driving away at the front as it looked like it was going to be and I thought Martin Brundle's "I'm gonna get you" comment was hilarious. Kimi got him good.
I agree, Bourdais did not deserve his penalty but I disagree with the argument I have read from others which said that Massa deserved a second penalty for that incident. I think Massa got his penalty in having to turn his car around and catch up again.
The other decisions were right - Hamilton was driving extremely dangerously at the start and deserved his penalty - when I was watching I was wondering whether he was actually going to make it round the corner because he was going that fast. Massa deserved his penalty too for cutting the track and causing the accident.
I thought it would have been more interesting if Kubica had won the race as the gap between him and Massa would have been smaller. Oh well, it's looking like next year will be thrilling. Especially considering the cars are going to look like this:
Okay, I only caught the last 15 or so laps. WTF happened?
at the start the big four kinda got pushed and shoved(more or less by each other) out of the way.
that left the door open for everyone else. alonso and piquet and kubica drove very well....
Yes, Lewis did deserve his penalty. Masa deserved his penalty. Bourdais did not deserve his.
Your joking are you? Did Lewis make contact? He just locked his brakes. Typical exciting start to a race.
Don't understand Bourdais penalty at all
Lewis only didn't make contact because all the other cars drove off the track to avoid a collision. Those cars lost places as a direct result. He deserved a penalty for that in the 2008 season. Previous seasons perhaps not but this year is all about will I get a penalty for this.
Bourdais totally did not deserve a penalty, he was on the racing line with position and race position. Massa came in onto him and collided. It was Massa doing the crashing.
Yes, but locking up so much you flat spot a tyre down to the webbing?
That show's you're out of control. It was only the quick reactions of others that stopped carnage.
Imagine how bad things will get when a Scuderia Ferrari employee is the FIA President!!
Well I think Honda can step away from the phone, as I don't expect Alonso to be calling looking for a ride with them. He's staying with Renault at this point.
I agree penalizing Bourdais was a crock - it was a racing incident. And the stewards had plenty of time to issue a drive-through, so demoting Bourdais to get Massa an extra point once again smacks of favortism to Ferrari and also an attempt to keep the World Championship close so it can be determined at Brazil like last year (which likely did wonders for world television figures for that race).
I agree penalizing Bourdais was a crock - it was a racing incident. And the stewards had plenty of time to issue a drive-through, so demoting Bourdais to get Massa an extra point once again smacks of favortism to Ferrari and also an attempt to keep the World Championship close so it can be determined at Brazil like last year (which likely did wonders for world television figures for that race).
Road Atlanta is a great track, and would be much better suited to F1 than Laguna Seca. I think the pit complex and access roads would be the only things needing major upgrades to host a GP there.
And man, is that penalty for Seb B lame.
Road America would likely be decent, too, except for being in the middle of nowhere. Like Magny-Cours, it is just too far away from anything. And Magny-Cour had the twin advantages of being the President's pet project and the FIA being effectively French (especially under Balestre).
And that is kind of the problem for F1 in the US - and much Europe. Many of the "classic" European tracks are a bit out of the way.
Notice how most of the Asian rounds are all either right in or very, very close to huge populations - Singapore is right downtown, Shanghai is close to the city and Kuala Lumpur is next to the airport. Snagging 100-150,000 people for an event is a cakewalk for these cities so the gate is always packed and the promoters have a very good shot of making their money (doesn't hurt the government picks up much of the tab, as well).
Back when Senna drove for Honda the Japanese had to hold a lottery to sell tickets for Suzuka (part of the reason they added the Pacific GP). His death in 1994 and Honda's departure in 1993 meant that, eventually, Suzuka didn't even sell out. Between Toyota owning Fuji and Fuji's proximity to Tokyo, I am not surprised Fuji was added to the calendar to alternate with Suzuka.
Just as has now happened with Germany now that Michael no longer races. They used to be able to support two races, now they can only support one and have to alternate it between the Nurburgring and Hockenheim (which was neutered to allow more people to watch the race).
As much as I miss the party atmosphere that was ending the F1 circus in Adelaide, I imagine Melbourne does better thanks to the larger population base. And Valencia has that "hip vibe" that F1 so loves, which means that if Spain needs to drop to one race, it could survive instead of Barcelona.
But even being downtown isn't a guarantee. Mexico City and Montreal were downtown. The former left almost two decades ago do to a bad track, but Champ Car rebuilt it so that is no longer an excuse. And now Montreal can't make the numbers work. Maybe they should run it on the Vancouver or Toronto streets like Champ Car/IndyCar.
I think when the US GP comes back, it will be at some place like Las Vegas which has enough cash to make it happen with real permanent facilities like Monaco, Singapore and Valencia all have.
I really think Hamilton's penalty was questionable. It's not as if he turned into Kimi. Besides, look at the other number of cars that locked up and went wide.
Massa certainly deserved his and the other he didn't get. Poor Bourdain. Plus the kick in the nuts is that Massa also benefited from it.
However, I just love Bourdain after his comments.
If anybody has a video of the interview please pass along.
Massa certainly deserved his and the other he didn't get. Poor Bourdain. Plus the kick in the nuts is that Massa also benefited from it.
However, I just love Bourdain after his comments.
If anybody has a video of the interview please pass along.
I thought Hamilton (almost caused the mother of all pile ups), Massa (was off the track) and Bourdais (he was never ahead of Massa at any point) all deserved penalties myself.
I was watching Sky News later in the morning when news broke that Bourdais had received a penalty, and the so called F1 expert said... only moments after mentioning Massa's earlier penalty, and without the slightest hint of irony "this leads credence to the suggestion that the FIA are biased towards Ferrari".
Really, I'd have thought such people were being ironic, if they weren't quite so clearly f**king stupid.
I'd have penalised Webber as well for almost putting Massa in the wall... and yet here he's chastising Hamilton for his driving. Unbelievable.
I was watching Sky News later in the morning when news broke that Bourdais had received a penalty, and the so called F1 expert said... only moments after mentioning Massa's earlier penalty, and without the slightest hint of irony "this leads credence to the suggestion that the FIA are biased towards Ferrari".
Really, I'd have thought such people were being ironic, if they weren't quite so clearly f**king stupid.
I'd have penalised Webber as well for almost putting Massa in the wall... and yet here he's chastising Hamilton for his driving. Unbelievable.
Locking up your brakes is one thing; shooting off the corner is out of control.
Here's to hoping he stuffs the rest of his season...
Here's to hoping he stuffs the rest of his season...
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