Future F1 Grands Prix

[Kewee]

FB......We've disagreed in the past about the merits or lack of regarding street circuits, I love 'em you don't, no problem if we all like something different but regarding Austin, the issue in America, as everywhere will come down to money. Every State in the US is governed to a degree like a country within a country and Texas has money and the will to do it so we should wish them the best and see if it turns into a decent GP rather than right it off without even giving them a chance. The other point of course is Watkins Glen has been used in the past and then dropped, who could blame them if they didn't want to take another chance considering how fickle Bernie can be and how he goes about doing business.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Just when you thought F1 couldn't get any more metal, Greece, yes thats completely bankrupt pennyless Greece have submitted a proposal to Todt and Ecclestone fora Grand Prix.

Whose going to go watch it?

If I remember rightly thousands and thousands of Greeks went over the border for the Turkish GP.

Hang on I'm getting that mixed up with the plot of 300.

 

[GermanF1]

Attendance is the last thing Bernie cares about. So we have races in Bahrain, Korea and Abu Dhabi and no races in France.

 

[Jen]

Anyone been to Piraeus? Shitty little place - might be by the sea and might laughingly be called a 'street circuit' (with some work) but a F1 venue just shouldn't happen there.

 

[gethinceri]

I would go. But it will never happen.
Piraeus is one of the most important historical areas of Greece. Shitty? depends on why you were there. Xenophon wrote fairly extensively on it and the Spartan wars focussed a great deal of attention on it, I have spent many hours searching and discovering within its old streets.

 

[Jen]

Must admit it was a fair few years ago that I visited - it was, undoubtedly old, but ill kept and not too inspiring. The populace didn't seem to know or care about it's provenance.

 

[MCLS]

I was in Pireaus last year, lovely place. whether it would make an F1 race? Unlikely. Although there have been talks about an F1 track in Greece, I found an article about it from 2011, dunno if it's gone ahead or not due to money etc http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/259531/location-revealed-for-greek-f1-circuit/

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah. I saw that too MCLS but it states in the article this is a seperate bid alltogether which shows there is business interest there if not fan interest

 

[Brogan]

I'd be interested to hear how the rest of the Eurozone member states react to Greece spending money on an F1 GP when they are still going cap in hand for more bailout funds.

 

[MCLS]

there is business interest there if not fan interest

As we've already seen, no fan interest hasn't stopped new F1 races before.........

 

[Brogan]

According to reports, an agreement in principle has been made for a night race on a temporary street circuit in Bangkok, Thailand from 2014.

Yet more bloody gimmicky races...

 

[cider_and_toast]

Oh great!

With Ecclestone also talking about returns to Mexico and South Africa, France on the verge of coming back and the New York saga, there soon won't be enough weekends in a year!

 

[Brogan]

The current limit is 20 races per year so the Concorde agreement would need to be rewritten to go over that.

 

[Josh]

The French government isn't willing to support a French GP though, so I wouldn't be too sure of France coming back...

 

[canis]

Brogan The Concorde agreement is being re-written, it only runs to the end of this year or next if I remember rightly? Is why there was all the wrangling over the early agreements and money. You have to remember that to increase the number of races will increase costs o the teams, the spending agreements would have to be looked at as some key staff would require more pay to change their contracts, teams may even have to take on more staff to allow those they already have to take time off during race weekends due to the burn out factor towards the end of a season with so many races. Ross Brawn has already publically said that any more than 20 races and their staff couldn't cope with the added workload.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

According to reports, an agreement in principle has been made for a night race on a temporary street circuit in Bangkok, Thailand from 2014. Yet more bloody gimmicky races...

From a "classics", or European-centric race perspective, I think the worst is yet to come... given the current perilous state of the economies of many European countries...

On the brightside the food will be first class at that race...

 

[Brogan]

I am flabbergasted...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...subsidy-for-formula-1-track-construction.html

I guess those bailouts and debt write-offs came in handy after all.

 

[Kamui-FastestChefInTheWorld]

Looks like the Germans are paying for 2 Grands Prix in the near future then

 

[MCLS]

They're paying that much just to build the circuit as well, that's before any contractual agreement with Bernie for F1 races which will cost a bomb

 

[Brogan]

Not sure if there's a dedicated New Jersey thread so this will do.
Ecclestone has stated they have run out of time for 2013 so it has been "postponed" to 2014.