china, India, Russia?

[paddywic]

Call me an F1 snob, but does anyone feel F1 is losing it's character by venturing to distant circuts,?? maybe it's about finance, but I'm not to sure weather India, Russia,..etc have what one might call pedigree?

Could the same be said for any of the existing GP's when they were introduced?

I guess The F1 world Championship should be "WORLD". But the problem is, some countries may have to lose their GP's in order to facilitate the new races,
debate

[ralf fan]

I like that we are going into distant countries. Umm....... otherwise we shouldnt have SUZUKA,INDY, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia and basically wed have 1 gp a month!! And all these mentioned provide amazing GP's!
The more GP's the merrier provided that the tracks are quality and can provide good racing so that they are not added just for the heck of it!!

[DNQ]

The thing is though, when the GP went to Australia, there had already been 4 WDC's credited to Aussie drivers, an Australian owned team with a Constructors Cup credited to it, over half a century of Non-Championship Grand Prix's, a strong car industry, and a massive network of domestic Touring Cars, Sports Cars, Open Wheelers etc.

When the GP goes to Bahrain, it will have done nothing to deserve it.

[paddywic]

A GP a week would be great, season starting in early Feb through NOV, but it is unlikely.
I would hate to see, Belgium go altogether, thankfully it's back. Britain could go, France, canada, even italy apparantly!

F1 is just evolving and incorporating a huge and growing interest form the likes of russia and china, but it would be a shame if F1 lost it's track heritage along the way.

Although, I nice excuse to visit China.

[Cobra]

Theres nothing snobby about it it is all about TV money it has to be and if that is the case then it will lose its character.
No-one can believe that a working Indian man will be able to afford to watch a GP and that being the case there will be race after race of empty grandstands and where is the character in that. Imagine how many tellys there will be in ten years though in india and China (both emerging as strong economies) now who was the character that thought of that...

[ralf fan]

Originally posted by DNQ
When the GP goes to Bahrain, it will have done nothing to deserve it.

Well thats exactly WHY a GP is going to Bahrain, to increase the popularity of the sport! From what i've heard there are quite a few fans out there and maybe that in itself should be enough.
Again i say, the track should be quality and if there's room for another GP then Why not? we need 17 at least i feel.

[esorniloc]

Does any think there should be non-championship races in these countries first to see how the event goes before they get full championship GP?

[ralf fan]

well i dont really see if there'll be any use for a non-championship race!! teams will we trying new parts and race setups and ultimately the race will be a drab!!
the drivers will be fairly relaxed and wont give 100 percent as they know they have nothing to lose

[esorniloc]

Well the non-championship races would gives these new coutries a trial at hosting a GP to see how it goes and maybe give teams a chance to give some testers a go or run 3rd development cars, I really doubt that would be drab????

[ralf fan]

I dunno dirvers fighting for WDC pts etc has a charm of its own........
But as you say it could be interesting if the testers and some others were given the seats rather than normal drivers. They'd be fighting for a future drive hence we could see the some interesting racing ............ but anyway i doubt Bernie would hold duch a GP!

[DriverT]

Basically in those three countries, there are at least 2.5 BILLION people. So I think it's good to deliver it to an increased audience. And the TV money you get from that will be bigggg.

So there's nothing wrong with it at all. But they should be put on as extra events, rather than taking over from circuits like Spa, etc. Mind you, I'd quite like to see the back of Nurburgring, A1-Ring and Hungaroring. Waste of time, those.

[BootsOntheSide]

The idea of some more non-championship races sounds great to me, but the thing is, a lot of expense is being gone to in building the enw tracks, and the local companies (and Governments) won't commit if all thwy're guaranteed is a couple of races which won't match the profits of the championship races.

A rac ein China has beena dream of Bernie's for many eyars, and Bahrain is an exciting new market - sadly, only a market. Any racing interest is currently small,a dn will remain so unless the first race is a thriller. then again, Hugnary has taken off and done well.

[DriverT]

Yeah, China is an absolutely HUGE market. 1.3Bn people! It should be great!

[Armco Bender]

They could drop the slot car race at Monaco and go somewhere else that has a proper race track.

[Don K]

I would expect there would be a lot of interest for non-championship F1 races in countries that have lost their only F1 race.

At this moment, we still have a lot of championship races in Europe.

So I think it would be a good idea to have a large part of the world championship races in "distant" places (all over the world), and non-championship races in some european countries that used to host a F1 race.

As all teams are based in Europe, joining a non-championship race in Europe will be a lot cheaper for them than joining a non-championship race 10,000 miles away.
(And most sponsors will probably have lots of potential customers in those countries).

And of course all teams will show up on the championship races, even if they are run 10,000 miles away.

[paddywic]

Ah Man, et tu Armco? If there is only one race a year, it has to be Monaco! Stolidus Armco, Monaco is F1.

[GP Racer]

Europe, America, and Japan, have had long and wonderful love affairs with the automobile, and that has fueled our passion for racing. Russia, China, and India have never had that, basically because most people in these countries have never even owned one! Most don't even know how to drive, let alone race. So why would they be attracted to F1 then?

America could use another GP. Its big enough, and its a proven market, as Indy draws the most fans of the season.

[esorniloc]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
The idea of some more non-championship races sounds great to me, but the thing is, a lot of expense is being gone to in building the enw tracks, and the local companies (and Governments) won't commit if all thwy're guaranteed is a couple of races which won't match the profits of the championship races.

Well my suggestion was for the first race (or maybe second) race to be non-championship so they could iron out bugs in hosting an event, giving teams track time at places they can't really test for the following year and allowing test and development drivers (maybe even local drivers - if they have any) a chance to shine, with world championship races comming in the following year.

If these races were say in Feb, before the season starts, it would be good for the teams to see how the cars go on track, as apposed to the huge amount of testing that goes on in Febuary time!

[DriverT]

Originally posted by Armco Bender
They could drop the slot car race at Monaco and go somewhere else that has a proper race track.

Oh come on...

[DNQ]

Originally posted by ralf fan
Well thats exactly WHY a GP is going to Bahrain, to increase the popularity of the sport!

So, dropping GP's in Canada (population about 30 million) and Austria (population about 10 million) and going to Bahrain (population about half a million) is going to increase the popularity of Formula One?

Originally posted by esorniloc
Does any think there should be non-championship races in these countries first to see how the event goes before they get full championship GP?

Yes.

Put in a big cash prize and the drivers will try.

[Jukebox]

Just try to imagine the thrill of a new venue with a totally different weather conditions and circuit layout. Teams will have to work extra harder in terms of car setup etc as they are totally unaware of what it's goin to be like since no one has ever raced there, so from there we'll see which team has the ability to get the best setup.

Circuits that they've been racing year after year would not produce the best out of em since they have collected enough datas from previous years to be used. It's a total challenge when week after week they have to change their setups because of the geographical factor of each country in different continents.

It's exciting....

[DNQ]

Originally posted by Jukebox
It's exciting....

Go and say that to F1 fans in Austria/Belgium/Canada and possibly soon France...

[Jukebox]

Originally posted by DNQ
Go and say that to F1 fans in Austria/Belgium/Canada and possibly soon France...

I know everyone have different views and yours are one of the many majority that would attend/watch the gp for the sake of seeing the cars race against eachother but mine was purely from the aero and technical aspect of the car setups and the little people behind the scene who have to work like dogs every race weekends.

Those countries' race fans should blame their own government or sporting agencies for letting the race slip off their hands. So there's no point in criticizing new countries for securing gp rounds.

[Gt_R]

Part of F1's appeal is the prestige and heritage of F1. It's romantic to have historical Indy mixing with prestigious Monaco and classical Spa and timeless Monza. Then it's nice to balance it with great driver circuit like Suzuka to modern facilities like Malaysia (pity it's poorly kept) to beatiful countryside Austria and technically challenging Barcelona. So in fact, we have a mixture of circuits to not make it a repeatitive event.

But then comes along with character-less circuit designs with NO history, no prestige, no feelings...but for a rich government who rather spend millions on such a luxury event than sort out the inherent problem faced by the majority of the countries poor.

India and China...what are they thinking of? And that's adding to the woes we already have seeing Hungary...

[Jay]

Before you go blaming governments, consider that the governments in the western world aren't going to bend to a sport, even if it does bring in money to the economy - right or wrong, they have the best interests of their citizens in mind beyond the almighty buck. Like it or not, the governments of the western world are almost unanimously deciding that tobacco sponsorship should end. F1 has to deal with it and they can either adapt like every other business, or cry like babies that their needs aren't being met and threaten to or head elsewhere.

Then you have countries like China that will do ANYTHING to get a Grand Prix...pay off whatever officials they have to with whatever they have to, eliminate whatever opposition there is through any means, and give into every little demand of F1 - well maybe that's where F1 wants to be and what F1 wants to do. That doesn't mean you as a fan have to support it.

That's why though I still watch the races, I'm sick of this series - what is it about? money? prestige? silly bickering over the actions of people you've never met and never will because they don't want to see you, the fact that someone can pay a few months salary to travel to a race and get less out of it than they would going to their local club race?

The question of whether racing is a sport or a business comes up often - obviously the money has to come from somewhere, but then it comes to what is more important, having a $300 million dollar operation payed for by companies that kill people as their business or racing cars? Clearly F1 has decided it's more about the former - they could care less about technology, cars, the automotive industry - your car, motorsports, racing, sport and everything that one thinks of when they think of motor racing - they care about one thing, and one thing alone - making as much money as possible ANY way possible.