And Canada's GP goes to...

[paul-collins]

Bahrain.

http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/A...TPSports/Other

[BootsOntheSide]

I can really sympathise with Canada on this one. The situation with tobacco advertising has a lot of loopholes, illogicities and contradictions,a dn isn't a valid reason for losing a consistantly thrilling and well attended race.

Bahrain could do well though, if the track and facilities are up to scratch and the fans take to it.

[tally-bally-ho]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$Bahrain$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[ralf fan]

Isn't there anyway we can have both Canada and Bahrain??
The more GP's the better.These 3 weeks gap su*k

[Adam43]

F1-live.com have their latest (educated?) guess

7 March: Australian GP
21 March: Malaysian GP
4 April: Bahrain GP
18 April: Spanish GP
25 April: San Marino GP
9 May: European GP
23 May: Monaco GP
20 June: United States GP
4 July: French GP
11 July: British GP
25 July: German GP
15 August: Hungarian GP
29 August: Belgian GP
12 September: Italian GP
26 September: Brazilian GP
10 October: Japanese GP
24 October: Chinese GP

Will Bahrain GP (also) start at four minutes past four?

They are still keeping Brazil near the end of the year.

Oh and, of course, 29th August Yippee!

[Snrub]

Since this issue is about marketing, Bahrain makes a lot of sense over Canada. From a marketing perspectiv the median disposible income in the middle east is like $1000 USD per year. Sponsors have a lot of potential there. Expect the UK GP to be traded for the antartic GP for 2005 and the German GP for the upper mongolian desert GP.

[Jay]

I wonder how much money, women, ??? changed hands in this deal...

[Adam43]

That was not really necessary. F1 Forum.

Anyway, I wonder if Bahrain will have a similar situation to Hungary with dust across the starting grid. Of course it depends exactly where they build it, but in my mind's eye I imagine it to be a place where it could be a problem. Maybe I'm wrong.

[JR Ewing]

Not so much dust - more like a Bedouin caravan.

[Asp]

We have a solution we can add to the sand to make it gel together if we need it. That will stop it from lifting and blowing about.

Peter Hansen, circuit manager at Bahrain

[Adam43]

None F1 posts moved to here:

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...threadid=43132

[Jay]

I was serious with my last comment Adam, and I do feel it is relevant to Formula 1. To get the Olympics countries have offered the IOC gifts such as money, alcohol and women... I have no reason to believe some woulnd't to get a Grand Prix. There are many countries out there that would do almost ANYTHING to get a GP - heck there were govts willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars from who knows where to build a circuit that will only be used once a year for the Grand Prix - something that would likely never happen in most western nations. I see no reason why if the United States was willing to give Olympic delegates prostitutes, that some with much less public scrutiny on their affairs would not do the same if not go further.

I suppose the other thing is that, while markets for tobacco are shribbling up in the western world as most people are now aware of what teh stuff actually does to you - markets for tobacco are growing hugely in Asian and most developing nations. The tobacco companies market smoking in China as soemthing done by westerners - and thus highly desirable (it's fashionable there to act western). So, in another way, the tobacco companies have good reason to want developing countries to have Grand Prix.

In some ways, F1 has to ask itself, what does it care about more? Being the marketing campaign of tobacco companies or racing being the top-level racing series for Europe and North America.

[Adam43]

Some things about this topic are relevant to F1, I agree.

However, a discussion about the morals, social implications, political reasons behind and of advertising tobacco (or anything else - which the thread had become) does not.

Tobacco advertising is an important part of F1. The fact that is and how it effects the sport is a valid discussion here. However a discussion about the rights and wrongs of smoking, advertising tobacco and all other economic and sociological effect isn't. It isn't as if I moved it a million miles away either. Maybe a few more people found another part of ten-tenths, which is good.

How this effects Canada isn't relevant here either. How it effects F1 is. That is not to say it isn't important - far from it. If anything moving it outside the insular world of an F1 forum makes it more important.

A thread that discusses if (and why) Canada (or anywhere else) taxes cigarettes is not really F1.

Sorry.

This post is off topic, but I felt worth posting here as a one off. Please PM me (or someone else if you wish). Of course the actual moral issues behind tobacco advertising in Canada o rin general can be discusse here
http://tentenths.com/forum/sho...&threadid=43132

[Jay]

If Formula 1 is saying that it will only race where it is allowed to advertise cigarettes though, isn't that saying that the most important thing about F1 is that it is a marketing vehicle for tobacco companies?

I guess that's all F1 is... a huge marketing campaign for tobacco.

[Adam43]

A valid point and F1 related. It is annoying (to say the least) that F1 has the outside influences and isn't just about the racing. In a few years maybe this will be different.

I wonder if the calendar will change dramatically when (and if) nowhere has tobacco advertising. Will it suddenyl revert to a 1980s (or whenever) look because of this or are there other influences?