Canadian GP dropped from 2009 calendar

[Knowlesy]

Argh, noooo!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71205

[Bononi]

Must have some connection with this year's fiasco ???

[jonm2]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Argh, noooo!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71205

Why exactly has it been dropped? The report doesnt really give a reason...

[davyboy]

Incredible... this is a sad day for Formula One.

[Raglanparade]

not enough cash to pay bernie...

[Oldtony]

Don't bet it's a final decision Knowlsey. Most years there are some problems getting the final contract agreed in Canada but in the end it comes through.
If Canada doesn't happen it will be interesting to hear the reaction from the major sponsors involved in F1 to the prospect of no race in North America.
Even in a recesion that is still a huge market, particularly for the vehicles and products of the companies involved in F1.

[Bononi]

I believe you're right, it's not the first time the Canadian GP has been dropped just to be included again sometime in the future.

[Naruto]

crap, I was planing on that going up their in 2009 for my honeymoon

[Pingguest]

No race in North America then? Well, some sponsors won't be very happy with that. It isn't good for Formula 1 creditability as a world championship eighter.

[Hesketh]

Ile de Notre Dame out.
Abu Dhabi in.

We live in sad world.

[Naruto]

well only Hermann Tilke designed tracks are allowed in F1 these days

[Rockmunky]

Goodbye Formula 1.
I'm sick of it now...

[Burnsie]

This year I haven't gone out of my way to watch a Grand Prix, unless it happened to be on TV when I was at home. However, along with the Italian, Belgian and Australian races, the Canadian GP is one of the few races that I would try to make time for. Well there's another one gone from the calendar to make room for more nonsense. What were Mark Webber's comments regarding Bahrain...? "It's like driving around the runway at Heathrow, with a few traffic cones for corners", or words to that effect. How true.

[BootsOntheSide]

Montreal is one of the few tracks (and the only 'street' track) almost guaranteed to provide an exciting race without rain, challenging for the drivers and teams, and the only race in a key continent. So what happens in 21st century Formula One? It gets dumped in favour of another bland cookie-cutter course in a country with little or no racing enthusiasm. We've had 19 races before, why not in 2009? I hope this is Bernie bluffing again, but it seems like he chooses the circuits, Max chooses the penalties, and nobody else has any say.

[Fogelhund]

Whatever, the Bernie circus is losing relevance to me. A big fan for decades and this is just becoming a farcical black comedy routine.

[Leighton Irwin]

Maybe payback time. I think Canada voted against Mad Max.
I will pay attention to this years final races but I may not be bothered next year.
I have followed F1 since 1952 but am losing interest fast. Not in racing just F1.
I started as a spectator, marshalled, raced for 10 years and worked on race cars for another 19 years and was a director of CRDA when we ran the F1 races at Mosport. Now back to spectating. Heck, I was at Mosport last weekend.

[Marbot]

The words 'World Drivers Championship' seem to be taking on less meaning just lately.I wonder which is next-Brazil?

[ralf fan]

One of the very original tracks which always produces a good race. A very bad decision.

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by Marbot

The words 'World Drivers Championship' seem to be taking on less meaning just lately.I wonder which is next-Brazil?

Still better than the World Series of Baseball. At least Canada are in that.

I'm waiting for a reason. Obviously precedent suggests it's down to BCE playing Quebec Hold'em, but you never know.

[the sniper]

I think we should wait and see if Bernie is just playing hardball, it wouldn't be the first time. I can kind of understand if it isn't on the calendar next year though, this years race was a bit unacceptable, plus those pikies got our Martin Brundle in trouble!

[Yannick]

What a mess is this? The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Ile de Notre Dame is one of the classic circuits that shouldn't be dropped. I can imagine IndyCar might be interested in picking up the date.
Still, the track surface troubles in 2008 were quite bad.
But the pits are small, so maybe Bernie had only been waiting for a good reason to come along to drop this one?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Yannick

What a mess is this? The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Ile de Notre Dame is one of the classic circuits that shouldn't be dropped. I can imagine IndyCar might be interested in picking up the date.
Still, the track surface troubles in 2008 were quite bad.
But the pits are small, so maybe Bernie had only been waiting for a good reason to come along to drop this one?

The pits are fine. I'd love to see F1 attempt a race with the same pit row as Dover Downs.

[BootsOntheSide]

In fairness, we're in a lot of new territories now, especially in Asia and the Middle East, so the championship isn't losing its internationalness (if that's a word) per se, just drifting from a lot of racing's traditional places and classic tracks (Suzuka's gone, Silverstone's going, Hockenheim's been massacred, Spa's never secure....)

[Leighton Irwin]

It seems the Cdn. GP organizers found out the race had been dropped from the media. They have had no communication from the FIA nor were there any negotiations going on!
My latest info is they are trying to get some official response from the FIA.

[ensign14]

And I'm wondering if this is an FIA problem. Apparently there's an agreement in place with FOA until 2011. Has the FIA de-classed the circuit or something?