[Rumours] Which Circuits for FOTA championship?

[Tim Falce]

Do Mclaren still own Lydden Hill? That'd be an interesting race.

[Satorian]

Silverstone
Imola
Suzuka
Magny-Cours
Indianapolis or Watkins Glen

From the current roster, it'd be nice to get Monza and Spa.

[jab]

No-one on the FOTA side is saying how much preparation has already been done, but I gather that one of the team principals has been on the phone to several tracks which have recently hosted F1 events and are no longer hosting events, like Indianapolis, Montreal, Silverstone.

Ferrari owns Mugello, while Imola is ready to host these cars again after a major refurbishment. The teams seem to feel that the logistics of putting a new series together are not as much of a problem as is being suggested, especially getting the tracks and track operations together. The TV deals would be the tricky bit.

http://allenonf1.wordpress.com/2009/...m-silverstone/

[chillibowl]

obviously a complete pipe dream, but thinking about Heidfeld's laps at the Nordsheilfe a few years back, is would be awesome if a breakaway series, attempting to get back to its racing roots, thought about throwing an endurance event onto the schedule.

is there a racing fan in the world that would not tune in to see that?

[chillibowl]

double post, sorry.

[Satorian]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

obviously a complete pipe dream, but thinking about Heidfeld's laps at the Nordsheilfe a few years back, is would be awesome if a breakaway series, attempting to get back to its racing roots, thought about throwing an endurance event onto the schedule.

is there a racing fan in the world that would not tune in to see that?

It'd truly be too dangerous though I think. The course is huge and emergency response times to get someone into medical care after a shunt or crash would be prohibitive. I think it's already bad enough with the GT cars in the SP classes of the VLN.

[JamesH]

The problem might be that the FIA could probably stop a circuit from having ANY FIA sanctioned events if they allowed a breakaway to run there.

Pretty sure that can happen in karting (ie run a non MSA sanctioned event at a MSA track and you lose MSA support). Since MSA is beholden to FIA.....

That said, it would make a very interesting court case, certainly in Europe.

[duke_toaster]

Disclaimer : this post does not affect my view that this is just brinkmanship and is unlikely to happen outside of the land of the press release. However I am assuming it does in this scenario.

Trademarking Grand Prix is an interesting thing - if Bernie had ownership to all uses of the term Grand Prix the courts would be jammed up with him suing the IAAF, Dorna, FIM, numerous showjumping events, whoever the promoters are for Speedway Grand Prix, International Badminton Federation and half of the world's sports governing bodies and commercial promoters.

I don't think Bernie owns the name Grand Prix. He might own British Grand Prix et al et al. If he does he would have sued the IndyCar events, GPMA and GPWC.

Also, FOTA could sue under competition regulation requiring the FIA to sanction other series. Other new sports leagues have sued on competition grounds, the USFL did but it sort of killed them (winning only four US dollars in damages). I think this has been mentioned before. If the FIA start taking licences away, the circuits could sue. The only real winners

Logical venues would probably be as follows.

Valencia Ricardo Tormo : F1 grade venue, holds MotoGP, in Spain. Not that long though.
Silverstone : No FIA top level events next year, major fan interest.
Mugello : It's owned by Ferrari
Indianapolis Motor Speedway : If the FIA ban them, are Tony George, the FIM and Bill France really going to care?
Magny Cours, Valleunga and other 1T licences : Nothing to lose.
Temporary circuits : Obvious reasons.

It would be difficult to get things together to kick off in nine months time though, I'd imagine it would start in the mid-summer next year. If it ever happens.

[TWK]

Max Mosely said last month the FIA would be obligated to sanction a "breakaway" series.

[Purist]

If they have a Spanish round, do Jerez instead of Valencia, please!

This could be an excuse to get "F1" cars to race at Algarve in Portugal.

[Yannick]

01 Kyalami - South African GP
02 Dubai - Gulf GP
03 Portimao - Portuguese GP
04 Imola - Italian GP (owned by Ferrari)
05 Montreal - Canadian GP
06 Indianapolis - USA East GP
07 Magny-Cours - French GP
08 Silverstone - British GP
09 Nürburgring (not on Bernie's calendar in 2010) - German GP (they have a Mercedes grandstand)
10 A1-Ring - Austrian GP (owned by Red Bull)
11 Helsinki Thunder - Finnish GP (the Finnish fans deserve a race)
12 Circuito Ricardo Tormo (for the summit of the 2 series in Valencia) - Spanish GP
13 by picking up the A1GP package, they could choose between Zandvoort and Mexico City - but are these safe enough? Not really.
14 Las Vegas - USA West GP
15 Portrero de los Funes - Argentinian GP (would they be able to lure this one away from the FIA-GT?)
16 Fuji - Japanese GP (owned by Toyota)
17 Surfers Paradise - Australian GP (that would be included in picking up the A1GP package, too)

[jab]

Montreal, Indy, Magny-Cours, Silverstone and Mugello and/or Imola are dead certs, I'd say. Also you'd have to look at Zeltweg/Spielberg, now known as the Red Bull-Ring. Monza's also said to be out of contract...

Jerez would be a shrewd choice because F1 isn't going to race there again after the 1997 podium fiasco. They'd be stupid to go to Valencia, though - the street race is all about regional politics (not going to go away just because you race at a different circuit), and the permanent circuit would be dreadful

I'd like to think we get some new circuits like Brno and Algarve, and perhaps older circuits like Zandvoort and Kyalami, but for most, if they're not up to the standard now, they're not going to suddenly come up to standard for the manufacturers - they'll still want corporate facilities as they're the ones that demanded them to start with. So some of the better tracks people will hope for, like Potrero, are just fantasies

They'll still be looking for races in the new markets - Zhuhai would be a candidate for a Chinese round, for instance. Also the financial draw of the Middle East will still gain it a round - Losail or Dubai, maybe. Maybe some of the Tilkerings like Sakhir and Sepang could wangle rounds in each series

But you're not going to see any new street races suddenly conjured up in, what, 6 months. Otherwise they'll be living on an A1ian existance where you have a calendar with half the rounds unconfirmed

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Yannick

<SNIP>

For the first year, if this even goes ahead, I don't think we'll be seeing a calendar of more than eight races, and I doubt we will see the season starting before July.

[Andy77]

I think I read one or two years ago that Monza became the subject of noise pollution regulations which ended up in the loss of FIA-WTCC round so far.

[RaceFreak]

If this break-series REALLY does hit the streets, the money-cockroach Bernie won't be far behind. Wherever there's money Bernie isn't far-off. Once he realizes CDC is dead he'll be looking to make a comeback; he's that kind of guy.

Venues for an alternate series would be easy to come by in this economy. FIA be damned, the circuit owners want butts in their seats. Given the number of Middle East investors in the series, Dubai et al will be in the mix. Not so sure about Bahrain/Turkey/KL. Lausitzring has already come out supporting a race there. You KNOW Tony George would like to break-it-off in Bernie's azz. Montreal: you bet. Magny Cours, for sure. Mugelo: does what Ferrari wants.

That's 6 circuits right off the top of my pointy little head. Only need 12 for a viable first-year series. No sweat. TV rights ? The IRL worked out their package in 3 months last year so it's not an insurmountable problem. Course workers could be a problem, but should the FOTA hire their own professional corner-workers and bring them along to each race (expensive for the first year, but do-able) they could work around the FIA all together. God knows the sport has needed professional stewards for years. No better time than now.

It would take a 24/7 schedule, but the entire shebang is do-able. Problem is they can't afford to waffle about trying to get FIA/CDC to reconsider. The longer they wait the less tenable their position is.