French Grand Prix cancelled! / will it stay cancelled? (merged)

[PaulSands]

Nothing is sacred in F1
I think in all honesty us Europeans had better get used to the idea that F1 as we know it isn't going to around as a live specatcle for much longer, certainly not unless we are happy to take long haul flights every two weeks

[Rob29]

Originally posted by skycafe
Hated the track, but the French GP is one of the traditional races. This is all a joke isn't it?

Tradition counts for nothing with Bernie.French GP is the original-started 1906.In reality what takes place at Magny Cours is just 1/16 of Bernies circus; nothing of the tradition remains.Only Monaco & Monza retain anything of their original circuits.

[Adam43]

No need for another thread on the same subject, I'll merge the poll into the other thread

I find the poll a little confusing. It seems to be saying
"Yes of course it will [be left of the calendar]"
"No [it will be on the calendar], not a big loss"
I'm just going to change it to yes or no, so it is just an opinion on whether it will be missed and not whether it used to be.

Ah, re-read again and it is just whether people will be disapointed with eh tlack of the French GP. Ah that makes sense.

Sorted it out!

read again! It still provoked the same king of discussion and the same points - stays merged!

[Super Tourer]

Another interesting off season twist. To add to the couple of teams struggling financially, we now have the (first) circuit dropping off the calendar due to financial problems.

This heralds a possibly interesting time for F1. I will expand on that.

1. Yet more countries have signed up to the WHO tobacco advertising ban, significantly I believe China has or is about to sign up to this as well. This means that in fact the tobacco ad ban has arrived in many new GP venues,that Bernie was moving races to.

2. Canada has set a precedent, by paying teams directly to race as a way of softening the tobacco ban blow.

Not many countries will follow this route as it either requires private cash to be spent on an unviable race financially, or require public money, and not many politicians will sanction tax payers cash to line the pockets of such a cash rich 'sport' involving some of the worlds wealthiest companies and people.

Note: Pre the F1 organization we have today (in other words pre-Bernie), individual circuits/promoters used to pay attendance money to teams and drivers negotiated per individual.

3. We could be at the start of an interest rate rise cycle across Europe, which will impact on consumer spending which has largely fuelled the economies across Europe and helped the car makers to huge sales and profits on the back of cheap finance deals.

We could be at a point where, at the same time, Tobacco advertising has to go, and the car makers and big sponsors in F1 start to feel the effect of a consumer slowdown, trimming their own budget input.

Whatever happened to all the cost cutting measures the FIA were proposing, as it seems they may be needed in the medium term, along with a way to reduce costs for circuit's hosting the GP's.

Yet, the Bernie machine rumbles on.

Just a thought!