i would venture to say russia, korea, middle east for sure, and more than likely 2 more asian countries with finland thrown in there now too. kimi and heikki are an ever growing presence.
Malaysia, Singapore, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, India, Spain, Monaco, Germany, Valencia, Japan, South Korea
Unconfirmed GPs:(but confirmed Grands Prix in 2009 or 2010 or currents in 2008)
Australia, Canada, France, England, Hungary, Turkey, Italy, Belgium
Unconfirmed GPs: (new or returning Grands Prix)
United States, Russia, Czech Republic, Portugal, Qatar, Argentina
Thank you
well it gets a whole lot weirder (and I'm not talking baout the MI5 agent's wife involvement) when you consider that Bernie wants to emasculate
the FIA (and here people thought Bernie and Max were joined at the hips):
Mosley reveals that he, on behalf of the FIA, is battling with F1 commercial rights holders Bernie Ecclestone and financial backers CVC for control of F1, and thinks it vital he sees out those discussions.
In fact, he thinks the negotiations are so important that: "it would be irresponsible, even a breach of duty, to walk away from (them)."
In the letter, Mosley reveals: "We are in the middle of a renegotiations of the 100 year commercial agreement between the FIA and the Formula One Commercial Rights Holder (CRH). In effect, this agreement governs Formula One.
"The CRH originally asked us to accept changes to the agreement in order to reduce the CRH's liability to tax. These we can probably concede. But the CRH has also now asked for control over the F1 regulations and the right to sell the business to anyone - in effect to take over F1 completely. I do not believe the FIA should agree to this.
"To do so would be to abandon core elements of the FIA's patrimony including, for example, our ability to protect the traditional grands prix. We would also be weaker financially but, even more importantly, we would put at risk the viability of the FIA as the regulatory authority of international motor sport and lose a valuable communication platform for the wider interests of the organisation."
That's not to say Max has to be in the negotiations but it does point to a lot of backstabbing for control.
The loss of traditional GP's to the highest bidders ...yikes !
I know I'm going to get slammed but this is one of the reason why I dislike some aspects of F1. Barhain spend 250 million to make a race circuit that hardly gets used during the year for one purpose, to bring in F1 to the Middle East. This is BS. Everyone in F1 from the very top to the fan base level talks about cutting cost but building large facilities like these aren't the way to do it.
Dissing hardcore F1 centers to go to other places where neither a driver or a team has a representation from that nation in F1 history!? Doesn't make sense to me.
I know I'm going to get slammed but this is one of the reason why I dislike some aspects of F1. Barhain spend 250 million to make a race circuit that hardly gets used during the year for one purpose, to bring in F1 to the Middle East. This is BS. Everyone in F1 from the very top to the fan base level talks about cutting cost but building large facilities like these aren't the way to do it.
Dissing hardcore F1 centers to go to other places where neither a driver or a team has a representation from that nation in F1 history!? Doesn't make sense to me.
well in F1's defense, they arent paying for the circuit, the country or principality is... so they arent driving up the costs of F1 by doing this. if a governing body is dumb enough to think spending that money is worth it... the more power to them. they will be gone in less that 10 years more than likely (hopefully) and more places will see that the initial cost and re occuring upkeep are not worth the time and money and then all will return to normal (hopefully). we do get the occasional diamond in the rough though, and istanbul is the perfect example of that. bahrain would be nice if they track wasnt surrounded by dead vegetation and sand. if many of these "new" tracks had the woodsy layout of oh say Spa... im sure most people would think differently about them.
I think it would not be a problem to have all tickets sold and a lot of sausages and beer, too.
Problem is, where is the track? There are no race tracks in Finland which could be used for a F1 race, when we look at what kind of level is needed for a modern F1 track. We do have nice small-ish tracks like the one at Ahvenisto, Hämeenlinna (be sure to watch a race there if you ever come to Finland not in Winter), but they are no-where near the level what is needed for a modern F1 race. This means that some private investors should bring in the money to build a track. Private because I don't see the Finnish state being a significant sponsor. I think that a track of the level seen in F1 nowadays would get quite a lot of use in Finland also outside an F1 race weekend so the track would not have been built only for the F1 race.
A street race in a big city could be arranged with relatively short notice, I think. We had a DTM race in the streets of Helsinki, as an example, and it went very well.
Problem is also that the about 5.3 million of us Finns is not enough to be 'an attractive market'.
Weather is not a problem, as long as the race would not be held in the Winter months. Studded tires would not help the F1 cars enough I think. Also beer and your beard would freeze in the grandstands
Unfortunately, the interests of Bernie lie elsewhere. He likes to take F1 to new markets, and Finland is not a new market. We are already hooked.
