Nigel Rahal - 25 June 2009 12:37 PM

These forums never cease to amaze. How many times is it for this topic? 100? 1,000? It's like a significant portion of the posters here have short-term memory loss.

Here's the only two words that matter when it comes to a U.S. race.

SANCTIONING FEE

Forget about what tracks are suitable for F1 (Indy is the only one at present), forget about whether the teams want to be here, Ecclestone getting paid is all that matters.

Right now, no one in the U.S. wants to pay his ransom, which sucks as a fan, but I can't blame any track or government entity for not wanting to do so.

The U.S. might get a race when Ecclestone is no longer in power or when he dies. Maybe.

Cloudmans list of potential sites for a United States Grand Prix is indeed impressive -- though it left out the new Barber Motorsports Park Park in Alabama, which I'm told is built to "everyone's standards, Formula One, AMA, MotoGP, etc."

However, Nigel Rahal said the magic word -- Sanctioning Fees. As it stands now, CVC and Bernie Ecclestone have huge loan payments to make, so they can't back down on the price of a Grand Prix in any area. American tracks can't afford to spend that kind of money, or the cost of upgrading their facilities to Formula One's decadantly oppulent standards. Or both.

Tony George tried playing Bernie's game and from what I hear, lost his shirt; or rather, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway corporation and the other Human/George businesses lost money. In fact, it got so bad that Tony George's own family -- mother, sister,et al -- sacked him as the speedway operator. Now all they'll let him play with is his little guinnea pig, the Indy Racing League.

I don't know what Indy spent for Formula One, with its special pit facilities, special garages, special press facilities, upgraded safety features for the road course and of course all the hooting, hollering b$#@hing and moaning from the glitteratti. And of course the multi-million dollar sanctioning fees, television fees, a big slice of the gate recipts and so on. From what I hear, about all they got was the beer money.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent bringing Formula One to Indy; they lost money on every race and they got treated like dirt. (Remember the six-car race in 2005?) American track operators are in business to make money, or at least break even, not for the "world prestige" of hosting a Grand Prix. They will have learned from Tony George's mistakes and will not repeat them.

I've heard a rumour that Bernie approached the MidOhio Sports Car Course folks and offered them a race date. They asked how much they'd be paid and Bernie told how much they'd have to pay him for the privilege. I don't know what their reply was, but I beieve it can be summed up in three words (witha propriate finger pointing): "You!" "Door!" "OUT!!!!"

This explains the popularity of NASCAR and other American series -- they pay the track to race. Formula One damands the track pay them. No sane businessman will bite for something like that. Unless and until the money flow changes direction, no Formula One in America.

The one place the numbers add up is Vegas. 200,000 extra wallets would bring a lot more than $50M into the casinos.

hhmag70 - 25 June 2009 06:45 PM

To answer your question at the start of this thread; no.

Today Luca let out a bit more telling information on the compromises in an recent interview, including the tracks that might be next in line:

"Silverstone was saturated [but], in Istanbul, the drivers were on first name terms with the spectators. I realise that Turkey might bring more money [to FOM], but racing culture has to count for something too."

Prior to the threat of a breakaway being ended by Wednesday's accord between FOTA and the FIA, a calendar purporting to have been pieced together by the teams' body appeared in the media, including discarded F1 venues such as Imola, Montreal and Mexico City alongside current incumbents Silverstone, Suzuka, Monza and Monaco

Mexico and Montreal are the only two venues he lists in North America.

option is prime - 26 June 2009 01:08 PM

hhmag70 - 25 June 2009 06:45 PM

To answer your question at the start of this thread; no.

Today Luca let out a bit more telling information on the compromises in an recent interview, including the tracks that might be next in line:

"Silverstone was saturated [but], in Istanbul, the drivers were on first name terms with the spectators. I realise that Turkey might bring more money [to FOM], but racing culture has to count for something too."

Prior to the threat of a breakaway being ended by Wednesday's accord between FOTA and the FIA, a calendar purporting to have been pieced together by the teams' body appeared in the media, including discarded F1 venues such as Imola, Montreal and Mexico City alongside current incumbents Silverstone, Suzuka, Monza and Monaco

Mexico and Montreal are the only two venues he lists in North America.

Even though it wasn't explicitly mentioned in that article, the leaked calendar most definitely included Indy.

GreyWolf74 wins.

He sums up everything in his post; no further discussion needed.

"This explains the popularity of NASCAR and other American series -- they pay the track to race. Formula One damands the track pay them. No sane businessman will bite for something like that. Unless and until the money flow changes direction, no Formula One in America."

Maelochs - 26 June 2009 02:12 PM

GreyWolf74 wins.

He sums up everything in his post; no further discussion needed.

"This explains the popularity of NASCAR and other American series -- they pay the track to race. Formula One damands the track pay them. No sane businessman will bite for something like that. Unless and until the money flow changes direction, no Formula One in America."

Not quite true - both Montreal and Mexico City are in America .

Agreed that we're not going to see it in the US until Bernie either agrees to be more reasonable with the sanctioning fees or is forced out in 2012.

Until BE runs out of tracks willing to pony up his gigantic sanctioning fee there will be no F1 race in the U.S.
Sooner or later the sanctioning fee balloon that keeps rising will burst and settle to earth.

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/148933/1/entertainment_classic_tracks_on_fota_agenda.html

Luca di Montezemolo:

"The end of the controversy means that we can work to achieve our objectives, which are to cut costs and put on a better show - and get the races back out on the circuits that count, in Italy, Germany and France."

Luca di Montezemolo :

"Silverstone was saturated [but], in Istanbul, the drivers were on first name terms with the spectators. I realise that Turkey might bring more money [to FOM], but racing culture has to count for something too."

There's plenty of racing culture in the Americas and yet, it isn't listed amongst the "priorities" where races should return. This is perhaps not intentional but a comment in passing. Nevertheless, the previously bypassed European tracks may be the first on the list before the Americas.

Talks for Montreal returning are at least underway with CVC/Ecclestone. Hopefully they'll use the FIA suggested contractor for the track re-surfacing this time and prevent a repeat of 2006 and 2007 with the track breaking up by race day and only the racing line being the usable surface to drive on.

There has been no title sponsor to come forward for the USGP. At Montreal, it was RBS and either the national airline or a major Canadian brewery. Does anyone know which title sponsor would take the lead this time for either countries ?

Luca may not have mentioned North America in that specific interview, but he most definitely does mention it in other statements.

Take a look at his answers to customer questions on Ferrari's website here: http://www.ferrari.com/English/News/Pages/090626_F1_chairman_replying.aspx , specifically this one:

Dear Ivana,
Thank you for your message. What I can guarantee you is that Ferrari and FOTA are busy to keep the spirit and the essence of F1 alive, constantly listening to our fans. As far as the tracks are concerned where the races are held, the historical ones have always had a great fascination; for Ferrari and for all the other teams it will be important to get back to North America.

Personally, I'll be satisfied if we can get Montreal back - I'm on the west coast, so it really isn't any more inconvenient for me to get to than Indy (albeit somewhat more expensive), and the city certainly does sound like a more interesting travel destination.

Indy!! Only hours from MY HOUSE...What other incentive does B.E. need
I would go to any venue and make it a weekend. The downfall of Indy is that I go to work on Friday anyway!!
I would love to see them at Road Atlanta or Road America. Daytona would be massive also but we don't want another tire scandal...I sat through that one...as I went to all 8 Indy races...Who is responsible for marketing the race? Whoever it is...They were doing a PI$$POOR job of it. I guess it was the Speedway who needed to market it as they had already paid Bernie...