Brit GP off '05 schedule?

[dando]

linky (http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=1892156)


The two sides were reported to be around $4.8 million apart on the cost of rights to stage the race.

Any bets Silverstone end up like the Canadian GP, and gets added back to the schedule?

-Kevin

[chop456]

Naturally. Last weekend I scammed a free guest house near the track if I want it. :cry:

[4wheeldrifter]

Naturally. Last weekend I scammed a free guest house near the track if I want it. :cry:

Now, perhaps, you know why it was available in the first place.

Sorry.

[pinniped]

It's all a negotiation. Bernie has been dissatisfied with the facilities for years...I anticipate that if a suitable alternative is offered it will be back on calendar, if not this year then next.

[Methanolandbrats]

Naturally. Last weekend I scammed a free guest house near the track if I want it. :cry: Quit whining. You can always go to China. In a few years China will the center of Global Motorsport. :D

[chop456]

Quit whining. You can always go to China. In a few years China will the center of Global Motorsport. :D

I don't speak Chinese. With a trip to the U.K. however, all those years of English class will finally pay off.

This nonsense is getting harder and harder to swallow. Thanks, Bernie.

[ilferrari]

It's difficult to know exactly what was going on with the terms of the negotiations because neither side has given many details away. All I do know, having been to several Grands Prix at different venues, is that Silverstone and Magny-Cours are perfectly adequate venues to do the priority jobs of holding the British and French Grands Prix. It is a dangerous game to play with F1's heritage like that. I only hope that Bernie Ecclestone is playing hardball temporarily and is not as callous and myopic as he seems.



Sir Jackie Stewart expressed his dismay and disappointment last night at the decision to drop the British Grand Prix from the calendar for the first time in the 54-year history of the Formula One world championship.

Stewart, president of the British Racing Drivers Club, owners of Silverstone, the only British venue capable of hosting the race, blamed F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone and the Government for not doing enough to safeguard the oldest grand prix on the F1 calendar.

Ecclestone rejected an improved offer by the BRDC that would have guaranteed the future of the race until 2007. The BRDC offer fell £3 million per race short of the £9 million a year demanded by Ecclestone. An appeal by Stewart to the Government to make up the shortfall failed, condemning the race to its fate.

Confirmation that the Government were not prepared to offer any cash came in a letter from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to Stewart yesterday. "I'm disappointed that Bernie did not find the BRDC offer acceptable," Stewart said.

"Especially when you consider that he has effectively been paid once already in the deal struck with Interpublic [the US company that formerly held the rights to the British GP] when they bought their way out of their contract with him.

"And I regret that the Government, unlike governments in almost every other country which hosts a grand prix, have not been able to pull together a package to help the retention of the grand prix in this country.

"The Government are committed to retaining the sport and the industry and yet the loss of the race will damage the sport and the industry.

"The Government's figures showed revenue totalling £41 million coming from the Aylesbury Vale area as a result of the race last year. That will be lost. There is also a threat to jobs in the various businesses that support the motor sport industry.

We have been campaigning as a club in recent years for the Government to support a major capital investment programme for a centre of motor sport excellence at Silverstone. We have discussed various financial options with the Government - none of which has been accepted. Where is the delivery of Sports Minister Richard Caborn's promise in July 2003 for the Government to `put its money where its mouth is'?"


Ecclestone, frustrated at the failure of the BRDC to raise funds against the equity held in 800 acres of prime English countryside in Northamptonshire, compounded the BRDC's misery by keeping them guessing about his decision for most of the day.

Though Ecclestone had confirmed his intentions to journalists early yesterday morning, the BRDC did not formally learn of the loss of the grand prix until late in the afternoon. At one point during lunch, Ecclestone refused to take a call from Stewart, who himself was responding to information passed to him via The Daily Telegraph, explaining that he was in a restaurant.

Unrepentant, Ecclestone said: "They came to me with a letter which more or less said, 'take it or leave it'. The obvious thing they should know is that when they say that to me, that is an opportunity to leave it. I put up a third of the money for the improvements at the circuit and all they did was build car parks. That's it. They paid nothing for the circuit in the first place.

"I want to deal with a commercial organisation, not a gentlemen's club, which is what has been happening at Silverstone for far too long. I have given them their chances for years. I even offered to go into a joint venture deal with them to help out, but they refused that. I try to be fair and honest with everybody.

"The deal I offered them was already on the old terms and the cheapest in Europe and the rest of the world. It was a really super deal. We have gone along with them for a long time but I couldn't do it any more. They don't want to take a risk. In fact, they don't want to do anything that doesn't suit them."

The FIA, the world governing body, confirmed to the BRDC last night that the British GP would not be on the provisional list submitted to the World Council on Oct 13. Neither will the French Grand Prix, which was also culled to comply with an FIA ruling, limiting the 2005 calendar to 17 races.

http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2004/10/01/smgars01.xml

[Steve99]

"And I regret that the Government, unlike governments in almost every other country which hosts a grand prix, have not been able to pull together a package to help the retention of the grand prix in this country."

Here is part of the problem. Governments shouldn't be competing for race dates. Do we really need to line Bernie's pocket with taxpayer's money.

[formulaben]

Why doesn't ChampCar get a race there? It would be 1/5 the cost of F1 for the BRDC, and certainly Justin Wilson has a much better chance of winning than DC or Button. Hell, maybe DC would race there as a one-off next year! It just might make Bernie think twice about turning the screws...

[ilferrari]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2876&item=5127888055&rd=1

Someone really doesn't like it... :laugh: :thumbup:

[formulaben]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2876&item=5127888055&rd=1

Someone really doesn't like it... :laugh: :thumbup:


Too funny!

[oddlycalm]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2876&item=5127888055&rd=1

Someone really doesn't like it... :laugh: :thumbup:

The seller made no mention of the awful haircut or the advanced age and high mileage of the goods offered. I see there were no bids... :D

oc