175 replies to this topic

[The Shadow]

Feet/meter confusion?

[Massa]

Probably.

Apparently Buxton's full of it and the garages are fine:

http://www.statesman..._formula_austin

[Massa]

Weehawken has been postponed until 2014.  No idea if there will be a replacement for 2013.  While it would save the teams to just have 19 races, TV contracts, sponsorship contracts, etc, etc. will have to be adjusted for both fewer races and losing a pretty large market for some.  I would assume they will just run 19, though, because it's too late and you can't fit anything outside of North America in there, given Montréal is a week before.

http://www.nj.com/hu...#incart_m-rpt-2

[Massa]

Ecclestone said on Sky Sports that in 2015, there will be three USGPs.  New Jersey will join in 2014, and a race in California will be added in 2015.  I know the rumors for a long time had been Long Beach in 2015.

[HandyNZL]

Laguna Seca upgraded, mate.

[freaky2]

Source?

Laguna Seca would be great!

[HandyNZL]

Why, tomato if you please...

[JHS18]

Hope it isn't Laguna. As much as as it'd be awesome to see modern F1 cars take the corkscrew, no doubt the track would have to be butchered to meet F1 safety standards first.

I'm still seething after what happened to Donington. They thought it'd be a great idea to have F1 there instead of Silverstone, when it was actually a terrible idea and damn near ruined the place. If there's going to be a third race in America, I'm not against it, just don't ruin a track like Laguna.

[HandyNZL]

Laguna has a bit of run off already, so it wouldn't be a cut and hatchet job like Donnington was...and seriously, the place could do with a splash of paint...

[Massa]

The money ain't there, but the feelings of resentment are.

You know why Laguna Seca looks like this?



And not like this?



F1.  They upgraded the track to what was then F1 spec.

So, name the Grand Prix they ran there...

...oh right, they didn't.

They aren't doing it again.

Don't get me wrong, they didn't get "screwed;" they upgraded to try to attract F1 knowing full well they might not get it.  F1 deemed the area to remote (but Elroy, TX, a town of 125, isn't) and gave the race to Phoenix, which was such a wild success they ran the race three times...

There's another thing, too.  Ecclestone doesn't like to deal with private entities.  He has a much easier time dealing with governments.  Track owners are annoying because they can't justify $35,000,000 per year as easily as a government can with "economic impact" and taxes on such a thing.  COTA got in because it was Ecclestone's buddy Tavo Hellmund (who was then essentially fired and it gave Ecclestone some annoyances).

Given that we can rule Sonoma Raceway out based on its owner (it, too, would need big pit lane upgrades for starters to make it up from Grade II status), I think we're left with a street race.  It's only convenient that the owners of the LBGP hate IndyCar, IndyCar's contract expires after 2014, Chris Pook goes to F1 races...

[Massa]

That post sounded kind of angry on my part.  HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST THINGS CONTRARY TO ME.

[HandyNZL]

Yeah, nah, grasshopper.  The race track is at Elroy precisely because there are only 100-odd residents.  If you have it near a population mass, then they will sure as the grass is green, complain about noise.  You simply can not put a race track near population these days.  (Unless you're China).

And I'd rather not have Long Beach but a proper race track.  Street races in modern machinery suck.

[Massa]

Right, but the point was they prefer to be in the actual city on a street track.  Ecclestone only considered COTA because his buddy pushed for it for half a decade.

I'd rather not have Long Beach, either.  One because I only like afternoon starts in the summer, and two because of exactly that...too many street tracks.  I just can't see either of the Grade II venues i California biting, and nothing new is going up.

[Massa]

No French Grand Prix in 2013.  Istanbul trying to get back on the calendar.

http://www.gpupdate....return-in-2013/

[JHS18]

I've brought this thread back from the grave just to show how horrendously awful the proposed Thai Grand Prix looks:



Meanwhile, this is the layout for the Russian Grand Prix:


I do wish F1 would stop using such **** street circuits sometime soon.

[Rainmaster]

Well, they don't look like they'll produce challenging races for the drivers, or much of a spectacle, but it's also difficult to tell those things from a circuit map. I'll save my complaints until I've seen a race.

[Quiet One]

How many venues are there between the established and the "almost confirmed"? Because besides the regular calendar we also have Mexico, Thailand, New Jersey, Russia, Qatar, Argentina...

A little bit too much, I'd say.

[Massa]

You might maybe possibly be able to add Long Beach to that list.

The talk has been going on forever, and now it's really been heating up across a number of channels.

I'm not sure if Ecclestone is just trying to put more pressure on the New Jersey organizers to get going, though.  I may have shared this before, but the promoter says New Jersey is 100% happening in 2014, a "source" from Tilke says it's 50/50, and Ecclestone gave it a 0% chance.  There's a lot of conflicting information that's been published.  I know the promoter was quoted as saying they got government funding to remove the crowning/banking in the roads.  This came after the promoter saying they wouldn't use any public funding at all when it was first announced, and after the "source" from Tilke said they were going to leave the crowning after Coulthard convinced the FIA it was both safe and enjoyable.

If it's real, it will have to be an all-new Long Beach.  The facilities are, in the words of our friend radical-one, subpar, and the track's even worse.  It's living on reputation and history.  One might argue that about Monaco, I guess, but what Monaco has is a wonderful display of just how much skill and precision goes into Formula One driving.  It's so on-the-edge, and it really illustrates something special about F1.  In the same way NASCAR fans like Bristol or IndyCar fans enjoy Milwaukee (yeah, I just compared Monte Carlo to the rural-est of rural America), F1 at Monaco is so cool because it's such a mismatch of machinery and circuit.  Long Beach, in my opinion, won't do that for F1, because the corners aren't really much of anything.  Monaco has variety.  It has tough corners, it has iconic corners, it has fast corners, and it all takes place so close to the barriers.  It's pure mastery of danger.  Long Beach is narrow, sure, but it's bland, right-angle turns and a shortcut through a parking lot in those confines.  Not very interesting, and mostly just a wreck-fest.

Plus, the track is too short for FIA Grade I status.

Here's a map of the circuit, with the surrounding area.  It's going to be hard to find extra room for an extended circuit...



Because of all that, and the politics going on with it as an IndyCar race, I guess I'm more inclined to believe this just a lot of talk to try to get New Jersey moving again.

[The Shadow]

I just can't wait for that meeting under that giant Exxon sign, Opera out on the turnpike, the ballet being fought out in the alley. when that streets come alive and secret debts are paid, contact made then vanish unseen. When the hungry and the hunted explode and face off each other down in the street.

Down there in 2014

Edited by The Shadow, 09 May 2013 - 10:01 AM.

[Massa]

Chris Pook (Long Beach Grand Prix, CART) has joined the Grand Prix of America as a special assistant, while F1 has pretty much refinanced the race's debt with what they call an "investment" that will be repaid once the race happens.

Ecclestone says Long Beach won't happen if New Jersey does, and Ecclestone seems adamant that New Jersey will.

http://news.yahoo.co...-174237719.html

I sure hope so.  A Grand Prix in New Jersey!  I'd get to see F1 in person!  Selfishly, nothing will convince me that this wouldn't be a great thing.

[HandyNZL]

Massa, on 15 May 2013 - 08:59 PM, said:

  Selfishly, nothing will convince me that this wouldn't be a great thing.

Lets try:

• You will need to sell your mothers car to afford a ticket
  
  
• You will be deafened by the noise
  
  
• You will have to sit outside, in the rain, with no cover, for over six hours
  
  
• You will be strip searched each time you enter the circuit
  
  
• The queues for the strip search will stretch out to Manhatten, whereby you will get arrested for loitering, and then strip searched at the cop shop
  
  
• Once you do get in you will find that your very expensive seat that you were assigned is a/ made of plastic and b/ is cracked so that it pinches your backside all day long
  
  
• You will be squeezed between two obese people, leaving you only 12" in which to comfortably sit....sideways
  
  
• The person in front will insist on wearing one of those umbrella hats, meaning that you can only see the outside of the corner that you "grand" stand is facing...in other words, you will take glee in watching tyre marbles form and have their own race towards the outside of the race track
  
  
• Being a street race, you can only see 200m (1/8th mile) of the race track - the rest of the race can only be viewed via a big screen...of which you can only see a sliver of; the bit that only half the LED's are working on, and of course with no commentary
  
  
• You will be mugged whilst walking home

Anything putting you off yet?

[Quiet One]

HandyNZL, on 16 May 2013 - 08:50 PM, said:

Lets try:

• You will need to sell your mothers car to afford a ticket
  
  
• You will be deafened by the noise
  
  
• You will have to sit outside, in the rain, with no cover, for over six hours
  
  
• You will be strip searched each time you enter the circuit
  
  
• The queues for the strip search will stretch out to Manhatten, whereby you will get arrested for loitering, and then strip searched at the cop shop
  
  
• Once you do get in you will find that your very expensive seat that you were assigned is a/ made of plastic and b/ is cracked so that it pinches your backside all day long
  
  
• You will be squeezed between two obese people, leaving you only 12" in which to comfortably sit....sideways
  
  
• The person in front will insist on wearing one of those umbrella hats, meaning that you can only see the outside of the corner that you "grand" stand is facing...in other words, you will take glee in watching tyre marbles form and have their own race towards the outside of the race track
  
  
• Being a street race, you can only see 200m (1/8th mile) of the race track - the rest of the race can only be viewed via a big screen...of which you can only see a sliver of; the bit that only half the LED's are working on, and of course with no commentary
  
  
• You will be mugged whilst walking home

Anything putting you off yet?

Doubt so, sounds like your average day at New Jersey.

[Angellica]

HandyNZL, on 16 May 2013 - 08:50 PM, said:

Lets try:

• You will need to sell your mothers car to afford a ticket
  
  
• You will be deafened by the noise
  
  
• You will have to sit outside, in the rain, with no cover, for over six hours
  
  
• You will be strip searched each time you enter the circuit
  
  
• The queues for the strip search will stretch out to Manhatten, whereby you will get arrested for loitering, and then strip searched at the cop shop
  
  
• Once you do get in you will find that your very expensive seat that you were assigned is a/ made of plastic and b/ is cracked so that it pinches your backside all day long
  
  
• You will be squeezed between two obese people, leaving you only 12" in which to comfortably sit....sideways
  
  
• The person in front will insist on wearing one of those umbrella hats, meaning that you can only see the outside of the corner that you "grand" stand is facing...in other words, you will take glee in watching tyre marbles form and have their own race towards the outside of the race track
  
  
• Being a street race, you can only see 200m (1/8th mile) of the race track - the rest of the race can only be viewed via a big screen...of which you can only see a sliver of; the bit that only half the LED's are working on, and of course with no commentary
  
  
• You will be mugged whilst walking home

Anything putting you off yet?

Well you put me off!! Not that I was ever going to go anyway, but if I'd considered it I'd have changed my mind after reading that  

[HandyNZL]

Just doing my weekly public service, Angelica (and welcome aboard)

[Massa]

HandyNZL, on 16 May 2013 - 08:50 PM, said:

Lets try:

• You will need to sell your mothers car to afford a ticket
  
  
• You will be deafened by the noise
  
  
• You will have to sit outside, in the rain, with no cover, for over six hours
  
  
• You will be strip searched each time you enter the circuit
  
  
• The queues for the strip search will stretch out to Manhatten, whereby you will get arrested for loitering, and then strip searched at the cop shop
  
  
• Once you do get in you will find that your very expensive seat that you were assigned is a/ made of plastic and b/ is cracked so that it pinches your backside all day long
  
  
• You will be squeezed between two obese people, leaving you only 12" in which to comfortably sit....sideways
  
  
• The person in front will insist on wearing one of those umbrella hats, meaning that you can only see the outside of the corner that you "grand" stand is facing...in other words, you will take glee in watching tyre marbles form and have their own race towards the outside of the race track
  
  
• Being a street race, you can only see 200m (1/8th mile) of the race track - the rest of the race can only be viewed via a big screen...of which you can only see a sliver of; the bit that only half the LED's are working on, and of course with no commentary
  
  
• You will be mugged whilst walking home

Anything putting you off yet?

No, actually.  I've either already experienced it, don't have a problem with experiecing it, or don't expect to experience it.

Now, had you added "11. You don't live in New Jersey anymore," then, yeah, that would put me off.  Travel's not my thing.

Quiet One, on 16 May 2013 - 09:09 PM, said:

Doubt so, sounds like your average day at New Jersey.

Sort of, yeah.

[Angellica]

Massa, on 17 May 2013 - 06:37 PM, said:

No, actually.  I've either already experienced it, don't have a problem with experiecing it, or don't expect to experience it.

Now, had you added "11. You don't live in New Jersey anymore," then, yeah, that would put me off.  Travel's not my thing.



Sort of, yeah.

Agreed, I am like fine wine, I don't travel well.