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This is low hanging fruit to make comments on the forum. Strangely, British daily newspapers (I have seen) seems to ignore it.The seven British-based Formula 1 teams have asked the government to help ease post-Brexit border crossing and permit problems and are hopeful of a solution, Alpine principal Otmar Szafnauer said on Wednesday.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/macro ... /10495434/According to the newspaper Nice-Matin, Nice mayor Christian Estrosi recently wrote to Macron asking for his support and stressing the importance of the French GP.
He responded favourably and gave Estrosi and FFSA president Nicolas Deschaux the responsibility of dealing with F1/Liberty Media and launching a feasibility study for the return of the race, while not committing to a particular venue. Both men were previously involved in getting the event to Paul Ricard.
Macron wrote: "Be sure that I fully share your ambition. Indeed, as you point out, our country must be able, like the other major international sporting events it organises every year, to reconnect with F1, for the pleasure of all.
“It is an issue of attractiveness for our country, the influence of our automotive industry and innovation to support the decarbonisation of this sector."
He added: “As such, you will be able to study the different possible location options [in France], identifying for each their economic model, their compatibility with our ecological commitments and their possible contribution to regional and national development.
“In this context, you will focus on engaging in discussions with the holders of the rights to F1.”
Estrosi’s Nice connections make it an obvious candidate, and it remains to be seen which other cities are given serious consideration.
Macron’s backing is significant, as current Paul Ricard boss Jean Alesi believes that the venue’s disappearance from the calendar was hastened by a lack of political support.
“The problem with F1 in France is not with the circuit, it’s with the politics,” he said.
“It’s probably the only F1 Grand Prix that’s never had a president come to watch it – except for at Magny-Cours once, when [Francois] Mitterrand attended as part of his political wish for the race to be there.
“Since then, it’s never happened. The problem is not with the circuit; the problem is the wish of the country. My other job is a F1 Ambassador, so my link to F1 is direct – with no bullshit – and they are very clear about that.”
An F1 source noted that the organisation is open to discussions with Macron’s team to run the race in “an iconic French location.”
Meanwhile in a related story on Wednesday the Nice Cote d’Azur metropolitan authorities agreed to pay €5m to help the Public Interest Group of the French GP organisation pay off a €27m debt that it had accrued from the Paul Ricard events.
The move was not without controversy, especially as it came before the delivery of an audit into the activities of the organisation, which is due at the end of the month.
"There is no question of paying an advance of 5 million when there are potential irregularities,” EELV [ecology] MP Fabrice Decoupigny told Nice-Matin.
“You don't vote without knowing. They put the knife to our throat, while at the same time, Christian Estrosi increases the tram ticket by 70% and stops subsidies for electromobility."
One local mayor said: "I asked for the list of creditors, I got nothing. And then, an advance means that we can give more than 5 million. This is enormous in view of the efforts we are asking of our fellow citizens whose taxes have already increased."
Barcelona has a deal to run the Spanish GP until 2026, and it’s not yet clear if the plan is for the new event to eventually take over the title, or if it will run as the Madrid GP.“I know when we're going to sign it and when we're going to do it," said de los Mozos of a future race deal in comments reported by Europa Press.
He added: “We have followed the process indicated to us. The Spanish Automobile Federation has been informed from the first moment, we have signed exclusivity, and now we are advancing with the contract.”
He noted that the event would generate €500m for the region and that it would be “not a race, but an experience - the best in Europe.”
The Madrid area previously hosted F1 when the Spanish GP was held at Jarama, to the east of the city and not much further away from the centre than the new venue.“It is true that Madrid wants to host a race in the future,” he said. “And no decision has been taken so far. That's another great sign of the state of the health of F1.
"And this is the right competition that will not involve at all any political discussion, only commercial and technical and sporting discussion we'll be taking the next couple of months.
“And for the best of F1 we will take the right decision. I'm sure about it. But we need to remember that we still have years of contract with Barcelona, and we are really very, very happy with the way that Barcelona is handling the future because, of course, this has helped them to react, to push for the improvement that is needed at all levels, everywhere.
“And then this, of course, is in a moment where we have Fernando [Alonso] performing incredibly well, and we have Carlos Sainz in Ferrari. Both of them have a lot of fans.
"We see that the TV rating figure is growing incredibly well in Spain. So the market is very, very strong now. And so that's great that we have these kinds of hopes for the future.”
While Spain briefly sustained two events in Barcelona and Valencia Domenicali insisted that times have changed and that it is unlikely that it would happen again.
“In that time the business was not so big,” he said. “And [we still had] a European-centric calendar. Today we have a worldwide calendar approach, with bigger and more races, for sure.
“But I think that in Europe even in the future I'm expecting to see races where the rotational principle could be applied, but not two in the same year.”
I was going to mention of the Nice history, had a video of the 1946 GP sorted, talking of wonderful cars like Maserati, Delahaye, Bugatti and Talbot Lagos.....and then realised it was a bit superfluous to an already lengthy post. Im treading on dangerous ground here but I have a vague idea this was actually the first F1 race as such. (Awaits correction from MichaelMichael Ferner wrote: ↑9 months ago Nice, of course, has a great tradition of hosting Grand Prix races, and Christian Estrosi is a legend of the sport. However, these days that's merely business news and I can't get excited about it. [why don't we have a yawning smiley?]
)
). .
On Mondays and Wednesdays I consider Turin 1946 to be the first. On Tuesdays and Thursdays it's the 1908 Grand Prix (first one run to the Ostend formula?). On Fridays and the weekend I go for Pau 1948.Michael Ferner wrote: ↑9 months ago As for the "first F1 race" or not, I have no idea, actually. Formula One was just a new name for an old thing, the International Grand Prix Formula which was first formulated in 1908, I think, and effectively existed almost from the start a decade earlier.
2019 GTP Accuracy Champion 2021 GTP Accuracy Champion 2022 Picks and Predictions Champion I am not sure why we need either, but so be it. F1 quality of series should stand on merit of top shelve racing, not on color of driver's passport. McLaren can hire American driver, or so is Ferrari, if Fred thinks that will solve an imaginary problem F1 has.VASSEUR CLAIMS F1 NEEDS AN AMERICAN DRIVER, NOT TEAM
Hispania /HRT, in essence spawned from Campos Racing, An F3 and GP2 team. IIRC the team was originally accepted as Campos, but to boost their insufficient funding for the project, at the last moment pre their first season in F1 a major shareholding was sold to a Spanish businessman, and as a result what was to be called Campos F1 became Hispania Racing Team (HRT). IIRC Chandok and Senna, the team drivers both DNQ'd / were not granted dispensation to start (way outside the 107% of pole criteria.). They were something like 10 seconds off pole and 4 seconds off the next slowest team ahead of them. They were still last at the next race but were close to the other tailender qualifying times and were allowed to start.
Yes, remember them. Lasted three seasons. Gave us one of the best commentators on Sky TV (Karun Chandhok), the start of Daniel Ricciardo's career, and the other driver to outqualify Sebastian Vettel (Vitantonia Liuzzi). Of course, when I am thinking of F2 teams that move up... I am thinking Ron Dennis and Project Four Racing.Everso Biggyballies wrote: ↑9 months agoHispania /HRT, in essence spawned from Campos Racing, An F3 and GP2 team. IIRC the team was originally accepted as Campos, but to boost their insufficient funding for the project, at the last moment pre their first season in F1 a major shareholding was sold to a Spanish businessman, and as a result what was to be called Campos F1 became Hispania Racing Team (HRT). IIRC Chandok and Senna, the team drivers both DNQ'd / were not granted dispensation to start (way outside the 107% of pole criteria.). They were something like 10 seconds off pole and 4 seconds off the next slowest team ahead of them. They were still last at the next race but were close to the other tailender qualifying times and were allowed to start.
I vaguely remember jokes at the time of their first race something along the lines of their GP2 cars were quicker than their F1 cars. To be fair though I think Campos sold the GP2 side of his business (who became Addax) to finance the initial Campos F1 establishment costs. Maybe it was more that they had the performance of a GP2 car. (Not to be confused with Alonso's famous GP2 engine comment about the Honda engine in his McLaren)
None the less Campos were in 2009 a GP2 and junior Formula Team that for 2010 tried to become an F1 team, though as HRT not Campos.
Just thinking about it and back in the day it was more or less the the standard ladder to F1 team status, with the likes of Cooper, Brabham, March, Tyrrell, others like Lola and even Lotus came via ports car racing. Of course the 'kit car' era of. F1 where the likes of Frank Williams would buy a chassis from say Brabham, March or others, add a Hewland Gearbox, a DFV or prior to that a Coventry Climax, a set of wheels and tyres from wherever etc and enter a Grand Prix. The likes of Lec, Mezario Hesketh and countless others arrived by that low resource method (often running from a dual purpose shed. (Tyrrell started in aa shed not used by the Timber Yard business... Of course Williams itself as a team spawned from that sort of process but in F3 and F2 through to upgrading to F1.Ruslan wrote: ↑9 months agoYes, remember them. Lasted three seasons. Gave us one of the best commentators on Sky TV (Karun Chandhok), the start of Daniel Ricciardo's career, and the other driver to outqualify Sebastian Vettel (Vitantonia Liuzzi). Of course, when I am thinking of F2 teams that move up... I am thinking Ron Dennis and Project Four Racing.Everso Biggyballies wrote: ↑9 months agoHispania /HRT, in essence spawned from Campos Racing, An F3 and GP2 team. IIRC the team was originally accepted as Campos, but to boost their insufficient funding for the project, at the last moment pre their first season in F1 a major shareholding was sold to a Spanish businessman, and as a result what was to be called Campos F1 became Hispania Racing Team (HRT). IIRC Chandok and Senna, the team drivers both DNQ'd / were not granted dispensation to start (way outside the 107% of pole criteria.). They were something like 10 seconds off pole and 4 seconds off the next slowest team ahead of them. They were still last at the next race but were close to the other tailender qualifying times and were allowed to start.
I vaguely remember jokes at the time of their first race something along the lines of their GP2 cars were quicker than their F1 cars. To be fair though I think Campos sold the GP2 side of his business (who became Addax) to finance the initial Campos F1 establishment costs. Maybe it was more that they had the performance of a GP2 car. (Not to be confused with Alonso's famous GP2 engine comment about the Honda engine in his McLaren)
None the less Campos were in 2009 a GP2 and junior Formula Team that for 2010 tried to become an F1 team, though as HRT not Campos.