James Achard

Bernie at his finest:

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/27251/

Maybe if all the US based sponsors pull out he will think differently. This guy is unbelieveable......

hacker-pschorr

Well, he does have a good point here.

Overall from a business stand point, it makes sense. Why should Bernie bend over backwards or lift a finger to keep a race in a country nobody cares about on a track nobody likes racing on? He has other tracks / countries begging to hold races.

He is also saying this to play hardball with Tony George who he knows has the negotiating skills of a common squirrel.

The USGP should be on a real track. Having the only F1 race in this country on such a pathetic track is embarrassing.

James Achard

I agree that it is a crap track but to stereotype us in such a public forum is disgraceful, in my opinion. He might feel differently if Marlboro, Dell, Budwieser, Sun Microsystems, Intel, Ray Ban etc pull out of F1.....

Cory M

I was hoping that the US GP would be moving to the new Miller Motorsports track that recently opened in Utah. From the pictures I've seen it looks like a great track with excellent facilities, seems like a more fitting venue for F1 than a converted oval.

Bernie should learn how to keep his mouth shut sometimes, especially in the US after the Michellin debacle. I think he'd hold a race in Antarctica if someone built a track and threw enough cash at him. Let's see, the US is a bad place to race but the Bahrain circuit, in the middle of a sandy and hot desert in a country that covers less than 300 square miles, with a population of less than 700,000, is the ideal spot to have a GP...

ltc

I think Bernie's point is that the "US" companies/sponsors are actually more "International" now.

He's also probably correct in assuming that the US is viewed as a NA$CAR dominated auto demographic by the rest of the world....after all, apart from those of us on racing forums, what % of others in the US could watch/attend a road race......

except of course when it's broadcast on CBS.

hacker-pschorr

Road America is an FIA certified track. An F1 race there would be nothing short of incredible.

944TURBOS

would be nice, but the problem is grand stands are lakcing BIG TIME and the pits/paddocks are not built for it. They would need to do way way way too much work to get the track set up correctly for F1. I would pay anything to see it but unfortunetely for us Road America junkies we will never have F1. Guess we have to settle for CART

NJ-GT

He has a valid point.

Everywhere else in this planet F1 is the biggest MotorSports. U.S. is the one and only country that prefers carburated-pushrod-oval-boring-crashing-spec-racing to a real motorsport. The other almost 200 countries prefer the real motorsport.

This is a NASCAR country, if it isn't oval racing ain't racing.

p.s. It's good to see Toyota getting back to carburetors. What's next Honda?

hacker-pschorr

The pit problem has been solved during the most recent off season. The grandstand issue is not what keeps F1 from RA. It's lack of hotels close enough for everyone - including the crew. F1 has such a huge traveling circus they would fill every hotel in Sheboygan County before any fans show up.

I know it will never happen. What we have to settle for is Brian French and his friends with vintage mid 90's F1 cars during the vintage events. Watching Jean Alesi's Ferrari mix it up with Jaque's Champ Car is always a good time.

Geo

Bernie and Max both have to go. At one time they were beneficial to the sport. Now they are just a couple of clowns, albeit clowns with money and power.

Carrera51

Funny. I seem to remember Bernie saying a few years ago the F1 needs the US market.

Geo

Trust me when I say that you're all wrong about what keeps F1 from RA. It's money. It's greed. The fee for the privilege of hosting an F1 race is surreal and the only thing the promotor gets to keep is the gate. You must spend millions on infrastructure and every few years Bernie will squeeze your ***** some more.

As someone who watched the demise of Watkins Glen as a long-time Grand Prix host, you do NOT want to wish an F1 race on your favorite track. F1 very nearly banished The Glen into the history books. If it wasn't for Corning Glass Works purchasing the track in the mid-80s it would be covered with weeds today. I was at the last USGP at Watkins Glen and it was a good race at a great track. But F1 bankrupted The Glen, and that was before F1 got really deamanding about the circuit and its infrastructure.

Geo

I do as well.

Send out the clowns.

hacker-pschorr

I know, no way the shareholders of RA (few friends of mine) would pony up the money for F1 even if there was room for them all. The fees for Champ Car became too much for RA to handle. That was the real reason RA told Champ Car to go away. Even the good years when Champ Car brought 70k+ to RA the track lost money since they had to pay super high fees to bring them in.

Oh well, if this is the last year of the USGP I may regret cancelling my trip.

trumperZ06

Yeah and Formula 1 priced themselves right out of Long Beach, too !!!

Then... Cagey Ole Bernie took his show to Caeser's Palace parking lot in Las Vegas, moving on to beautiful downtown Phoenix, etc like a Gypsy... trying to "Scam" one city after another.

IMO...Bernie & Mad Max are running F-1 into the ground... both need to be put on...

"Gardening Leave " !!!!