There has been talk over the last few weeks about a few changes to the previously announced draft F1 calendar for. The word was that Turkey would be dropped and Bahrain put to the back of the year to give the country more time to sort out its problems which caused this year’s race to be cancelled. In fact the World Council has decided to keep Bahrain at the start of the year. Opposition in Bahrain has been somewhat muted in recent months, although some of this is because Libya has been grabbing all the headlines. The new calendar thus sees Bahrain twinned with Chinam, while the Indian GP goes to the back of the year and is twinned with Abu Dhabi. This is sensible as teams seek to keep down the costs.
The calendar is as follows: March 18, Australia; March 25, Malaysia; April 15, China; April 22, Bahrain; May 13, Spain; May 27, Monaco; June 10, Canada; June 24, Europe (Valencia); July 8, Britain; July 22, Germany; July 29, Hungary; September 2, Belgium; September 9, Italy; September 23, Singapore; October 7, Japan; October 14, Korea; October 28, India; November 4, Abu Dhabi; November 18, United States; November 25, Brazil.
The cynic in me says this isn’t the last ‘final’ list we’ll see
Ouch… 20 races with 7 back-to-backs. They’re running fairly close to overkill with the calendar.
Patrick Head as FIA rep for World Endurance Championship!
Joe,
What would be your perfect calendar for 2012?
Joris,
Good question.
I’d want Spa every year. France (because it is nice to have a cheap “home” race). I’d like a circuit near Paris. Monza is essential. As is Suzuka. I like Interlagos as a race track and in a perfect world we would have a back-to-back down that way, with the second race being in Buenos Aires. I loved our visits there. A great city. The race there was cancelled because the bribes needed to make the event happen were so high that it was no longer workable (there might be a message in that for some of the other F1 venues…). I like Silverstone but I am really not bothered about Barcelona. Dull track. Crime-ridden city. Valencia is a nice city but the race is wasted being in the docks. It should be closer to town. I like visiting Budapest each year. It is a great city, but I think F1 should be in Russia. Sochi sounds interesting. I love Melbourne and Montreal and I like Singapore, but I am not much bothered about Malaysia and Korea. Abu Dhabi is overpriced. I am staying this year in Dubai this year because of that. Some places need to understand that ripping off the visitors is not smart. I do not want to be going to politically unstable places. I’d live to see a race one day in Switzerland. A street race in Luzern would be perfect, or a revived Bremgarten. If we have to race in China I would prefer Hong Kong. I will not miss Turkey. I’d love a race in New York. In a really perfect world there would be F1 at Laguna Seca. Mexico City I can live without, but I have not been there in nearly 20 years so maybe it is better now. I would ban all countries from F1 if there were firewalls that stopped international communication (China is not the only one to do that). I also have a soft spot for Portugal. The Algarve circuit is terrific, but I prefer the Estoril region… I would end the year in Australia and start in Brazil (as F1 used to do) but I understand that the timezones are better for TV if we do the opposite.
IMHO F1 shouldn’t be in Bahrain, but on the plus side, Spa, Monza and Suzuka are on the calendar so all is essentially well with the world. I know the crowds were pitiful but I will kind of miss Turkey. The best of the Tilkedromes, I thought.
While I am at it, if certain ex F1 champions, J Villeneuve, are jealous that one of the only people, K Raikonnen (and S Vettel), who have won an F1 championship with less “effort” than him, to the point of mouthing off in public on a paid gig, well, I don’t recall Kimi having to drive into people to win that one.
Or having a car that was superior.
Alonso’s worst nightmare?
Kimi’s back?
In a Saab? Or is it Jacque in a HRT?
I’ve never been to Chinam before, but I have been to China.
You might want to correct that one.
Other than that, there are a LOT of back-to-backs, although at least they removed the Spain-Monaco back-to-back – that just got way too tight.
Bahrain again ?
Did you go to a race in Adelaide, Joe?
Yes, I went to about five or six of them.
Seeing an F1 car coming down the corkscrew at Laguna Seca would be a sight to behold.
Joris,
If you have any financial difficulties, I’ll be more than happy to help
Well I am surprised Bernie has not got North Korea and Zimbabwe on the list and perhaps Syria.
But without proper BBC full coverage next year, enthusiasm is going to wane a little, let us hope that Bahrain is one of those on Sky then I won’t even have twinges as I don’t watch it.
Didn’t make the cut.?
Joe,
Someone died today in Bahrain by the police of his majesty Al Khalifa. There have been gatherings and demonstrations in the last couple of weeks particularly against a fake commission charged with uncovering the truth of what happened during the uprising.
But, the king in his inexhaustible kindness decided to grant many of his citizens his forgiveness. The strategy of the rulers shifted recently but the Shiia community feels the pain of the killings, the torture, the humiliation & the international indifference.
It’s hard to know whether the situation will totally calm down or not. What is sure is that all the rulers are doing is buying time. The GrandPrix will be the occasion to have demonstrations gain international awareness but even if the race occurs calmly, it will with a bitter taste.
Bahrain doesn’t belong to FORMULA 1 anymore.
Five weeks between Hungary and Belgium, when the fans can barely stand three. What’s Ecclestone planning? Is it to slot Bahrain into if the teams still won’t go in April? Is it to give him room to negotiate and make it 21 races if someone stumps up the cash? I don’t like the look of it.
Glen2,
You obviously do not do the travelling… The break is needed.
Journeyer,
if you switch a French AZERTY keyboard into UK English mode, the comma gets you a “m”. The guy who designed the AZERTY layout seemed more concerned with getting the (French inspired) SI units easy to reach than anything useful for a known language. Just another reason to love the French!
The back to backs are a bit much. Already F1 is like a Pink Floyd tour – how many stages and sets and crews did they have to double up to make the next date? It has to strain the budgets. I’d rather bring back spare cars and knock off Parc fermé. No idea what it’s like to be chasing down the races as Joe does, but i can just about squeeze in following it all as a fan. This has to be cat chasing its tail. Need more money? Do more races. Can’t pack them in without more money? Time to be a bit more selective.
Is 6 years the lifespan, then, of ill conceived Tilkedromes? (Istanbul Park, like estate agents confusing Kilburn with Maida Vale) Food for thought. Might yet see some turnover of these newer places. They are, after all, built on the premise of local economic regeneration, and not taking our forever inflating ticket money, aren’t they? Sometimes i wonder if we’re not literally pimped out to local politicians . .
Sochi could be excellent. It’s rather where big crime lords (splutter biznessmen) go to chill, so therefore quite peaceful. My only worry is the sheer amount of construction going on there could be causing a lot of damage. It’s old, pretty, and very european style. Also it caught a bit of Arab Emirate fever, but the fun thing with Russians is they may just be happy saying they’ve madder plans and leave it at that, you can never tell:
http://englishrussia.com/2010/10/26/construction-projects-in-sochi/
but you can’t knock the climate or environs:
http://englishrussia.com/2008/04/20/the-unknown-russia-the-russian-south/
(and you need not wonder why it has become *the* place to summer if you are rich, once again, in Russia. Too hot (it gets silly hot)? Check out those hills, get some cooler air. It’s actually the beginning of a proper mountain range, check out Mt. Elbrus)
Please let it be a good track. It looks on paper like it’ll be a fast one, and surrounded by good facilities. Also, up yours to the IOC for already sticking their oar in.
Hmm, Lucerne. That’s slipped my historical radar. Better brush up!
cheers all,
– j
So, we’ll have 19 races again next year (Bahrain is bound to blow again as we get closer).
Latest news from Bahrain is the death of a 14 year old boy. The FIA ought to save themselves a lot of trouble.
@joe
” I’d live to see a race one day in Switzerland.”
Well, at the moment and for the next 55 years, I think a F-1 race on the Moon is likely than a F-1 race in Switzerland.
Sombrero,
No-one asked for a realistic F1 calendar
“In a really perfect world there would be F1 at Laguna Seca.”
This.
I don’t know how good a race at La Seca would be, but it would definitely be interesting to see F1 cars on that track. The corkscrew would be especially interesting as I think the braking point would be well before you can actually see the turn-in. Sounds like fun!
Laguna would indeed be an interesting proposition, they’d have to run crazy ride-height to stop the cars bottoming out over the gradient changes, reducing overall downforce meaning more instability in high-speed corners. Exciting
Ben,
Laguna is not very different to Spa in gradient changes. At least as I recall from my visit there.
The sad thing is that of all those races, I’ll probably watch only 8/9 of them live and the others via the highlights. Nothing to do with Sky, I actually have it, it’s just that they’re 99% guaranteed dull-as-hell races.
Journeyer, I think Joe means Chineham, which is near Basingstoke.
Road America would be great! It is the Spa of the Americas. Long straights with elevation changes. Not a flat, lifeless circuit. Road Atlanta would be nice, but passing would be very limited, especially from turn 1 through turn 5. Too bad the dip is missing, but the downhill right hander under the bridge would certainly be fun to watch!
@6 wheeled Tyrrell
I’ve seen some F1 cars running at Laguna Seca, some Silicon Valley gazillionaires with Schumacher’s old Ferraris. They do look very, very cool going through the corkscrew and a whole gaggle of them, with talented drivers, at full pelt… that would be awesome. I think a “6 wheeled Tyrrell” would ground itself on the crest
The infrastructure around Laguna Seca barely copes with Historic racing crowds, F1 would be out of the question. I’d be happy if they just raced there with no spectators, TV coverage only…
A Laguna Seca race but closed to spectators, or a race in Bahrain? A no-brainer for me.
Rudi – Your analogy to Spa is more correct than you perhaps realize, and is exactly why F1 will never, ever go there. Road America is a very photogenic and wonderful racetrack, but it has the local infrastructure of Gilligan’s Island. It makes Spa/Francorchamp/Stavelot look like a freaking metropolis. As I recall from a visit to RA about three years ago the town of Elkhart Lake has one traffic light, one gas station, and one police car, which is all you need when you have perhaps 100 full time residents. The nearest serious airport is a couple hundred miles away (Chicago… and let’s not pretend that Milwaukee qualifies for this task) and based on the above description you can probably guess what the hotel/restaurant/entertainment choices are like. As great as Spa is everybody complains about how far flung its location is and the lack of suitable accomodations, etc. Multiply that by a factor of 10 for Road America. Ain’t gonna happen.
By the way, you can substitute Laguna Seca for Road America in my previous comments. Same deal but with dirt around the track instead of grass.
Gareth:
The mental image of a P34 beached at the top of the hill is a little funny so long as it never actually happens. But the thought of the F1 field coming down the corkscrew in anger makes my mouth water.
I once assisted to one of those Ferrari experience days (only as a spectator, sadly) here in Miami. They had Berger’s old car and one of Schumacher’s cars as well, too bad the track is an oval with a not very interesting road course section in the infield. Still it was a fun afternoon.
Sad that the likes of Jo Torrent, Seb feel the need to continue to peddle such a one-sided story of Bahrain.
For example, it looks like there is much more to the recent death than has been tastelessly hyped by the opposition/”human rights activists”, eg that the injuries are completely inconsistent with how he is alleged to have died. Meanwhile, the “peaceful” opposition is daily sending its followers to violently confront police, burn tyres, block roads etc (“peacefully” of course!) in the hope of provoking more violence and casualties that thay can hawk around pliable international media.
Oh, and Jo Torrent – why the comments about the commission? Perhaps because if it uncovers the truth it might not accord with your prejudices/political views?
Never mind, carry on the bashing…
Nelson,
There is another Commission that should be considered.
The United Nations today demanded the release of Bahraini civilians who may have been arrested during recent anti-Government protests merely for exercising their rights to freedom of speech, and called for civilian trials for those whose cases go forward.
“We stress that civilians must be tried in civilian courts and that every detained person must be charged with a recognizable criminal offence, with adequate access to a lawyer and enough time to prepare a defence,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva, noting that at least 264 cases remain pending, many of which may be tried in the Court of National Safety, effectively a military court.
“We are concerned that most of the defendants in these cases may be prisoners of conscience, detained only for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association. All such detainees must be released. We also call on the Government to release the names of all those arrested since 15 March, including their places of detention and details on the charges and status of their trials.”
Mr. Colville noted that thousands of employees have allegedly lost their jobs because of their alleged participation in anti-Government protests. “We call on the national authorities to order the immediate reintegration of such individuals and to ensure that they are compensated for their lost income,” he said.
He added that the Court of National Safety had issued harsh sentences against protesters with charges ranging from participating in an illegal gathering, or expressing hatred of the Government, to actual crimes such as murder and destruction of property.
Sentences imposed by the court in the 124 cases that have so far received verdicts include two deaths sentences and prison terms ranging from one year to life. Sixteen people were fully acquitted, and seven others were acquitted of some charges but convicted of others.
OHCHR had already spoken out in June against harsh sentences, including life imprisonment, handed down in the cases of 21 activists, saying their trials bear the marks of “political persecution.”
Is the UN wrong as well?
Not the point I was making Joe, as I’m sure you recognise…. have never claimed that everything was perfect on the government side, only that the picture of organised, systematic brutality that the opposition tries to present is self-serving and largely based on exaggeration and lies.
The bahraini commission http://www.bici.org.bh/ seems a pretty unique and good faith effort to investigate what happened, and the members (look them up) are experienced, respected and unlikely to be stooges. Doubtless it will have some fairly critical findings. The problem for the opposition is that there are suggestions that it may not accept their narrative of systematic abuse – hence the pre-emptive efforts to discredit it.
A shame that so many are so keen to jump on the “brutal middle eastern dictatorship” generalization without investigating the background or the agendas of those putting out stories.
Perhaps Nelson should read up on Bahrainipolitics.blogpot.com, if he truly believes the tosh he has written. There are plenty of video records available, not to mention the number of citizens- doctors, teachers, school children and so on- who have come forward and spoken of their experiences. The “picture of systematic, organised brutality” has not been painted by the independent human rights organisations and the injured and harassed protestors, but by the well documented acts and decisions of certain members of the royal family, the security forces and Bahrain’s next door neighbour.
Anyway, in three months time the subject will need to be discussed, and hopefully those involved will handle the decision more sensibly than in May/June.
Perhaps Seb might like to come and live in Bahrain for a while, and see all sides of the story, before making any further sanctimonious posts?
Nelson,
While I hear what you are saying (and you are not the first to have said it). Do you honestly believe that all these stories are being made up and that some notional evil underground opposition has conned all the human rights agencies and the United Nations? I tend to belief people who do this on a professional basis rather than locals who look out of the window and says “Hey, everything is OK here.”
[...] Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/a-new-f1-calendar-3/ [...]