TBK-Light.com

Valencia? Monaco? Singapore?

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Free F1 live stream for every session during a raceweekend: http://www.watchF1forfree.com

If they put proper barriers or a SAFER barrier or (tech-pro?) it might be okay. But as it is, there's just a wall. It's not a great design.

And it's only got a 1T rating I think.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

I don't want to be rude, but for me it's a bit on double standards side, when you forgot to mention how people hate races at Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Korea. To be honest, F1 has circuits that are awful for the show, while there's dozens of tracks around the world where they SHOULD go, if you ask the public. Who wouldn't love to see F1 cars going around (current versions of) Bathurst, Road America or Nordschleiffe? Or who wouldn't love to hear the names like Fuji, Imola, Indianapolis or Le Mans when the talk is about F1.

Then there's the races that are the untouchables on the calendar, the likes of Melbourne, Monaco, Silverstone, Spa, Monza, Suzuka and Interlagos. Then add the reality F1 only has 20-odd races per season and there's oh so many useless, boring venues in the calendar that no racing fans can love no matter how hard they might try. We get around one nice race at Valencia or Hungary every ten years, so there would be no tears if those two would be dropped. Then there's the middle-east races that no one likes and has no racing culture or pedigree (looking at you Bahrain and Abu Dhabi).

So all in all, F1 calendars sucks in general and there's only a few highlights for racing fans. But then again would Spa be so awesome if it wouldn't be right after Hungary? Of course it would, but that's the excuse we've used for nearly 30 years.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Monaco has a Grade 1 rating.

Your comments regarding track safey are invalid.

I agree with some of that...

But "no racing pedigree" is an issue. F1 can help create a racing pedigree in a country, but it can also hinder it as countries go straight to F1 without establishing any other form of racing. What does Japan have apart from F1? Several series and major races. Korea? Er...

I wrote an article earlier about the USA, but the point that Khalil Beschir made about the Middle East kind of talks about what you mentioned
http://www.f1zone.net/news/is-good-cove ... ica/15949/

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Why do you insist on mentioning Monaco? Everyone knows it's unsafe, but part of F1's unique rules means it's still a legal track to race on.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

"I don't care about the technical and safety regulations, so your comments are invalid"

...because the fact they still race at Monaco means that any track is safe for them to run on. The cars are clearly safe enough to run there, so they can run anywhere.

Okay, not just Turn One, but a lot of Imola is unsafe. There's been massive crashes in the past there. As Kals said, there was the big crash in the Porsches. Earlier this year, Joan Lascorz was paralysed after an accident.

Imola is one of those circuits that, for whatever reason, seems to open itself up to large crashes with dire consequences.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Monaco is a pioneer in marshall training and safety features. It knows what it's doing.

that happened during WSBK tests. you can't compare motorcycle accidents with car accidents

me, sorry mate.

Le Sarthe is a great circuit but the others are crap. Well, Fuji is not that crap but Suzuka is infinitely better. I always hated Imola's layout so I'm glad it's out and I hope it never returns to F1, as well as Indianapolis and it's horrible mickey mouse internal layout.

Many people hate the Korean track but I loved it since first sight. It's a pitty it's destined to have same ending as Turkey, another one of the few great new circuits.

On the other hand, the absolute terrible race tracks that are Bahrain(which isn't great even at night in a WEC race ) and Abu Dabhi are not leaving the calendar any time soon.

The promoters tried one last time earlier this week, but their proposals were rejected by the sports minister. They used too much public money (indirectly, by involving the racetracks regions) and any losses would have had to be bailed out by state money.

The former government had also failed to fund a comeback depsite the repeated efforts of a motorsport-enthusiast prime minister (François Fillon). Given the current climate here with the crisis and the sport's general loss of popularity, it's very unlikely to come back soon, if ever.

Racing is about danger and excitement. What's more better to see who has the biggest balls in the field and excells above the rest? At this moment I feel F1 isn't as dangerous as football and drivers are starting to be pussies about safety (hello Fernando). The charisma of motorsports is the fact something COULD go wrong.

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Free F1 live stream for every session during a raceweekend: http://www.watchF1forfree.com

Any track with an average speed of 90mph.

It's all irrelevant. The FIA's rulebook says that only tracks with a Grade 1 license can go on the F1 calendar. Whether it merits one or not, Monaco does have a Grade 1 license, and so it can go on the calendar. Imola does not have a Grade 1 license, and so it can't go on the calendar.

There are very few Grade 1 tracks that aren't on the F1 calendar, and most of those have been on the calendar at some time in the past 10 years.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

My point with those tracks mentioned was that it's nice to hear those names. I don't like the post-94 Imola layout, or modern Fuji, but those are the places every racing fan knows.





Everyone should start from the grass roots when they want to go play in the major leagues. Finland is known for fast drivers, but we don't have our own F1 race due to its costs. If we would have it someday, 100.000 - 300.000 people would show up, like we do for our WRC event. Then there's countries like Turkey who can buy their F1 project and only 3000 people will show up. F1 is not the sports that should be used to build the pedigree for the sports in general. It's like sending an NHL team to crush everyone in Brittish hockey league. Not only would it make your own efforts look pathetic, but it might turn against yourself with your agenda to help others to enjoy the sports that you find awesome and worthy.

And to be honest, there's a HUGE difference between South Korea and Japan in racing and car industry. While Korea is taking it's baby steps in both categories, Japan has been heavily involved in both since the 60's. That's a long build racing pedigree and Japan has already proved its place in the world of automotive technology and racing.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Yeah it's probably becoming oversanatised, but so is the world we live in.

People forget the serious questions people were asking about the sport in 1994. If we had such a similar run of death and serious injury today we'd be lucky to keep the sport going at all let alone moan about what changes they'd be forced to make in the wake of it.

We all want to see side by side battles through Eau Rouge as it was in the 1980s/1990s or the cars race at Bathurst, Le Mans or the Nurburgring because it appeals to our racing spirit, but sadly the world has moved on and those places need to be left as fond memories and find some way to move on from.

In 2012 the sport has finally worked out a Formula that means even previous shit tracks but on fantastic races so aside from the ugly stepped noses there's not much to moan about, boring racing wise. Even Valencia put on a great race!

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Haha, I liked that one phil

Yes, I was under the effects of "racing tradition pills" I've taken in the morning.