Eyebrow man hints at British GP leaving Silverstone Brands Hatch and Donnington are incapable of hosting a GP, so looks more likely we'll see a London race in 2020.
So, is a hybrid Formula 1 car congestion charge exempt? I see this as posturing over money. A London GP would be rubbish (but marginally better than London Formula E, which was dire) and I would expect no British GP at all before a London race, or for Silverstone to get a deal with lower fees, or some way of mitigating the fees like F1 getting a chunk of ticket sales.
Yea they've talked about dropping Silverstone for as long as i remember. Usually flares up around provisional calendar time or British GP/Summer break time. Always same stuff, fee is too high, Silverstone needs investment, Pilar of F1 courses etc arguments get thrown around. I think the last couple of years, really since Bernie left, its kinda died down. Honestly don't want a London GP and with the 2020 date, its more likely Silverstone will be dropped for one of these rumoured circuits in a direct swap. I can't see them increasing the calendar far beyond 20 races so something's gotta give
If they drop the British GP at Silverstone and we get stuck with a street procession around London, I'll quit watching F1. There a a few tracks that are a must for F1 in my opinion, and Silverstone, Spa and Montreal are at the top of that list.
They spent a bunch of money for the 2012 Paralympics at Brands. That was mostly on infrastructure type stuff, there hasn't been any serious talk about getting Moto GP or F1 at Brands, it's too narrow and the valley it's in means the run off areas are all too small, especially at Paddock Hill and Sheene's. There are sporadic talks about getting WSBK back at it, which would be nice, assuming there is an SBK grid in a few years time. Donington actually signed a contract with Bernie to have the race for 17 years, then got a grand design from Herman the German, ripped up the track and realised they didn't actually have the £3billion they needed to build the new track, runoffs, grandstands, pits, outbuildings and the enormous public transport hub envisioned. They lost the Moto GP in the process, although Silverstone's surfacing disaster might have won it back for them. Then there was The Circuit of Wales, who got a contract from Dorna for Moto GP based on what seemed to be a lot of beer and a drawing on a napkin. They kept insisting they had lot's of investors, then went and asked the Welsh Assembly for ten percent-ish (£200million+) to get the project started while they found the other £1.8billion needed to build a race track and infrastructure from scratch in Gwent, freaking Gwent! The Welsh Assembly liked it so much they sacked the Environment Minister for lobbying for it behind closed doors. Apparently this project is still going, I imagine some guys sat in a pub at Ebbw Vale insisting that they have backing from Elon Musk, Santander and AkzoNovel over a pint of bitter and some pork scratchings. For F1 there isn't a serious venue beside Silverstone, Moto GP can (and should) be at Donington, but that's it for the world level tracks.
Supposedly they're building a circuit in Northern Ireland at lake Torrent. No idea where that is myself but anyone fancy coming here for a GP (it was designed for super bikes so I doubt it would be much better than brandshatch).
I'd guess that if that is true they've managed to get a title sponsor that requires an older aged driver in the car for next season. I know Kubica had some financial backing but if his age also brings in a huge chunk of cash from a title sponsor then Williams wouldn't turn it down.
Kubica has the backing of the polish oil/petrol refiner (PKN Orlen). If i remember correctly, they are ready to pay $10M (just from that one sponsor).
Very surprising. I thought ocon was a done deal. Will be a great loss for him to not be racing next year, could be difficult for him to get back in.
He was never going to be racing next year as far as I was aware? Even Toto said he'd have to take a 1-year sabbatical and come back 2020. Kubica's seat seems to be a 1 year deal from everything I've read so far, so that option is still there for Ocon in 2020.
I wonder if this opens a testing role for Ocon at Merc or Williams alongside LMP or another series. If he gets his foot in the door that way he could actually come back stronger. I'm interested in how Kyvatt does after the heavy praise received from his test role at Ferrari. As said this loosing Ocon is a heavy loss for the sport which has been bringing in a lot of promising talent the last few seasons. Stroll and Sirokin being the exceptions. At least Hartley, Vandoorne and Ericson performed well enough to be there on Merit over several other options. Hartley and Vandoorne never quite made it and Ericson done enough to fend off several options for that seat.
Occon has talent but not money, Mercedes are not prepared to bankroll him into another team. A month ago Williams wanted 'at least' $15million for the second drive, now it looks like they'll take Kubica and his $10million. They seem to be getting desperate, presumably Sirotkin's sponsors have dried up as well. I am still sort of hoping that Stroll snr's business partners insist on Occon over Lance. It's one thing to be spending $20million of one billionaire's money a year for your son to play racing driver, when your friends have put $250million of their money into something they're going to want a better answer than but he's a really great kid. Having said that I don't think it's realistic, unless Perez truly humiliates Lance at the first test next year.
But that Billionaires son is not only bringing 20mill but not taking a salary. Even if he is he's possibly bringing more than any other driver would. That extra so many million might be a new aero piece or staff members that they could be banking on making the difference in the development race.
So you've got the $20million and your new front wing, which is worth 0.2sec/lap, but you're giving it to a driver who is 1+ sec/lap slower than the car's potential, so your $20million has cost the car 0.8sec/lap over having a proper driver, no $20million the old front wing. Incidentally, last year Massa was about 1sec/lap faster than stroll at most races, at Spain he got a puncture on lap 1 and Stroll lapped him, Massa unlapped himself, caught Stroll, passed him and then finished three places better. Some bad luck for Massa flattered Stroll's points total. If that time gap had been the same this year Massa would have been in Q2 and/pr a points finish at a bunch of the races this year. Williams will be getting at least $30million less in prize money next year, not counting the lost sponsors. Also, Stroll is getting paid $1.8million from the team budget, so for the sake of $18.2million Williams have lost Massa, Petrobras sponsorship, Martini sponsorship and $30million+ in prize money. Sounds like a great deal to me! Whilst I'm sure that looks fine to Lawrence Stroll his mates may be less keen, especially when FI is so competitive and only got sunk by Vijay being Vijay.
To be fair the current Williams is such a pig to drive that according to what Williams admitted in public not even Hamilton could be quick in it.
