Montreal F1 Grand Prix Dropped

[Changes in Latitudes]

Who wants to go to Monaco with me, instead?

The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal was removed from the 2009 F1 season, the International Automobile Federation announced on Tuesday.

Next season will be the first since 1987 that Canada will not host a Formula One race.

With three races remaining in this year's 18-race schedule, the sport's governing body released a calendar for 2009, moving the Turkish Grand Prix from August to June to replace Montreal. The decision allows the teams a summer break.

Organizers have added the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as part of its schedule for November 2009.

The move means there will be no F1 race in North America in 2009. The U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis was also removed this year.

Losing the Grand Prix is an "enormous" economic blow for Montreal, Mayor Gérald Tremblay told Radio-Canada, CBC's French-language service.

The event generates more than $75 million in tourism and creates "important economic spinoffs," he added.

Tremblay also said the Grand Prix puts Montreal on the international map.

"There are more than 300 million people who watch the Grand Prix, so Montreal's notoriety is important in that event."

Tremblay indicated he plans to speak with Normand Legault, president of Grand Prix Canada, later on Tuesday to discuss the city's options.

[Doc]

Saw that as well. F1 could care less about North America. The MONEY is all in the middle East these days. I was planning a trip to YUL next June to see the GP. Guess not. I think it's really piss poor. Turn our attention to series like the petite Le Mans races. Can't bloody stand NASCAR. IRL is pretty watered down. The Le Mans series of races is really pretty cool though.

[spin drift]

Its not the first time that Bernie tries that trick, in order to get more money.
I'm guessing that i will be at the Montreal F-1 again this year.
Just wait and see.

[chu me]

Cue Government bailout of F1.... in three....two ...one!!
This works anywhere, Wheeeeeeeeee!

[ScudRunner]

[Hedley]

Not sure why anyone would care about F1 being
dropped - the only thing worth watching in an F1
race is the first corner of the first lap. After that,
it's about as exciting as watching paint dry. There
is virtually NO passing, and the pit stops are often
the most exciting part of the rest of the race, as
an error in the pit stop can determine podium
position.

IIRC F1 has this "blue flag" crap, where a driver
is instructed to let another car go by. Excuse
me? Ya gotta earn the pass, baby.

Also, the team management will often tell one
driver to let another driver (teammate) go by.
Barf. That's not racing. That's candy-assed
european crap, where the outcome is rigged.

P.S. fwiw I am not a nascar fan, either. Don't
confuse a nascar event with a race. It is the
fastest demolition derby in the world. The objective
is to not crash, which is what the fans want. If
you don't crash, you win. Just ask Tony Stewart
about Talledega.

P.P.S. If you want real racing, try motogp, where
driver (rider) skill actually counts for something.

[iflyforpie]

WRC all the way!

[North Shore]

P.P.S. If you want real racing, try motogp, where
driver (rider) skill actually counts for something.

I thought that was all electronically controlled nowadays, with traction control etc..?

My vote would be for Isle of Man TT, or car rallying.

[Epsilon]

Not sure why anyone would care about F1 being
dropped - the only thing worth watching in an F1
race is the first corner of the first lap. After that,
it's about as exciting as watching paint dry. There
is virtually NO passing, and the pit stops are often
the most exciting part of the rest of the race, as
an error in the pit stop can determine podium
position.

It's not about the race itself. It's about the money the race brings to the Montreal economy and the whole fun atmosphere that is created in the city during this weekend.

[sugarfree]

Strange though ..

Montreal has a contract with FIA till 2011..

The issue is with the teams requesting the 3 week break..


I do not think that this is the end of this story.

SF./

[Siddley Hawker]

Why am I thinking that, once again, the Canadian taxpayer is going to be told "Bend down, I'll drive."

[altiplano]

-

[taxiway_matthew]

WRC all the way!

[BoostedNihilist]

Can't we just bribe them with a nazi themed sex orgy?

[THEICEMAN]

The race moved to Abu Dhabi...I wonder why & how?????

[xiz]

Pissed me off, too .. I missed this year's race, but went last year (Hamilton's first win, and
Kubica's horrendous accident), and loved it. Yeah, it was over-priced, and crowded, and
all the hotels and B&Bs jacked their rates up for the weekend, but it was undoubtedly the most
fun I had in a long time. The exposure and tourism money that F1 brings to Montreal is unbelievable.

As for misconceptions about F1 .. the 'blue flag crap' as one poster alluded to, is to allow the cars
on the lead lap to not get held up by lapped traffic. Most other series have this as well .. if two cars
are fighting for position, there is no flag .. they have to fight it out on the track. There are team orders,
and some teams *ahem - Ferrari* seem to use them a lot more overtly than others.

What's really unfortunate is that in recent years, F1 has had more and more criticism lobbed its way that
it's a dull and processional, and there have been more than a few races recently that have been exactly that. But some rules changes this year - elimination of traction control and other driver aids - and next year - slick tires, and smaller aero devices - will likely help the show immensely. And even though several
tracks seem to favour processional races, Montreal has always been interesting .. perhaps because it's a somewhat narrow track, and requires heavy braking and good acceleration.

F1 really comes alive when watching it live, though. I was sitting in one of the stands in the hairpin in 2007, and the sound and the speed of the cars was unbelievable .. and hearing the crowd erupt when Hamilton took the checkered flag, or when Takuma Sato driving the worst car in the field, passed Fernando Alonso in the closing stages of the race, was awesome.

[Hedley]

Hedley, do you like anything?

Sure!

1) long walks on the beach

2) good-looking women that like to screw

3) reno air races

4) red bull air races

5) almost any motorcycle racing, though I vastly prefer
pavement to dirt - more speed. North Shore mentioned
Isle of Man TT, which is mind-blowing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiuRye0dWA8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ9cci73JRc

6) almost any four-wheeled racing is boring in comparison,
although the Newfoundland Targa is pretty darned neat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WJdC28j9Vo

I keep bugging a rally driver friend of mine that we
should do it one of these years, before some "good
Canadian" shuts it down.

Back on topic ... it is a source of great mystery to
me why everybody doesn't have

a) a good-looking girlfriend that likes to screw
b) a liter sportbike
c) a single-seat Pitts

None of the above cost very much, but each
of them are plenty fun to have around, and when
you ride all three in one day, gosh, well, all I can
say is that it's a good day, and I can't really
figure out why everyone else chooses to live
in the shadows.

[...]

That turn 10 in G.V. track in Montreal has been complained about for years by F1 organizers and drivers alike. I have walked it and from a distance you can tell the issue is caused by improper irrigation design on the track during winter months. Anyone with any simple concept of engineering can see the cracks the foundation cause by ice and frost in that turn.

But...YUL F1 track organizers failed to sway local politicians for funding. Now...the city is out and so are the business merchants and the fans. All for a few hundred thousand bucks in repairs. Mind you they did drop 2 mil on upgrades for this years race..but I guess...not enough OR "Bernie" got a better deal over in the "sand-pile" venue... and apparently he did.

Regardless that's a shitty loss for Montreal which ALWAYS hosts a great party and the grand-stands are full for the whole weekend of racing. What a hit to the local economy, and the fans.
Simply brutal.

[JakeYYZ]

What if tobacco sponsorship had not been banned? (no, I don’t smoke)

[...]

What if tobacco sponsorship had not been banned? (no, I don’t smoke)

...hmmm a loaded question that has many levels and layers...a good question no less. All television commercials for cigarettes were banned on 1 August 1965...since then, perceived 'Good-doers' have taken their campaign to ridiculous new levels. Have people stopped smoking? No. In fact, smoking among teens have maintained (if not upped) its numbers. Smoking is in fact brutal for anyone. So is the use of cell phones 1/2 inch from your brain I suspect. People are going to smoke regardless. Period.

There is a group that wishes to ban ALL smoking everywhere. Fine. However this is how absurd they want to go before they reach their ultimate goal. They want to ban smoking when it's overcast.....again....they want to ban smoking on an overcast day stating that the smoke gets trapped at the lower levels and people working in high rises may be exposed to the 2nd hand smoke.

People, if you're going to sound insane, can you at least make sense?!™® ©2008
(The preceding statement is a tradmarked, registered and copyright of I am Birddog)


So...would the F1 race be still in YUL if tobacco sponsorship had not been banned? Who knows but you can count on the government on taking away options to bring world class events, yet they offer NO alternative to replace corporate sponsorship from big hitters like the Tobacco people. IT'S NOT LIKE THEY'RE GIVING OUT FREE CARTONS OF SMOKES TO EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD AT THE RACE!!!!!!

Restraining people from something only makes them MORE curious about it. Amsterdam does not have a drug problem in its street because certain drugs are legal in a specific part of the city. People are going to do it anyway...why not supervise them rather than trying to control them.

Again there are SO many layers to this and in the end.......whatever.

Thanks for posing a great question Jake

[JakeYYZ]

I think when the federal Liberals introduced their strict tobacco controls and prohibited tobacco sponsorship of cultural and sporting events, they assured us that there would be no economic fallout. Now, it appears that the most prestigious racing league in the world is replacing its Montreal stop with stops in emerging economies with fewer advertising restrictions.
Also, there is the issue of a cure worse than the disease.
Over and above violating the right to freedom of association (forming a business) and freedom of speech (advertising), it appears that the Liberals have made us less competitive for events that generate a great deal of revenue. Additionally, they've been so successful in socializing anti-tobacco bigotry that it's unlikely their policies can be reversed.

[BibleMonkey]

Over and above violating the right to freedom of association (forming a business) and freedom of speech (advertising), it appears that the Liberals have made us less competitive for events that generate a great deal of revenue. Additionally, they've been so successful in socializing anti-tobacco bigotry that it's unlikely their policies can be reversed.

That's true.

Published: July 20, 1998

A Federal judge held Friday that the Environmental Protection Agency made procedural and scientific mistakes when it declared in a 1993 report that secondhand cigarette smoke caused as many as 3,000 cancer deaths a year among nonsmokers.

The landmark report was considered critical in helping to launch an era in which hundreds of municipalities nationwide passed full or partial bans on smoking indoors.. ..

....In the ruling, Judge William L. Osteen Sr. of Federal District Court in Greensboro, N.C., held that E.P.A. officials made significant mistakes when the agency brought together scientists to study secondhand smoke. The ruling came in a lawsuit by major cigarette companies seeking to have the report declared invalid.

Judge Osteen found that the composition of the study panel was flawed because, among other things, none of its representatives were drawn from industry. But in a far more damning finding, Judge Osteen held that agency researchers, rather than rigorously proving their case, frequently shifted theories and selected the data they wanted in order to reach a preordained conclusion...

Fact: The EPA based their numbers on a meta analysis of just 11 studies. The analysis showed no increase in risk at the 95% confidence level.

Fact: Even after excluding most of the studies, the EPA couldn't come up with 3,000 deaths, but they had already announced the results. So they changed the CI to 90%, which, in effect, doubled their margin of error.

Fact Worth Repeating: Instead of using the 95% confidence interval, the statistical standard that has been used for decades, the EPA doubled their margin of error to achieve their pre-announced results....

....Facts: In review: The EPA ignored nearly two-thirds of the data. The EPA then doubled their margin of error to come up with their desired results.

Would any legitimate epidemiologist keep their job if they were caught doubling their margin of error to support a pre-announced conclusion?

I like demo-derbys myself-drove in two of them. And one Combine demo-derby ..*spits tobbacco juice*

[...]

NEW DEVELOPMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

France has decided NOT drop out of the F1 circuit and has still yet to advise the F1 officials!!!!

I read yesterday in the paper that the F1 officials are frantic and have attempted many times to contact the French GP folks and no reply.

This is curious...the French are one of the founding courses of the F1, although Canada has been in it for 50 years until it got snubbed for the 2009 season for a circuit in one of the sandpiles...The French have a lot of weight on the board....this is all to say we may STILL see a reversal in axeing the Montreal GP...

....and who said the French were not supportive and only cared for themselves!?!

[Big Pratt]

All television commercials for cigarettes were banned on 1 August 1965.
.....
There is a group that wishes to ban ALL smoking everywhere.

Remember the good old days when flying was dangerous, sex was safe and your doc asked you whether you'd like a Camel as you walked into his office?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMzjJjuxQI


As for the GP, I think Bernie's greed has reached a new climax, prolly the only thing reaching a climax in his life these days...

I think that Montreal just might get the GP back if some corporate sponsors with big fat wallets get some branding rights. It's really too bad that in the current economical climate this might be hard to realize.
On the other hand, the GP does contribute quite a wad to the government coffers so maybe the officials will drop some coin in Bernie's lap. Who knows.
One thing is certain, it's becoming awfully hard to compete with all those new "nouveau riche" countries out there.

We'll just have to see, the calendar is not officially locked until sometime in December.

BP

[Doc]

Die Bernie....pig dog...die! How one guy can have so much power over a sport boggles the mind.