F1 blogs & more: Donington news

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Brands Hatch has attracted complaints about noise from residents

Donington Park’s planning application is expected ‘within weeks’ but the circuit owners are refusing to discuss their plans for the 2010 British Grand Prix. What’s going on?

Plus as British circuits like Brands Hatch face increasing pressure friom neighbours over noise restrictions one group is petitioning the British parliament to change the law. Read these stories and more below.

Paperwork over race track plans is ‘imminent’ – Leicester County Council claims it is willing to work with the track’s owners over plans to move the British Grand Prix in 2010, but says it has not heard from them yet.

Am I the only one? – Are F1 fans as passionate as football fans?

Photographs – Why Pau is a more romantic setting for a race than Bahrain.

An Olympics motorsports category – A motorsports category might make the Olympics interesting. Maybe.

Speed satisfied with abortive F1 career – Scott Speed practices the “lower your expectations to the point where they’re already met” principle.

Petition to protect motor racing (and other events) from protests from new resident – Support efforts to protect circuits and motor racing events from NIMBYs. In Britain many racing tracks face often onerous limits on when they can be used due to complaints from locals, many of whom moved to the area long after motor racing began nearby.

Is Felipe Massa championship material – Massa – only great when the going’s good?

New rules likely to spread out field – Changes for 2009 should make wheel-to-wheel racing closer but will it also increase the differences in performance within the field?

Shakedown running ongoing – F1 teams doing shakedown tests between Grands Prix .

F1 at Eastern Creek unlikely – Doubt over rumoured F1 move to Eastern Creek.

ESPN continues digital expansion with Racing-Live.com – ESPN buys F1-live.com and sister sites (reg. req.).

Brundle escapes penalty for live gaffe – Ofcom accepts Brundle did not mean to cause offence during the Canadian Grand Prix, only 36 people complaied.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “F1 blogs & more: Donington news”

  1. With the A1GP being the ‘World Cup of Motorsport’, with its national teams, I can’t see why it would be difficult to transplant that into a one-off olympic race every 4 years (in Shanghai this year, Brands in 2012, etc) as an Olympic motorsport event.

  2. Good point, ajokay. They even give away medals already. :)

    But it’s up to the IOC, really. I don’t think A1GP or their new engine suppliers Ferrari have much leverage with them.

    But the main concern here is that this is a competition of men, not machines. And while A1GP machinery is equal, who’s to say a loose bolt or whatnot can unfairly put a leading contender out of the running?

  3. Is that not the same for the boat/bicycle/horse/gun/bow in current olympic events, though?

  4. “Scott Speed practices the “lower your expectations to the point where they’re already met” principle.”

    *giggles uncontrollably*

    any news on the fire at Spa Francorchamps? I can’t find anything on it currently :(

  5. The Brand’s Hatch situation reminds me of the Chicago Cubs baseball team getting protests any time they suggest they want to add more night games to their schedule.

    When you move into an area, there is no way that you wouldn’t notice that there is a gigantic autodrome next to it before you arrive with your things. It would make as much sense if I demanded the chemical plant near my apartment be shut down; it was there before I was, therefore complaints to remove it should fall on deaf ears.

  6. Is that not the same for the boat/bicycle/horse/gun/bow in current Olympic events, though?

    Not exactly, ajokay. Boats and bicycles are fully propelled by human movement. Cars, on the other hand, while they technically rely on a human’s right foot, also rely on other exotic materials (most notably, oil). Also, the man/machine balance in racing (60% car, 40% driver) is massively different from boats and bikes (more like 20% vehicle, 80% driver).

  7. Anything you do to waste time is sport, that’s how shooting ended up in the olympics.

    There is a process to getting a sport into the Olympic Games that mainly requires you to prove that your sport is global and universal in some sense. There is a decreed number of countries your sport must be played in and so on. If there is enough interest, there’d be a draw-up of a rules format and a demonstration at an Olympiad to prove that it may work and then it goes to the IOC and all this other beaurocratic rot…

    A demonstration at a games with or without intent to get motorsport in for the medals is always possible. There was a pointy-football demonstration one or two of the times the Olympics were in the US, and baseball is now an Olympic sport, so if the right people care, anything is possible.

  8. I would take the Donington planning permission story with a pinch of salt. Leicestershire council may be doing all they can to help but part of the circuit is in Derbyshire and we have yet to hear a word from them. Even the guy who runs Donington didn’t mention them when he was trying to sell the event.

    We have had a discussion on Olympic motorsport at sidepodcast today and decided A1GP is a non-starter for a number of reasons such as cost, availability of enough cars etc. The only real option is karting.

  9. if Karting goes to the Olympics then so should cricket.

  10. The Olympics only last three weeks. What is the chance of getting three weeks without rain in an English summer? It would take way too long to play a cricket tournament of any description.

  11. Karting in the Olympics is a great idea, very grassroots, and already present in a certain way, in winter games like luge and bobsleds.

    There have been cricket exhibitions before, wasn’t there one at Sydney?

    The challenge is having it regularly, and writing rules that all the countries can agree on for some kind of shorter format. Another challenge is to deal with team West Indies as opposed to individualizing the countries, though if I understand right, the way FIFA divide the associations of the countries of Great Britain is honored in Olympic (round) Football, so why not allow a single West Indies team?

  12. “Also, the man/machine balance in racing (60% car, 40% driver) is massively different from boats and bikes (more like 20% vehicle, 80% driver).”

    Just playing devil’s advocate, how are you arriving at those figures? Plus, 20% of what?? Without either car or boat there is no event. I’m guessing all the boats are the same – which is no different from all the A1GP cars being the same.

    The other thing is that, although it is a “World Cup” (bleh) of motorsport, it is a closed shop. To be a proper Olympic event, every country that wanted to participate would need a car and there would have to be qualifying heats/races.

    Anyway, it won’t happen. And probably shouldn’t – the Olympics has already got too many sports that shouldn’t be there.

  13. If cricket gets into the olympics, then so should shove -halfpenny. Equal entertainment value !

  14. Cricket – never – motor sport equally – basically the olympics are run by an elitist band of people riddled with corruption and doubtfull morals and the same goes for the rulers/rule makers of F1(in private) – who would cracj=k the whip there and dominate the decisions ??- as for cricket it’s just extremly boring – but I agreed with the poll about no one coming into an area being able to stop activities in that area continuing – let them move elsewhere

  15. Donington is such a rubbish circuit. I can’t believe Bernie would take the British Grand Prix there just so he can give a finger to the BRDC over money. (As if Bernie needs any more money; that greedy *******.) Not to mention that he was able to get his buddy, the great ****** child of Satan, a contact to redesign the circuit.

  16. Over at Sidepodcast, Scott Woodwiss has killed the debate altogether – with an IOC rule:

    I don’t wish to be a killjoy, but motorsport won’t be part of the 2012 Olympics. As http://www.hickoksports.com/history/olsports.shtml#criteria points out, it is effectively banned by the IOC:

    “There’s a little-noted rule that sports, disciplines, and events that depend essentially on mechanical propulsion are not acceptable in the Olympics. That excludes aerobatics, air racing, auto racing, powerboat racing, motorcycle racing, and snowmobiling. (Although powerboating was briefly an Olympic sport, before that rule was in place.)”

    The IOC went as far as issuing the following clarification:

    “…sports and events in which athletes directly use and control automated propulsion as a component of competition should not be eligible for inclusion in the Olympic Programme.”

    In case anyone wants further information on this, I’ll upload the review carried out by the Olympic Programme Commission prior to Beijing (see drop.io). Search for ‘2.4 Sports relying on mechanical propulsion’.

    Although some have argued that the rule is a little ambiguous, the bottom line is that the IOC are completely against the idea of adding motorised sports to the modern games. Although the Commission’s review highlights water skiing, it should be noted that this hasn’t been included in the games since 1972, and even then it was only a demonstration sport.

    As a point of interest, although motorsport was itself a demonstration sport in 1900 – unlike water skiing- it is no longer recognised by the IOC.

  17. From what I remember, Bernie didn’t understand the term himself…is there some Romany blood in there?

  18. Paige – Donington a rubbish circuit! Heresy! It’s a great track, I’m just not sure it’s big enough for F1 and I’m worried that the changes they’d have to make to accommodate Formula 1 would end up spoiling it.

  19. I prefer Donington and Brands Hatch over Silverstone as circuits. Silverstone is fast, but thats about it, and Thruxton is even faster.
    The revisions necessary at Donington are going to ruin it, and I think the logistics of getting a big enough crowd there will take away any benifits of holding the GP.

  20. “Over at Sidepodcast, Scott Woodwiss has killed the debate altogether – with an IOC rule”

    minor correction journeyer, it was actually scott dryden of f1break.com that found the IOC ruling.

    but yeah, it killed the debate stone dead :(

  21. Surely the IOC can change their own rules if they choose to?

    I really don’t care about the Olympics though. I’m much more concerned about whether there’ll be a Grand Prix in Britain in 2010.

  22. “I really don’t care about the Olympics though. I’m much more concerned about whether there’ll be a Grand Prix in Britain in 2010.”

    mind if i ask why? you didn’t even attend the race this year did you?

    spa / magny-cours are within easy driving distance. monza’s doable too (in fact you did it last year).

  23. I don’t mean for me, I mean for everyone in Britain who likes F1. The race was a sell-out this year. And I think it’s important for the motor racing industry in Britain for us to have a Grand Prix.

  24. “And I think it’s important for the motor racing industry in Britain for us to have a Grand Prix.”

    is it though? you’ve seen the valencia pics. how the heck can we complete with that? and it’s not like spain is an oil rich nation.

    when it rains, silverstone’s a hole, and my two trips to donington have shown me that place is worse. f1 fans deserve better than anything we have to offer right now.

  25. I did try to suggest a while back via the BBC that Bernie talk to the UK Olympic people about the Olympic Park in London as having a second life as a racing circuit, and I think I mentioned it here too.
    Though it sounds a silly idea, it would solve the problem of what to do with the site after the Games, and since it has good road and rail links to London/Britain/Europe, it should meet most of Bernies criteria as a racing venue.
    And it links F1 into the Olympics – “Welcome to the Santander British Olympic Grand Prix”

  26. “when it rains, silverstone’s a hole, and my two trips to donington have shown me that place is worse. f1 fans deserve better than anything we have to offer right now.”

    Spa’s not a ton of fun when it rains either, but like Silverstone it’s an excellent circuit. I agree Silverstone could be better, but it wouldn’t be better not to have a race in Britain.

  27. “I agree Silverstone could be better, but it wouldn’t be better not to have a race in Britain.”

    not having one might urge the government to step in and do something, or it might prove once and for all that they just don’t care. if that’s the case, then the bgp is living on borrowed time anyhow.

    there’s nothing to say disappearing for a year or two means it’ll be forever, spa came back after all.

    i say let’s have one more weekend in the tumbledown shack and give donington as much time as they need to get it right. and if that’s not possible, we’re probably better off without it.

  28. I wish I could share your optimism about the government stepping in under any circumstances but I don’t see it happening. I really don’t think it’s a vote-winner. Especially not with the obscene amounts they’re spending on the Olympics… and now we’ve come full circle!

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