F1 links: Donington musings

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Track’s bid to clear skies

'Councillor Nicholas Rushton, county council cabinet member for highways, said: "As far as I am concerned, they (Donington Park) are completely and utterly bonkers. East Midlands Airport is completely commercially run and I would be surprised if they would agree to stop their flights."'

Why Donington might well work

"I was sceptical about was the financing of the whole thing using a debenture scheme. I mean, can you imagine trying to find companies and individuals in this economic climate, willing to give you £18k for a debenture and then commit to another £7k a year? It was a good business model in the bull market and worked at Wembley and to a lesser extent Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium before the credit crunch came. But the critical point, according to Gillett, is that the risk on the scheme doesn’t lie with him, it lies with his debenture partners IMG, the sports marketing firm and Goldman Sachs, the investment bank. He says that they committed to the programme before the credit crunch came, so he will get his money anyway whether they sell 10 debentures or 10,000. He gets the up-front money, they get the annual fee. If that is the case, then he certainly got his timing right and this event could well come off."

2009 The new stars

"There isn't a team in the paddock who wouldn't give their right wheelnut to employ Sebastian Vettel just now."

Kubica establishes kart team

"Robert Kubica has followed in the footsteps of world champions Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen in founding his very own kart team."

MIA secures UK government assistance

The Motorsport Industry Association has agreed a package of government support to assist UK motor racing companies during the economic downturn.

Jonathan Palmer: motorsport will survive lean times

Jonathan Palmer: "Anyone who isn’t concerned about the situation is kidding themselves, but the ‘middle order’ of motorsport that doesn’t rely on sponsorship should cope better."

These are articles I’ve found and bookmarked using Delicious. View my Delicious profile to see what else I’m reading and recommend other links to me.

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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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One comment on “F1 links: Donington musings”

  1. Actually an interesting point was raised in Ted Kravitz’s guardian article about kers and drivers weights. Which other drivers are going to be shedding pounds to accommodate kers and are there any health and fitness implication?

    Interesting to hear about Kubica starting a karting team. Perhaps an article on all the various drivers (e.g. Kimi, Alonso, Fisichella, etc) who are team owners and the success of these venture.

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