Thailand considering bid for F1 race

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Thailand is considering making a bid to join the F1 calendar.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Thailand revs up F1 bid (Bangkok Post)

Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau president Akapol Sorasuchart: “Building an F1 circuit is very costly but it would be useful after the races end. I think that street racing is interesting for Thailand because it involves lower investment. A good location would be Ratchadamnoen Avenue because it has a good atmosphere.”

Pirelli seeks tyre allocation change (Autosport)

Paul Hembery: “We fitted the tyres, brought them to races and then we destroy them – so it is very hard for us hearing that teams haven’t got enough tyres when they actually have plenty of tyres. They are just not using them.”

Desi F1 unleashes marketing blitzkrieg (The Times of India)

“The platinum boxes, worth Rs 50 lakh, have been booked by corporates like Citi, Venky’s, Kingfisher and JK Tyre not to mention some of the top business names in the country.”

Eric Boullier on the Italian GP (Renault)

“Seeing the team applauding the drivers after Q2 and Q3 was a good sign; I was very happy to see that, and it was pleasing to see smiles back on everyone’s faces.”

New Restaurant Victus opened in Harrogate by Jenson Button (Angus Roberts)

Jenson Button opened a new restaurant today (5th Sept 2011) with the Mayor of Harrogate, Les Ellington.”

Indycar – Baltimore Grand Prix 2011 (Facebook)

Jamey Price, who has written several articles on photography for F1 Fanatic, was working as a photographer at Sunday’s IndyCar Baltimore Grand Prix – check out his pictures.

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Graham228221 reports problems for fans heading to Monza this weekend:

Anyone else been affected by the strike in Italy tomorrow? I’ve ended up swapping my flight for one to Nice and then we’ll have to get the train along the coat.

After a couple of weeks trying to learn very basic Italian, now I’ve gotta dust off my French.
Graham228221

From the forum

PortuGoose wonders if F3 Euroseries and GP3 should merge?

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Giorgio Pantano’s F1 career fizzled out after a part-season with Jordan in 2004. Despite winning the GP2 title in 2008, he has been unable to find a way back into the top-flight.

He impressed on his return to IndyCar racing at Infineon last weekend, finishing sixth on the road before being relegated to 17th following a penalty for blocking.

Pantano didn’t have a smooth run to his GP2 title. At Spa three years ago today he was thrown out of the entire weekend following a collision with Lucas di Grassi:

Author information

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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101 comments on “Thailand considering bid for F1 race”

  1. Oh god, soon every country in the world will be bidding for an F1 race. Oh well, I say, we remove the boring Tilke ones if anything slightly exciting comes along.

    Pirelli, Pirelli, Pirelli. As much as they claim it’s a waste of resources for them to be bringing a sixth set of hards to a weekend, it’s slightly hypocritical that they’re harping on about how it’s a waste of resources when their supersofts barely last 15 laps. If they were in it for efficient tyre resource allocation, their tyres wouldnt seem to be lasting a shorter and shorter time, heck, they probably wouldnt be in F1!!

    Speaking of the shorter time it takes for their tyres to go off recently, maybe it’s linked to these quotes in some way.
    Reduce tyre life – Increase amount of tyres used, thus that sixth set of hards might actually get used up. Hmmm.. Conspiracy? :D

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      6th September 2011, 4:35

      I think Pirelli feel that their current tyre compounds are perfect for Formula 1 – they give the right balance between performance and wear. Thus, the extra set of hard tyres is unnecessary and wasteful.

    2. Oh god, soon every country in the world will be bidding for an F1 race. Oh well, I say, we remove the boring Tilke ones if anything slightly exciting comes along.

      I doubt a Tilke track will be swapped with another Tilke track, thus why I fear some important/entertaining venue might be dropped.

      1. I doubt a Tilke track will be swapped with another Tilke track

        Circuits will be dropped on the basis of which ones are available and cannot/do not want to renew their contracts – not based on who designed them.

    3. To me its a good sing, to see Pirelli giving these things a thought and discussing optimising things with the team and the FIA.

      It might just have been letting up a test balloon to get them to move on other issues though.

  2. Another thing for the round-up; FOM has released its race edit for the Belgian Grand Prix. I think it’s the first one they’ve made this year that’s anywhere near as good as the ones we had last year. :)

    1. Ya just watched it. Brilliant footage of Rob Smedley being majorly pssd off.

    2. Totally agree Damon. By far the best show of music and film editing done this year :) I just wonder if they’ve almost ‘deliberately’ made them worse this season, in the sense that the ones from 2009 and 2010 were so good, they were almost just copying and pasting the footage from them into the Gala review, which had always been seen as the ‘showpiece’ film of the season?

    3. Particularly loved how they edited the HAM-KOB crash. Also, the choice of music is refreshingly different. They were starting to pick songs from the same set of artists, and it was starting to get bland.

      As for the Gala video, I’m not sure. For all we know, they’ll just copy and paste again what they’ve already done this year.

    4. I agree as well, this was the first race edit that gave us the same level as we enjoyed last year.

  3. I wonder if a Thai GP would be considered in place of the Malaysian GP, or possibly having them alternate as the French & Belgian GPs are likely to be…

    I’m all for new tracks, just not Tilke designed bore fests (maybe Populous could design a track…) and not at the expense of traditional, entertaining, classic European races.

    1. Given the amount of Malaysian interest in F1 (see Mercedes, Renault, and Lotus), I think there’s a much lower chance that they would allow to be alternated with a Thai GP.

      1. Malaysia involvement in F1 quite large plus Malaysia have a quite good connection with Jean Todt.

  4. Indy Car threw a green while a Safety vehicle was trying to get off the track. It was driving head on towards the car and just made it off the track on time.

    This amateur video makes it look even scarier – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHuIb2e5Nh0

    1. Nice find. That is completely insane. I shudder to think what may have happened if contact had been made…

    2. Wow, that is incredible. Such terrible organisation…

      1. Race control has been quite a shambles lately.

        1. I think they really have to up their game as well. Some quite unforgivable things going on off late with race control in IndyCars.

  5. Well, if there is a Grand Prix in Thailand, it may be the first race to have grid Ladyboys…

    1. Oh please, I’ve just eaten!

  6. Maybe these countries should settle for a regional GP2 series with a rotating F1 race. EG. GP 2 ,European division, Americas division, Middle Eastern division, and Asian division. One of these areas track could be selected in turn for an extra F1 race each year and an extra GP2 “race of divisional Champions”. You get the idea, many permutations but GP2 providing racing throughout the year and F1 coming occasionally for prestige and promotion, hopefully with a previous local champion driving. Alternately we would need to go back to Championship and Non-Champioship races just to give all the venues a race.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      6th September 2011, 4:45

      Maybe these countries should settle for a regional GP2 series with a rotating F1 race. EG. GP 2 ,European division, Americas division, Middle Eastern division, and Asian division.

      They experimented with that. It was called GP2 Asia. It didn’t work.

      1. Perhaps they needed more venues in more countries and more divisions to compete with.

  7. Can’t all the countries wanting an F1 race join forces with the unloved recent editions to the F1 calendar to create a special Tilkedrome only Asian championship which we can all ignore?

    I don’t want a Thailand GP. I don’t want a Hong Kong GP. I didn’t really want an Indian GP, nor Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and the rest. I want F1 in countries where there is either a decent F1 following, or the potential for one to grow. I know fanbases take time to grow, but there are some places where you just know F1 is never going to take off in the short to medium term.

    Look at Malaysia- they’ve had a GP for over a decade now, and yet they can’t even entice fans to the circuit with the cheapest tickets in F1. In 12 years time I doubt much will have changed

    1. Won’t happen unless Bernie changes his priorities.

      First, Barhain came and said: “look, we want a race, we’ll pay anything to have it”. Please, be my guest!.

      A French guy comes along: “hey, I want to extend our contract”. Can you match the Bahraini’s offer? No I can’t. Uhm, tough luck, mate!

      Now the whole thing is ruined already, because we have like 7 brand new tracks, willing to pay whatever it takes to be part of the calendar. And countries like Mexico, Netherlands, France, will always struggle to get back.

    2. Prisoner Monkeys
      6th September 2011, 4:42

      I want F1 in countries where there is either a decent F1 following, or the potential for one to grow.

      Which India has. And yet, you don’t want an Indian Grand Prix.

      1. You say that as though it’s fact. Perhaps in future you could say something like “actually, I think India has quite a big F1 following”, and then provide some evidence of this. Or is that too polite for you?

        1. To be fair, I think PM meant that India has the potential to develop a fanbase rather than currently having one. Considering the sheer number of people in India and their enthusiasm for sport in general, plus the country’s increasing presence in the sport, I think that’s a fair enough claim.

          1. Well we will find out once the GP comes round and we see whether it looks like becoming another Turkey…

        2. Quite right Ned, obviously “potential” can be as elastic as you want it to be so should be read in context.

        3. I can provide no evidence other than first hand observation, but India indeed loves motor racing. This is a common trait of rising economies, USA in the ’50s, China in the 90’s. The first thing people do with a bit of extra cash is buy a car. The next thing after that – See how fast it will go.

          Without presenting any evidence, I would speculate that India has more self proclaimed F1 fans than the US. As stated above, Indian tend to go mad for all kinds of sport.

    3. Like it or loathe it, the new additions to the F1 calendar and the countries that want to host races are a reflection of the state of the global economy. The days of Western Europe and the US being the dominant forces in the global economy are over. Big business is “looking east” more and more and I don’t see why F1 shouldn’t do the same.

      Yes the new tracks that end up being built are a bit dull, yes they calendar is so full that we no longer go to Zolder or Imola but times change, and so does/should/will F1’s audience. Heck there was a time when we didn’t have a Japanese Grand Prix, but the race is now one of the most anticipated on the calendar. We have to start somewhere.

      I’d rather gamble on giving a race to a country that has a bit of cash and not much of an f1 audience in the hope that the sport gains popularity (even if it ends up failing ala Turkey) rather than chase an audience which has already shown it doesn’t care about F1 (the US to a large degree).

      And if that isn’t enough, you have an excuse to go to an exotic new country you may not have otherwise gone to (a) for a holiday and (b) to watch F1. I can’t think of anything better!

    4. I remember reading somewhere that in Malaysia, even with some of the cheapest tickets, the fans prefer to stay at home and watch the race rather than go to the circuit. This is surely not the place F1 wants to be racing in.

    5. Europe is bankrupt! F1 is costly! Hence, Europe can’t pay for it. Now was that hard to understand?

      Can’t all the countries wanting an F1 race join forces with the unloved recent editions to the F1 calendar to create a special Tilkedrome only Asian championship which we can all ignore?

      You better hope that doesn’t happen because all teams will only participate in this “Asian championship”.
      No team in its right mind is going to participate in an European championship as it is just not profitable to race in Europe.

      1. I don’t literally want an all European championship…

        There is certainly room for a few Asian GP’s- Japan, Singapore, China, maybe South Korea, India has potential. Any more than that is overkill

        1. So you won’t be Predident of Bhutan’s bid for a race then?

          1. Bhutan does not have a president. It has a king, and a prime minister. And even if they wanted a Grand Prix, it would not automatically be a bad thing. For one, it is the most mountainous country in the world, so the circuit would probably be one part Spa, one part Rallye Monte Carlo. And secondly, most of the country is at least a kilometre above sea level, so it would double the altitude challenges presented by Hermons Rodriguez in Mexico City.

            Wow. I really need to stop hanging out in Little Bhutan.

          2. According to M Brundle, the elevation differences at Spa cause a 1% difference in engine performance between the highest and lowest point on the track.

            Then, imagine a circuit a kilometre up in the sky. So Bhutan is maybe not the place to go.

            I applaud any country that wants to do a bid. As long as these bids are at least as high as Bahrein, Valencia and/or Abu Dhabi, so that Bernie can scrap these temples of boredom without losing money and increase the quality of the product.

          3. Just a joke PM. I picked a random country and made Flanders the “President” of its bid team, not the President of the country.

          4. PM. you just failed your comprehension test, the subject of the sentence (President) refers to the “bid” not the country. Stay behind and write 100 times “I must pay attention”

    6. To be honest, I think India, or for that matter both China and Thailand can really have the potential to grow themselves an F1 audience.

      In fact, there is quite a big following of F1 in China already, just they are not going to the race to see it live.

  8. So a new circuit is coming which old circuit will loss it’s place?

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      6th September 2011, 4:41

      Well, for one, it’s by no means confirmed. They’re only considering a bid; they haven’t actually put it together, much less put it forward. And then it needs to be approved by Bernie and FOM, followed by negotiations over the terms of the contract. Then the race needs to be put together, the circuit fainlised and everything in place. Then, and only then, can we really start talking about which race it might replace.

      1. Ok, everyone stop discussing it until PM gets official confirmation that FOM and Bernie have approved it. No room for any fun discussion on here.

        1. That’s a bit unfair. The point I’m trying to make is that if it happens, a Thai Grand Prix will be years away. I wouldn’t expect to see it until 2014 at the earliest. So it’s kind of difficult to know which race, if any, it will replace.

          1. Sorry, thats a fair point. I guess the line of thought is that the Tilke tracks are generally the newest and hence are the most accessible, best facilities, largest capacity etc. With the pricing that FOM is charging it is likely to be the older tracks that are least likely to be able to generate sufficient revenue, ie Spa, etc so they are the most at risk.

          2. Yeah PM I was just having fun & you destroyed the mood.

    2. I hate to say it but I think we might be on for a rotation with Suzuka, of all the Asian races they’re the ones who’ve struggled most with costs and F1’s popularity in Japan has declined.

      1. No Problem. Japan has SUPER GT and it’s more popular than F1 here. I want Kamui Kobayashi to come back to Japan and race a GT car. I’ve really been feeling F1 is only for Europians.

        1. I’ve really been feeling F1 is only for Europians.

          No reason why that should be so. 11 of the 32 world champions are non-Europeans.

      2. Now they have Kobabashi they might be more interested.(intentional error)

  9. I don’t want a Korean GP and Chinese GP. I don’t want Tilke’s tracks. But I want a Thailand GP if the track designer won’t be him.

    1. It’s kind of a case of six of one or half a dozen of the other. They’re talking about a street circuit in Bangkok because it would be cheaper and easier to start up, and the race could join the calendar sooner. The catch is that whoever designs it is going it be limited by the geography of the city. This is the best I can do off the top of my head and using the street suggested in the article, Ratchadamnoen Avenue. But even then, some of the roads are visibly narrow (which is a shame, because they’re also the fastest corners). It’s not just a case of linking up roads in the city to make a circuit – the roads have to be able to accomodate a Grade-1 circuit.

      1. the track you designed is better than Tilke’s one lol. the problem I think is some of Bangkok’s street is not flat. it might be dangerous. I hope they will solve it. Anyway I’m sure it would be better race than Korea and China. Becuz Thailand is nice to visit unlike them.

      2. Good effort, but (like you said) from what I remember of that area some of those streets are far to narrow for road cars never mind F1 cars!

        1. That’s kind of the point I’m trying to make – whoever designs the circuit is going to have their hands bound by the same problem. People are far too quick to point fingers at Tilke for designing poor circuits, but there are other factors that influence circuit design. Case in point, the city geography. It doesn’t matter whether Tilke or Populous of Mummar Qaddafi designs it; they’re going to have to work with what they’re given, and find a circuit that is within FIA Grade-1 guidelines.

          1. I bite my thumb at Tilke for designing poor circuits. No fingers involved.

          2. I personally think that it’s more that Tilke likes to put too many corners everywhere. Malaysia’s an example of a decent Tilke track (imo) but places like Abu and Bahrain are rather blegh.

          3. PM, I am further insensed by Tilkedromes because he usually has the benefit of a clean slate. Unlike a city design, there are few limitations.

            And yet somehow, he still finds a way to screw it up.

            I think he secretly hates fast cars, maybe his dog got runover as a child.

  10. My heart sank when I saw Graham228221’s COTD on the Italian GP discussion. I’m going to be watching the internet like a hawk today, hoping that i’m unaffected.

    You can’t blame Thailand for wanting a GP and good luck if they do go ahead with a bid. However, I’d like to think that lessons have been learned from Turkey, so no one should go diving in head first, least of all FOM.

  11. Imola want’s in again

    1. Imola wants what again? And do you have a reference to back it up?

        1. Take a guess (the grand prix)

          Then say as much. And provide the link in your original post. You got upset the other day when people questioned your sources; just because you were right once does not make you a reliable source. People aren’t going to automatically believe you simply because you are the one posting it. You need to back it up with evidence – that’s what Keith does every day.

          1. If you looked at yesterdays round-up you will notice that I provided Keith with the Imola and Thaliand info with 5 refrences.
            Take a look:
            https://www.racefans.net/2011/09/05/59/comment-page-2/#comments

          2. I had a look but chose not to use them, for pretty much the same reasons we went through when we had this discussion before.

          3. None of which are particulalry noteworthy sources. For example, if you read that story that appeared a few days ago about IPIC buying out Toro Rosso, it was posted on dozens of websites – but they all referred back to Spanish newspaper AS. That doesn’t make them independently verifiable; all those websites did at the time was repost what AS published.

            I don’t understand your need to be accepted as a source around here (you remind me of someone else on another forum who does the same thing, believing absolutely everything he reads and posting it as fact when it’s usually little more than insubstantial speculation at best), but as a general rule, you should be looking at triangulation. Basically, you need three independent sources, and by that I mean three separate articles on the subject that do not reference one another. For example, if James Allen, Adam Cooper and Andrew Benson all publish the same story without attributing that story to any of the others, you can be fairly certain of its veracity.

            The world of Formula 1 is quite unnique compared to other fields, because there are almost “brand-name” journalists – people who have made a name for themselves based on their reporting. Keith does it, as do James Allen, Adam Cooper, Will Buxton, Peter Windsor, Andrew Benson, Jon Noble and a handful of others. They’er usually the most reliable sources when it comes to reporting on news and events. The websites you keep linking to – News on F1, Made In Motorsport, Crash and CNNGO are not top-tier websites for Formula 1 news. They’re not even second-tier reporters (like Joe Saward or Tom Clarkson).

            Like I said the other day, it’s nothing personal – I just don’t really find your sources to be particularly fantastic. They all repost one another’s stories, they have no bylines, no reputation to speak of, and no way of following up on how factual they are.

          4. Well I found the sources on my usual website, and then to back up my sources I did some research to find out if they were true or just rubbish, at least I made the effort to like and put foward my ideas, did you do so PM, it’s the thought that counts, even if they were not great I at least tried to find more evidence after what happended the other day. Now PM, I am going to do my research for when you put foward ideas to find almost every fault like you have done with ALL of my posts.

          5. I am going to do my research for when you put foward ideas to find almost every fault like you have done with ALL of my posts.

            I don’t know why you’re taking this so personally. I just don’t understand it. For some reason, you want everyone to accept that you are a source, someone with his finger on the pulse and his ear to the ground. And that’s fine – but if you want it to happen, you need to start finding better references. Like I said the other day, Keith has a reputation founded on the quality of his journalism. Why should he compromise that for the sake of publishing a story sooner than other websites? You might get a credit for finding the articles, but the standard of the blog will be lowered as a result.

          6. I understand what you are saying but if you wait too long the story is already going to be out there which everybody will know of. And in response to a previous comment you made I am expected to trust a load of jounalist’s I have never heard of in comparison to more well known sights that is like saying one of those sources are better than BBC or Sky Sports or 30% is better than 99% because you wait longer to find out.

          7. So Keith CNN sponser Team Lotus don’t they which would mean they would get much more infomation more quickly as they are a team sponser and with Team Lotus been Malaysian that is the area where word will travel fast as that is the area were the Grand Prix will be held and all the sites I mentioned had large articles on the story while you only had a few sentences because you have found it hard to find a descent source like I did, and I have never heard of the ‘Bangkok Post’ not what I would brand a notable source, and it does not come in the Google dropdown list until you have written Bangkok, while with CNN you only have to put cn and it is the top result.

          8. Where a site ranks in a search on Google is not necessarily a reflection of whether their content is reliable.

            I hate to say it, but that should be pretty obvious. Do you really think Google have tens of thousands of people manually checking and verifying billions of stories on millions of news websites? No, they have search algorithms.

          9. if you wait too long the story is already going to be out there which everybody will know of.

            But the idea is not to get the story out as fast as possible. It’s not like someone is handing out medals for speed. It’s better to wait and make sure a story is factual and well-written than to rush it out and risk getting things wrong.

            I am expected to trust a load of jounalist’s I have never heard of in comparison to more well known sight
            All the names I listed are names of journalists who are well-known for their journalism. Sites like Made In Motorsport and News on F1 are not well-known.

            I have never heard of the ‘Bangkok Post’ not what I would brand a notable source

            Just because it doesn’t appear in the Google drop-down list, that doesn’t mean it’s not reliable. A simple Google search reveals that it is a daily newspaper in Bangkok, has been published since 1946 and has one of the highest circulations of English-language newspapers in Thailand.

          10. I am not talking about search results as you well know if there is a current affair going on about it there is a section called News on ….. In which it gets updated when a new credible well known website publishes a story on the matter and in my post I used the three most recent storys which as you say wait longer there has not been any update and therefore not a story by a credible website out there.

          11. But those are the only websites putting out news, so of course they’re going to be at the top of the queue. It doesn’t make them valid.

          12. Saying that they want in is pretty obvious to be fair. Especially when you read it in the context of an F1 site.

          13. Actually Keith to get on Google you need to have a large foundation of visitors, if at top then lots and that means truthfull. You also have to keep updating and that is how you are ranked in a google search engine, hense facebook is top of ‘f’.

          14. @Prisoner Monkeys

            Why, in your view are Joe Saward and Tom Clarkson ‘second tier’ reporters? Just interested…

          15. To be honest, I think all these pieces about Imola wanting back in spring from (wishfull) interpretation by journalists of things said by Imola’s boss after getting the top FIA homologation back. Yes the track is proud of being able to host a race technically.
            But that does not mean there is any real initiative to get it back on the calendar going on.

            Here’s that directly from the official Imola website (and with translate for non italian speakers)

        2. You said wait longer the story will be better, and I used the latest stories and according to you PM they should be the most accurate, and if the you type in Thailand F1 Grand Prix or Imola Grand Prix Return I think you will find they are the most recent. And in the Google News section the news is the top stories and for the news they only publish from sites that they can trust to be good, I did not seen Bangkok Post in the news section.

          1. Have you ever heard of Google Bombing? Google search results are based on popularity, so people have taken to repeatedly searching for certain things – usually through a bot – to elevate that page’s standing in Google search results. Some people even pay companies to do it. So just because something is high on Google’s search results, that doesn’t automatically make it credible.

          2. Thankyou matt90 for agreeing with me and understanding a very simple phrase.

  12. I would not object to a Thai Grand Prix. But between the escalating costs, the sheer number of nations wanting a race, the limited number of available calendar slots and the refusal of some events to give up, I think now more than ever is the time to organise a rotating calendar: pick ten core races, Grands Prix that are deemed to be of the most value to the sport (ie Silverstone, Monaco, etc.) that will be held anually, and twenty races that rotate bianually.

    1. Bernie want’s his money and money is what he will get so what he will probably do is get rid of every single Grand Prix no matter what its heritage is and replace it with lots of new ones that are offering more money to host.

      1. It’s not a bad idea but that would not go down well with national sponsers, for example if Santander were to only sponser the British Grand Prix and no other race or car then they would not be happy having to swap as they would not be getting the publicity they desire (I know you said it was core but just a sponsership example) and as the Grand Prix would be alternate sponsership fee’s would rise as more sponser’s would want the publicity as they oppurtunity would be so small and in the current situation company’s can’t afford to be doing that.

      2. Because Barcelona and Budapest have such a rich “heritage” (my least-favourite word in the average Formula 1 fan’s vocabulary because far too much emphasis is placed on it).

        1. I mean with noteable Grand Prix taken place there like the making of a never thought would be world champion or a drivers death or the making of a team you would always be expecting to trail at the back, and you must be a real F1 fan if you spend your whole day on this site waiting to respond to people’s comments just to pick faults and attention seeking from Keith I come and go then you get the mass opinion to respond to not just one.

      3. I will believe that, even without sources, In fact I believe that virtually every race track in the world would love to run a F1 race, if they could make a profit from it.

    2. For the love of god can’t we just stop tampering with F1.

  13. Great photos of the Indycars at Baltimore Jamey. Your photos manage what I thought was impossible, they make Indycars look fast, and nice. I like the ones of the cars taking the Chicane in particular.

  14. Just a thought, rather than yet another Formula 1 Grand Prix, could Thailand consider hosting an IndyCar race?

    Any thoughts?

    1. F1 is a much bigger market than IndyCar so to launch with F1 would be big but the organisers would like to use it for other races so it could be used for IndyCar but that would after the F1 launch and the organisers know what sort of profit they are getting and how popular that sport is in the country (I personally don’t think people from Thailand would go out in mass to see IndyCar).

      1. True, Formula 1 is definitely more global. My thoughts were more towards variety, really. There are only 17 races on the IndyCar calendar compared to Formula 1’s 20, I’d say would make Thailand stand out a bit. :)

  15. Ratchadamnoen Avenue could be a lovely venue for an F1 race…but the first thought that came to my for anyone considering a race here is “You’re running from a lion and meeting a bear”

    For more reasons than I can elaborate on as it would exhaust even a bazillion full time journalists, its the dumbest idea I’ve heard in a long time.

      1. I guess you could, but it would not fit this site :-D

  16. Well Thailand would certainly rival Monza, Silverstone and the others for atmosphere, minus the history, but that will come. The Thais really know how to throw a party (coyote dancers on the grid, and thai street food in the paddock anyone?)

    But I’m not too sure they would be able to seriously organize a GP and build a track. Bernie’s not going to appreciate power for the pits being supplied by a electric extention cord hanging by some string from the nearest hotel.

  17. Being from Australia I would really like if Thailand got a grand prix.
    Thailand being so cheap and close to Australia I would definitely go.

  18. great… just what we need… more asians investing money in bland tracks with no space.

    It’s getting to the point where they should alternative every single Grand Prix

  19. Great, another F1 race in yet another politically unstable country. Just what we need, more races canceled if regimes begin suppressing their domestic opposition.

    Give them a few years to find their stability, then consider a site there.

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