More problems for New Jersey F1 race

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Fresh doubt over the postponed Jersey Grand Prix as management staff leave the project.

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For N.J. Formula 1 race, more bumps in the road (NJ)

“A spokesman for [race organiser Leo] Hindery’s group confirmed this week that its chief marketing officer, Trip Wheeler, and its chief financial officer, Michael Cummings, have left the organisation. The two departures follow news last August that Tom Cotter, president of Grand Prix of America, had also left.”

Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber interview each other (BBC)

“In recalling the [2005 San Marino Grand Prix] Alonso revealed a remarkable fact – he completed the entire grand prix with a crippled engine, as a change would have meant a 10-place grid penalty.”

The F1 Rich List (F1 Speedwriter)

“During his career the total earnings of Michael Schumacher amounted to (US) $810 million [£521.4m], second only to golfer Tiger Woods ($889m [£572.26m]). In this category of high earning sportsmen Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen are ranked 18th and 20th, with respective earnings of $179m [£115.22m] and $164m [£105.57].”

Snapshot

A Ferrari 333SP sports prototype is pursued by one of the team’s F1 cars at Imola during an F1 Clienti track day.

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Comment of the day

@Melkurion tips where James Allison will end up:

I say he’s going to Williams.

Allison has brought Lotus back to the front, so maybe he’s looking for a new challenge.

McLaren have denied it and Lowe’s successor is already in place. Mercedes have too many cooks in the kitchen already. Ferrari have Pat Fry. Red Bull have Adrian Newey.

So I don’t see him going to either of these, that leaves the midfield teams, most likely Williams or Sauber. Sauber has no position of technical director right now, and Williams have given Mike-scandal-Coughlan long enough to know improvements aren’t coming.
@Melkurion

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On this day in F1

Alain Prost moved back into the lead of the world championship with victory in the Spanish Grand Prix 20 years ago today.

He was joined on the podium by Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, the latter failing in his pursuit of Senna after making this mistake:

Images © Red Bull/Getty, Ferrari spa

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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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47 comments on “More problems for New Jersey F1 race”

  1. More trouble for the Grand Prix of America? That’s…disappointing to say the least. My father has been eyeing that race since we have family in the state of New York, not so much in Texas – though I really want to see a race at Austin. And neither of us have been to a race since Indianapolis ’05 – not because we were alienated with the sport after that, surprisingly.

    Really hope they can make something happen up there.

    1. COTA went through a worse leadership crisis and still made it.

    2. That’s a pity.

      I still think Bernie’s excessive fee hurts GP organizers. Maybe they should ask Michael Schumacher to sponsor the event, that man is filthy rich!

    3. I live in the area, and I’m consistently amazed at the lack of press about the New Jersey race. I find out more reading here! To be honest, most people here don’t even know what F1 is.

  2. Also, there’s no way Allison’s going to another motorsport discipline because he scoffed everything but F1 on the F1 Show last week.

    1. …so Williams is good logic, re COTD.

    2. Somehow I think Allison is McLaren bound…

  3. The Webber – Alonso interview was nice. Good to see that there are relationships off track

    1. Hope it doesn’t become an on track relationship this year with all the drama going on now.

    2. Agreed!
      Alonso seems to come across as a much nicer guy now hes at Ferrari – sometimes he gets a helping hand in the races, but the interviews he gives now compared to a few years ago are like two different people.

      1. he was very closed when he was at mclaren and the year after, but understandable as the british press treated him like the devil. But before that he was always fantastic doing many many pieces for ITV.

  4. Seems like the NJ race has had more roadblocks than most Grand Prix races in the works have had before coming to fruition. Since it seems unlikely there would be three races in the US, maybe this lends more credence to the continuing Long Beach rumors. Long Beach would be preferable in my opinion anyway. It already has a good tradition in F1 and with a few mods to the course it would be ready to go.

  5. I’m not too concerned about the New Jersey GP being ‘set back’. Bernie finally got as close to his fabled New York GP as he’s ever likely to get- I’m sure his guiding hand will make it happen, just hopefully it won’t be delayed too much- it’s a great looking circuit.

    1. could well be another of his “get a move on it, and pay up” messages

    2. with this news@matt90 – it seems the rumours are getting to make sense – Bernie has clearly been in contact with Chris Pook, maybe about Longbeach, but certainly about getting NJ up and running it seems.

      Good news then.

  6. Oh no … I was so looking forward ton the nj race overlooking the great Manhattan skyline… Hope they make it happen.

    Wow schumi has earned almost $1billion in his career till now . I thought Fernando and Hamilton Would have overtaken him given that his serious earnings were almost a decade back.maybe he should join gates and buffet now.

  7. Vettel, Perez and eight other #F1 drivers weren’t BORN when Alex Ferguson began his stint as Manchester United manager which is now ending.

    born > alive

    1. +1 @kcarrey i was just going to comment that. Saying there were not alive then means something else totally.

      1. some typo … there were not = they were not

      2. it sounded like they were in limbo before being reincarnated.

      3. So they were alive! Got it!

        Oh wait, they weren’t…

    2. I don’t get it… I thought the beginning of ‘alive’ is defined as the moment someone is born. If you say ‘during his lifetime’, you mean the exact time between nascense and death, not the exact time between nascense and death plus the few more months he spent in his mom’s tummy.

      So… why is Keith’s tweet wrong?

    3. @kcarrey They weren’t alive because they hadn’t been born yet. The Tweet could be phrased more elegantly (limitations of working in 140 characters and all) but it is correct.

      1. If it’s correct I weren’t alive!

    4. If you’re going to be pedantic, it would be ‘hadn’t been born’, not ‘weren’t born’, as ‘weren’t born’ just suggests that they weren’t born at the exact moment Ferguson started his tenure. But actually ‘alive’ is perfectly fine.

  8. If the New Jersey race is off again for next season, what other “serious” candidates are in line to take its place? As much as Bernie wants 22 races in 2014, and more money in his pockets, it seems it is not going to happen. Lucky if he gets 20.

  9. Alonso reveals engine problem during 2005 win

    I read that somewhere back in the day. One of the cylinders wasn’t working properly, so they just “disconnected” it, instead of changing the engine.

    Old news, Fernando !

    1. Old news for you, news for the majority of people who watch BBC F1.

      1. Definitely old news. Fernando Alonso has never in his entire career had the best car. And never had a perfectly working car. Someone always had better material… It’s the story of his life.

        *sob*

  10. ESPN Latin America has annouced that Mexico will host an F1 GP in 2016.

    1. No, I wish it was 2014 or 2015 not 2016 as Channel 10 might lose the rights. As you can see from my avatar

  11. Alonso at it again trying to create this Schumacher-like mystique about him. Did you hear? The engine barely had any power!! LOL.

    Those stats of Alonso and Webber are interesting. Considering Webber’s only had a car capable of race wins since 2009, they reflect well on him compared to Alonso.

    19 fastest laps to 14. 22 poles to 11.

    1. Webber is in his 5th year of having just about the best car on the grid.

      Fernando certainly isnt and has 2 world titles in his pocket and closely missed out on 3. Says all you need to know.

      1. Nah, the Red Bull was only the superior car in 2011. McLaren was quicker than the Red Bull last year. Ferrari had great race pace (generally better than the Red Bull’s in the first half of the season) and bulletproof reliability.

        2010 there was nothing in it between the top 3 teams. The veteran drivers buckled under the pressure and the driver in his third full season took the title.

        1. @anon 2010 was the year where Red Bull had the clearest advantage…it’s just that in 2011 Vettel was pretty much unstoppable in his ability to put it on pole and drive off at the start of the race.

  12. Here’s a nice BBC interview – Webber vs. Alonso about their careers. And here’s for the non UK listeners/watchers

  13. Paul (@itssodarncomplicated)
    9th May 2013, 8:45

    New to the sport. It’s awesome.

    I went back and watched a number of 2010-2012 races, and it seems, to my uninitiated mind, that DRS is a much better development than most people here give it credit for.

    As time is so important in F1 (just having to make up 5 seconds is a huge task), keeping the cars in their “proper”–best to worst–order is difficult, because fast cars lose time when stuck behind slow cars. DRS reduces the inherent friction of the whole process, so that the right cars end up in the right place without, say, getting stuck behind a car that is slower, but not so much slower that a passing move can be made quickly enough. You generally don’t see cars DRSing each other back and forth because the car that ends up in front usually belongs there. If the FIA were to go back to much more durable tires, DRS would be even more crucial. The downside–easy passing–seems to be made up for by the fact that, even after making a DRS pass, the two cars are still right next to each other: if they’re about the same speed, they should remain there, fighting over the whole length of the circuit and thus providing the entertainment and real passing that we’re all hoping to see.

    Maybe I’m crazy, but I think a DRS-assisted fight between two cars on evenly matched tires is a lot more fair (especially with the aero losses from following) than watching a bunch of cars in different phases of grip fly by each other until the last stops are made. Definitely more interesting than a race where two cars that should be racing together end up impractically far apart because one got stuck and couldn’t make up the time. So really I guess I’m arguing for the old tires, but with DRS.

    1. “If the FIA were to go back to much more durable tires”

      But that’s the biggest problem- we don’t have durable tyres at the moment, which renders DRS pointless at most circuits.

    2. DRS reduces the inherent friction

      What friction is there between race cars?
      1. lapping a backmarker 2. teammates on different strategies 3. overtaking

      The first is mostly done without the help of DRS, rather through blue flags and pure speed difference. The second through communication or just good sense. Dealing with the third kind of friction may simply be called racing.

      Should drivers only do actual battle with opponents who have an identically good car on identical current form? Let’s just get everybody else out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible? We might as well vote off cars during the race :-)

  14. I find the problems surrounding the New Jersey GP very puzzling. It looks as if they never had enough money to complete the project, so what was their plan? Make a lot of noise as if the race is going ahead in the hope of attracting investors?

    I would be a pity if the race doesn’t go ahead, as suggested by “Ecclestone confidante” Christian Sylt, as I was quite looking forward to the race.

  15. That was a dirty tweet from @FerrariDriverAcademy. You don’t make the fans jealous! :-)

  16. Jared H (@thejaredhuang)
    9th May 2013, 10:23

    Did anyone else take the original Jersey GP announcement as kind of fishy? To me unless Bernie says a GP is going to happen at X track I don’t believe it. When they made the announcement Bernie was no where to be seen and IIRC he didn’t even confirm it until a few days later. I really hope they pull through but as long as the USGP is on the calendar I think F1 in the US will be somewhat secure.

  17. When we are talking about team structures, and mentioning Allison maybe going to Mercedes (or Ferrari, or McLaren, or …), the BBC is here with an interview with Toto Wolff (and some bits from Brawn as well) about the Mercedes team.

  18. Is there any correaltion between the events surrounding the New Jersey race and Bernie’s alleged interest in Long Beach?

    1. Does seem more than coincidental.

  19. Slavica Ecclestone, a former model, profited handsomely from her 2009 divorce. Her settlement, estimated as approximately 1/3 of the family fortune, amounted to $1.2 billion.

    Seems Bernie is no stranger to being schemed out of money himself despite the fact he is the grand master of making money out of people!

  20. Allison to Williams? If that is true it must mean that Claire Williams has changed the Williams culture in just a couple of months at lead. Williams aren’t going to overpay someone to design their cars but most of all Williams have never chased other teams personnel.

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