Singapore won’t drop F1 after 2017 – Ecclestone

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Bernie Ecclestone believes Singapore will renew its F1 contract which expires after this year’s race.

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Comment of the day

@Fer-no65 defends Felipe Massa over that last lap incident:

I wonder what people wanted Massa to do in that situation at that place. Bottas just managed to overtake him before turn two, and then it’s a long corner until turn four, which is incredibly dirty on the outside. Going there would be suicidal, regardless of the situation, so all Massa could do was stick to the inside and wait until turn four. He did exactly that, and stayed out of the way on braking and corner entry. Vettel was either too far back or didn’t want to risk it too much on the inside.

You can’t move out of the way everywhere, even if you want to. And he’s not even obligated to do it. He delayed Vettel by four tenths? Six tenths? A full second? Bottas had it worse during the race and we didn’t see him complain.

I guess people are frustrated that a battle for the win was sort of spoiled by a backmarker. But that’s the nature of the game.
@Fer-no65

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On this day in F1

  • Emerson Fittipaldi won the Spanish GP at Jarama today in 1972

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45 comments on “Singapore won’t drop F1 after 2017 – Ecclestone”

  1. These lapped chicanes need to get the hell out of the way. There is plenty of run off areas for them to achieve that.

    1. I don’t agree with Cotd. Bottas made a mistake lost a lot of time then he probably lost more time than Seb on most backmarkers but considering how experienced Massa is, I’d say Massa didn’t need to be such a pain to pass, particularly with Seb but he was a bad backmarker with both.

  2. I don’t understand that tweet by Byron. When you have strategy involved in racing, you don’t know how everything pans out around you. I guess by the time of the tweet that it came when Hamilton was told how much is Verstappen behind him, but covering off the SC threat is still a strategy… And you can’t eliminate strategy completely from racing.

    1. @hunocsi If he’s not tweeting how amazing Lewis is, he is either taking the other drivers or the sport down a peg in his tweets.

      1. Yup, stopped reading anything Byron Young had to say some time ago.

        1. I never followed him so I’ve mostly came across him in the round-ups, but yeah, he seems needlessly (and unreasonably at times) opinionated for a journalist…

    2. @hunocsi that tweet was posted around the same time as Mark Gallagher’s so surely he’s talking about Kimi’s radio messages not knowing Bottas was already ahead of him before the pit stop.

      1. Yeah I just thought it was a reference to Kimi’s radio comm. re Bottas and perhaps a shot at how spread apart the cars were such that drivers needed radios rather than having a visual of their opponents.

    3. @hunocsi It’s a load of rubbish. This isn’t a new thing in F1, it’s been like this pretty much since they started using the team radios

  3. The loss of Malaysia will probably help Singapore, with less competition.

    I know there’s a lot of criticism towards Putin and the Russian Grand Prix (and it made me chuckle when Ecclestone wasn’t sitting in the middle this year, Carey was), but what you have to remember is they pay far more for their Grand Prix than most places do. The simple facts are that this is a business deal between F1 and Russia. Business isn’t always pretty. If you’ve got somebody paying your business (I heard somewhere) £€$50 million per year, then you don’t really have a choice but to respect them for that. Furthermore, F1 benefits from that huge amount of money.

    1. So it’s like a scam then? Because we ALSO pay to see this race (either live or on TV) on the assumption that we get sports entertainment expected from an F1-level event (not static 2-hour bore fest built around an awkward appearance of a dictator).

      1. @zimkazimka there’s no scam involved. You pay to see the race, but not to host the race, and there’s no harm in two shots of the person paying to host the race appearing in a two hour programme. And if you go to the track to see it you don’t even have to look at Putin at all. How is it a scam?

        If it really bothers people that much, just ignore it. People spend too much time getting worked up about it that they make it look like a much bigger problem than it really is

  4. So Bottas could possibly be just 4 points behind LH if not for the team orders. Great to see him win this time to maybe trigger some re-thinking from Mercedes.

    1. Mercedes is fine– it’s the fans and the so-called pundits who are apparently delusional.

      Here’s their strategy, in short words: “Team orders are used when a driver is too slow to win”.

      Bottas wasn’t fast enough in Bahrain. Hamilton wasn’t fast enough in Sochi. Of course, Hamilton wasn’t in front of Bottas in Sochi, so it didn’t really matter. Bottas *was* in front in Bahrain, and too slow– just like Rosberg was too slow in Monaco last year.

      …. nothing to see here, move along.

      1. The problem with your logic is that it’s wrong. Maybe Bottas was slow in Bahrain but Hamilton wasn’t quicker than Vettel. The team wanted to give him a chance to catch Vettel but he couldn’t manage and yet they didn’t reverse the positions. There was no risk involved in doing so. As you said, he was also “too slow to win”.
        Bringing Rosberg to this makes no sense… If anything, the Monaco switch almost cost Rosberg his title. It could’ve been easier if not the points Hamilton got given in Monaco. The same might now happen to Bottas if he keeps moving over for his teammate.

        But I guess people who likes Team Orders will always find a reason for them to support they favourite driver. In my view, even if Hamilton would catch Vettel and win last race, it would still be cheating. Having said that, I am not a team manager so who cares… Cheers.

        1. Hamilton was going to pass Bottas with or without an order in Bahrain. The team run a constant simulation that will have shown a slim chance of winning if he cleared Bottas immediately. The order was a no brainer and no order to switch back came because it wasn’t like Bottas could have defended the place realistically.

        2. @toxic, it could be argued there was a risk from behind in Bahrain given that Kimi was consistently significantly faster than Bottas in the final stint of the race. By the time you get to the final half dozen or so laps, Kimi was taking between 1.0 to 1.2s a lap out of Bottas’s lead – had it not been for a poor final lap, Kimi would have been within DRS range of Bottas on that lap (as it was, he finished two seconds behind).

          In that situation, ordering Hamilton to slow down enough to allow Bottas back through ahead of him would have come with a risk of Bottas backing Hamilton into Kimi.

          1. Miss Begotten
            1st May 2017, 8:10

            And Ham will no doubt let Bot past him a future race to square the ledger.

          2. @Miss Begotten Haha. Has Hamilton ever done anything like that in his F1 career so far?

  5. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
    1st May 2017, 2:18

    Can I propose a complete and total shutdown of all news relating to Bernie?

    1. I mind him less now he’s powerless.
      It’s as if now F1 has 2 rodeo clowns ;)

      1. The other one was doing the podium interviews.

  6. I quite agree with Bratches. In a perfect world, you would start with Australia and Asia, then Europe, then the Americas. Start in Australia, then Abu Dhabi, Singapore, China, Bahrain, Japan, Russia, Monaco, Spain, Azerbaijan, France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Canada, NYC, Mexico, Austin, Brazil, and finally Vegas.

    1. Get rid of Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Bahrain and Sochi! NY will be a dud from the start, as it’s also going to be a street circuit. I’m so glad India, Korea and Valencia are all done for. Bring back Imola, the old Hockenheim, Nurburgring as well, and a French Grand Prix. These new circuits are all the same, the only thing they got going for them is the hype around them. Lights and views and rock shows.

    2. @mfreire NYC and LV races are far from being confirmed. Talks are just talks, so don’t jump to definite conclusions that those will actually happen.

    3. I think the issue with having a schedule geographically is the concern for weather in those areas. Some locations are not suitable for racing during certain times of the year.

  7. This victory for Bottas was extremely important in relation to his position at Merc.

    It couldn’t have come at a better time. He’s basically laid down a marker, that he isn’t an also-ran or a number 2. He comprehensively out performed his team mate and showed that he has the mental resolve to stay out front and win.

    He is growing more comfortable with the team, and he will get better. Can he upstage Lewis? Highly unlikely, but he will definitely put up a fight.

    Funnily enough, yesterday’s win actually gives Toto a massive head ache! Haha

  8. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
    1st May 2017, 6:54

    Is Bernie empowered again? It’s the second weekend I see him on the paddock again, walking and throwing dirt as always.

    1. Miss Begotten
      1st May 2017, 8:23

      I think Liberty want him to show his face at all the races where the very concept is unusual.

  9. I missed the comments on Honda and McLaren van Doorne did an great job to bring the car home. But Alonso that was really sad and he had to walk back to the pits. But I won my bet :) happy feet!!!!

  10. turn four () is incredibly dirty on the outside. Going there would be suicidal

    And yet Vettel had to overtake the backmarker there :p

    1. @f1-liners Didn’t VET do it from the inside though?

      1. MAS let VET race the outside of T4, the long never-ending 180 degree turn which some call ‘suicidal’.
        Only at T5, and after losing almost a second, did MAS let VET past on the inside.
        @davidnotcoulthard

        1. @f1-liners That long left curve is turn 3 according to most of what I’ve heard and the this site (is this the track’s official site?)

          The most interesting part of the track is its long turn 3 – 650-metre turn is the longest one in the Formula 1 calendar, and the negative incline of the surface is a difficult challenge for the drivers.​​

          Weirdly enough the Wikipedia article for the track seems to agree with what you’ve said.

  11. machinesteve
    1st May 2017, 11:42

    Australia
    Really dramatic but so badly filmed it looks dull.

    China
    Grim with spectacular corners that are made dull on TV

    Bahrain
    Much better in the dark but too much tarmac has ruined it

    Russia
    Awful, just awful….oh just awful and then Putin to ice the awful cake.

    Barcelona
    Was great once now just sunny and dull, dull, dull.

    Monaco
    Still great TV except for the iconic shot of the tunnel exit from the harbour which got ruined.

    Canada
    Looks better than it should I think – but hey they changed the greatest corner now….hooray!

    Baku
    Should be good but largely deserted city, surely not everyone is in prison?

    Austria
    Dull track which absolutely ignores its setting and is a shadow of its past.

    Silverstone
    So atmosphere free bleak mess that gets way more praise than it deserves….another ruined circuit.

    Hungaroring
    Looks great these days which only goes to show how dreadful the others are.

    Spa
    Still good but bad camera angles destroy 99% of the drama.

    Monza
    Keeps on being Monza while they get on with wrecking the corners with tarmac run-off.

    Singapore
    It looks great in daylight, so they race in the dark – it could be anywhere.

    Sepang
    Getting better and better every year really grown as a circuit ……oh they cancelled it.

    Suzuka
    Really spectacularly bad camera angles make a great circuit seem boring.

    Mexico
    What kind of circuit has the podium ceremony as its best bit?

    Interlagos
    So good still, so love the close crowd at the start and finish, oozes atmosphere.

    Yas Marina
    About as dull as watching someone else play a computer game where no one cares.

    1. I have never seen someone with so much negativity, why do you even watch if you feel that way?

    2. May I suggest a different sport?

    3. you can never satisfy everyone.

    4. Fukobayashi (@)
      2nd May 2017, 12:21

      Why would you take 10-15 minutes out of your life to write a short essay on something you dislike so much? Make better use of your time my friend.

  12. Grouping races together by region is a nice idea but something that is not as possible as it seems as one of the things that determines where a race is on the calender is actually based on the weather & trying to be there when the country usually has the best weather.

    No point moving the Japanese Gp to earlier in the year when it’s in the middle of it’s monsoon/rainy season. Can’t move Montreal to later because of how harsh it’s winter weather can be, Moving the USGP earlier in the year when the temperature in Texas can be unbearable.
    Look at what happened when the British Gp was moved to April in 2000, April showers as I believe you Brit’s call it. That race is usually held in July because its when you usually get the best of your summer weather & the same is true with races elsewhere.

    1. @gt-racer ”No point moving the Japanese Gp to earlier in the year when it’s in the middle of it’s monsoon/rainy season.” – The climates of Shanghai and Suzuka are pretty similar to each other, and the Chinese GP has been run in April since 2009, so having the Japanese GP at this time of year could work as well, but I’d rather group China with Singapore and Japan, ie., move China back to its original late September slot as the probability of the ambient temperatures being unfavourably low for F1 is slimmer than in April (this year the highest ambient temperature on race day was only 13 degrees Celcius and also in 2014 only around 15 despite the race being run later in the month).

    2. @gt-racer Agreed. As I live in Canada the first thought I had on this was the fall weather in Montreal which can certainly be beautiful and sunny and warm or it can be chilly and rainy and miserable. The deeper it gets past September and into October, the more dicey the weather can be.

  13. I also think that most of the stuff returns to the factory between races, along with all the people. For example in 2012 and 2013 we had Asian leg of five races: Singapore, Japan, Korea, India and Abu Dhabi in a row. Japan and Korea were back-to-back races, as well as India and Abu Dhabi.

    So I think logistics went like this during that period.
    Factory -> Singapore -> Factory -> Japan -> Korea -> Factory -> India -> Abu Dhabi -> Factory

  14. Today is the anniversary of Ayrton’s Senna fatal accident as well!

  15. Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
    1st May 2017, 21:21

    Oh FFS well at least the paddock’s nice, eh Jean? Who cares about the racing!

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