More US races good for Mexican GP – promoter

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: The promoters of the Mexican Grand Prix are eager to see more races in their time zone.

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Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Acclimatizing the body for the extreme conditions next race. #Malaysia #f1 #14 #fa14

A video posted by Fernando Alonso (@fernandoalo_oficial) on

Comment of the day

@Fer-no65 on the sad history of the racing circuit named after one of F1’s greatest drivers:

While unkown to the the mainstream motorsport fans around the world, the Juan Manuel Fangio racetrack in Balcarce was one of the classics in Turismo Carretera’s calendar, alongside Buenos Aires’s “Oscar y Juan Galvez”. The surface kept evolving as the track is right in the mountains and the terrain is constantly moving, which made it bumpy and slippery. The place is called “La Barrosa” (The muddy) because of the characteristics of the soil and the precipitation which often affected the race. The location is also spectacular because there are no grandstands, you sit in the mountains and you see the whole track from everywhere.

The track itself is very, very fast, with long straights followed by constant radius corners. The elevation changes made the run to turn 2 one of the fastest of the year, and it was very dangerous because the safety standards weren’t up to date (at all). In 2011 it was resurfaced and that made it worse. The track was grippier and smoother, and there was a massive accident in practice. A car, driven by Agustin Canapino, failed to brake, ploughed through the barriers and fell from the cliff. The car was destroyed.

As usual in these sort of things, the dangers of the track were overlooked by the authorities and the race went ahead. With two laps to go, a backmarker crashed into a tyre wall after the bridge and stopped in the middle of the track right as the leaders were about to lap him. One of the contenders, a young guy called Guido Falaschi lost control trying to avoid the backmaker, crashed into the opposite tyre wall and also stopped in the middle of the track. The resulting chaos, within a cloud of dust, made it impossible for Nestor Girolami (the current STC2000 champion) to stop and he crashed Guido hard on one side. Guido didn’t make it, and the track has not been used since.
@Fer-no65

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On this day in F1

Jacques Laffite scored his final win, and the last for a Matra engine, in the Canadian Grand Prix on this day in 1981.

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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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17 comments on “More US races good for Mexican GP – promoter”

  1. Gordon Kirby’s article is a direct hit on target.

  2. Thanks for the COTD! :) Hopefully that track is brought back to standards… it’s a spectacular scenario, and a lovely second stop after visiting the Juan Manuel Fangio Museum. In the old days, you were allowed to drive around it for free!

  3. How good is having another US event?

    Mexico has 2 F1 drivers and Canada will gain 1 next year. Very embarrassing.

    Liberty should open up and get US talent.

    1. A young karting driver by the name of Logan Sargeant seems very promising. He’s 16 and has a won heaps of karting events and championships so I’m hoping he choose a Formula 1 path if his budget can assist him with that

    2. How about rookie Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi?

      1. I have to wonder how Newgarden would do given a chance in an F1 car– but like Rossi, I think he’s going to be tough to pry away from IndyCar.

      2. He won the Indy very luckily and did not stand out any other time this season

        1. Herta will stay with Andretti once again for 2017. And Rossi has also sighed for 2017 only.

          Newgarden is officially become a Penske driver replacing Juan Pablo Montoya. If it was not for the new point regulations, Newgarden would have received a call from an F-1 team into testing a car. All what Josef would have done was do 300k and just received his Super License. Newgarden has 14 points so far in the FIA points system.

          As far as new talent: We will see which F4 series will Logan Sargent head to. Also: Will Carlin fill the 4th entry with Colton Herta on the wheel at Macau?

  4. “conflict of interest emerged”, “It has since come to light that the FIA owns a 1pc stake in Delta Topco”.

    This was reported long before the hype of the sale… How embarrassing for the Telegraph. I think “bump in the road” was the synopsis by those in the know, certainly not roadblock.

    1. It’s embarrassing that the Telegraph are publishing ‘articles’ by Ecclestone’s pet journalist that don’t contain any journalism but are memos directly from the desk of The Bernard. I guess the jefe is trying to muddy the waters a little.

    2. It’s a Christian Sylt article…always expect it to be less than 100% accurate.

      1. Funny how we can already deduct as much from the title and the timing alone, even before we see the name @geemac, Tristan, David I read them both for a laugh and to fathom what Be wants to achieve with the message.

        1. @bascb @geemac @David Oates These claims have just come to my attention and I am asking you not to repeat them as they are false and defamatory. It is not accurate, and you have no evidence for the claim, that my writing is in any way dictated by Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One Management or any other party. The Telegraph is one of nine national newspapers that I have been writing for since 2005 as you will see from this archive (http://zoom-auction.com/profile.html) of my work. You are clearly not aware of the fact that any credible national newspaper (let alone nine of them) will not print news reports which are not sourced appropriately. The piece which you are referring was sourced to the lawyers quoted in it and the following letter from the MEP Anneliese Dodds:
          http://blogs-images.forbes.com/csylt/files/2016/09/Anneliese-Dodds-letter-1200×848.jpg

          It is therefore plainly obvious that there is no truth to your claims that my articles “don’t contain any journalism” are “less than 100% accurate” and illustrate what “Be wants to achieve with the message”. The claims are especially injurious given my long history writing for so many major outlets (more than any other journalist who covers F1 worldwide). @bascb in particular, I believe that I have addressed this issue with you before and I will not do so again. I remind you that anyone who comments on this public forum, as well as the outlet itself, is legally liable for what is written. I reserve my rights to take action under the pre-action protocol for defamation over these comments and any other false and defamatory claims which may be made in future.

          1. Thank you very much for answering to this discussion in person, and I appreciate your adding the letter from Mrs. Dodds, highlighting the background of your article.

            I am convinced that the provisions made in the Concorde Agreement are questionable, and have been so from the moment they were made (with the FIA taking equity in FOM in the deal seeming to be in direct conflict with the earlier EU ruling that brought about the seperation of the promotion rights to FOM in the first place).

            The article gave me the impression that the author put the focus on this being an issue mainly with the new deal for Liberty to buy FOM control from CVC. But rather it shows that the process started with the complaint by several teams about the deals structure is ongoing and that MEP Dodds in particular is keeping her eye on it.

            I think we can expect the EU to insist on these issues being solved, with the 2020 commercial agreements a likely focus for when this should change. The new owner taking control is a good opportunity to signal that FOM and FIA will have to solve them. I certainly don’t see it as a problem with the deal, rather an advantage.

  5. Anyone find parts 3 and 4 of the Zak Brown interview?

    1. The first went online on Monday, the second yesterday, so expect them today and tomorrow

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