I've just read it at Austrian TV text.

"The Grand Prix of the USA in Indianapolis was canceled from the race scedule 2008. Bernie Ecclestone made it public today.
We didn't agree to a new contract. We will see if we miss America.
There won't be any other F1 race in 2008 in the USA.

But there are still negotiations with Las Vegas. Maybe there will come a city track, but that's too early for 2008"

Gustl

Suck.

Apparently the previous Mayor of SF (Willie Brown) was talking with Bernie at one point. I would LOVE to see a San Francisco city track - if only once. Not least because our streets are covered in tram tracks, grates and the like, plus there's plenty of vertical motion - depending on where you are.

Larry Miller didn't build Bernie's "Golden Toilet" so I doubt we'd get it!

I guess we'll all have to load up the teeners and go to canada for 2008 F1 . I'll be of age by then, but the younger guys (19-21 can have some brews too).

Montreal is way better than Indy anyway. Lets do it!

Bernie's a F^*&ing D!*&*head M%#%er F^#&er. But we already knew that.

Fine. We don't need Bernie's show. Besides, it saves him the embarrassment of just how few here in America care about F1.
Andys

I can't see how this is good for F-1 or thier sponsers. Stupid move Bernie.

Laguna Seca would also be an awesome track...

Not near enough seating in Miller Motorsports Park.

Did anyone see the race last weekend? I just watched it last night. It was a good one...

How to screw up Open-Wheel Racing in the United States?
















Let Tony George be In Charge.....What a F@*^#%& Idiot

Never been a fan of oval racing anyway

Left......
Left.....
Left.....
Left..... ...etc..

my dad thought f1 was going back to detroit, on belle isle this time. he heard something a while back.
looks like irl and american le mans are there this year.

I have been reading the news online and it seems the online sources think that Salt Lake City and Los Vegas are still open for discussion. Los Vegas would probably aggressively go after something like that...

Bernie is the biggest A$$ in motorsports. He makes Tony George and Kevin Kalkoven look like geniuses.

What what Are you for real?

SLC would be awesome. Waaay better track than Vegas..



I would my pants...

I've been saying they need to have it at Miller for the past two years.... ever since the first Super Bike race that they held there. You can totally tell that that track was meant for F1 and Moto GP. There's nothing else that's near that big in the US. Now whether they have the budget or the facilities is a different story. Still, I thought that it would be a shoe-in for F1 circuit, but I guess I was wrong.
Mark D.

You are right, it would be perfect, but Bernie asks major $$$ for the circus to come to your town and I would be surprised if Larry Miller would put up the cash. I heard he is an F1 fan and Le Mans fan. He own's multiple original Shelby Cobras and a GT40.

I think what killed F-1 in US was a couple of years ago when the majority of the field
on Michelins tires didn't run. That pissed off alot of people.

I swear I am getting soooo tired of Nascar, and this doen't help. Stupid Mother F&*@ing Ret#&^%^ people. Even speed channel doesn't really show much goodracing these days. Are we the minority now? Maybe we can petition for minority rights to have F1 and Rally here;)

Yep speed seems to cater towards Asscar

They wanted to put in a Nascar track within 30 minutes of my house, and people who know me thought I would like that. I had to scold them telling them it would be the dumbest thing Marysville ever did. Yuck. Why can't we get some road courses up here? Maybe an F1 track

Time to bring back the Bog @ the Glen. That was the way to hold a F1 Race!

Evil Bernie also wants to cancel the french grand prix. Not because the track is bad, but because there are not enough hotels in the neibourhood. He doesn't care about the track itself. What he wants is sexy environement. He said he would LOVE a grand prix in Paris on the Champs Elysees. He would vote for Las Vegas for shure. F1 has become a great circus and races are boring. Bernie is on the right way to kill F1, and that's a good thing. Let's see more fun races.

Yeah, that mess in Indy with the tires was such a shame. It totally turned me off to F1. If they care that little about the fans so that they're willing to put on a race like that, then I'll gladly reciprocate and stop caring about F1. Haven't watched a single F1 race since.

It didn't have anything to do with them not caring about the fans. It was all about safety. The tyres had failures on this track, and the F1 heads were not going to allow them to run a different tyre. Go watch Nascar if you don't like it.

There's plenty of good F1 races to watch and Lewis Hamilton is the best news F1 has had in years. Indy is too freaking hot/muggy anyway - I won't miss it. I'll just plan a vacation to Montreal some day to see it live.

It was Michelin's fault. They know what tracks they are going to be racing on and they failed to test their tires..

That is why Michelin is no longer in F1..

If anyone is curious about what really happened here is an aricle about it:

http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Relea.../190605-02.html

I'm not saying they should have put their drivers in harms way. No way!

The tires weren't up to the challenge. That sucks, but there were several viable solutions (IMHO) that were completely shot down by F1, the two mains ones being:

1.) put in a chicane to slow the exit speed of that one corner
2.) allow Michelin to fly in new tires

F1 repeatedly threatened to cancel the event and or heavily penalize the teams if any such action took place.

Michelin teams even offered to forfeit their starting positions to the Bridgestone teams and forfeit all points if that would get the race going with everyone out there. The teams got together on their own and decided that at the very least, they should run the race with no points to at least put on a show for the fans, but F1 threatened to pull out of the US entirely if they did.

So yes, to me, it had everything to do with F1 not caring for the fans. F1 had plenty of options to do right by the fans and chose not to. The fans didn't buy tickets so they could watch 6 cars out there, the only 2 competitve ones being on the same team. If the fans didn't buy the tickets (and the hats and shirts and the calendars with all the scantily clad women and everything else) there wouldn't be an F1. I wanted F1 to succeed here, badly, as like several people have mentioned above, I'm not a big fan of oval racing. Speaking of which, whats with the NASCAR comment? I'm not a NASCAR fan per se, but I respect the organization a lot more than I do F1.

Thanks for the link Jon but I'm sure you'll agree that FIA just might be a tiny bit biased in the information they present on the matter. I'm sure the letters are complete and unedited, but they exclude 90% of the drama that happened at the track.

My argument is that while it might be unfair to Bridgestone to make some changes to allow the Michelin teams to compete and I agree that it sucks for the Bridgestone teams to not be able to take advantage of the situation, to me, the bigger picture is putting on a show for the fans. And F1 didn't do everything they could have done, and in my opinion should have done, to do that.

Speed has been NASCARED out for years now. I think Fox, Speeds' owner, has a major deal w/ NASCAR & that's why. I can't stand it, although I must confess I occasionaly watch the trucks- I just get a kick out of watching trucks race. They're trucks not cars ! The best is over in Europe where they race tractor trailers, w/out the trailer, & the brakes are cooled by spraying water on them from 5 gal buckets on each wheel. Apparantly you're not allowed to refill the water so when your out, your brakes don't get cooled. Hell, NASCAR is so popular it's killing IRL. I guess we are the minority.

Amen...

Stopped by the Glen this morning (still in route home from the San Diego thing). Though I couldn't gain full access to all of the reaches of the track, the facilities has improved radically since my DE days in the '70's. I do miss the old pit lane structures. They had an aurora about them that nothing can replace.

Okay Dan, I see your point. However, I care more for the drivers and what they are driving. The organization is always going to be a little snooty. It is the nature of how it even started. It is the drivers and the ultimate machines they are driving that draws me in. F1, Rally, Moto GP, Lemans, all have my attention as I wish I were as good as those drivers. Some of the other stuff...Nascar, IRL, and a few others I think they are all amatures in comparison. I wish they had more places in the US to showcase suck amazing cars and tallent.