Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

Ferrari again had an annoucement to make during their home race weekend in Monza. The team confirmed yesterday the extension of Kimi Raikkonen’s contract to the end of 2010 season ending the speculations about Raikkonen’s retirement. With Felipe Massa already having his contract for 2009 and 2010 it is rather safe to assume that Ferrari driver line up Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen will remain the same for the next 2 seasons. That is also what the team’s statement says:
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F1Wolf

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United States Grand Prix

The Belgian GP follow up was all about the last 3 laps of the race and the Lewis Hamilton (non)win. However there were other things going on behind the scenes.

Failure of Bernie Ecclestone and Tony George to find some common ground lead to US GP elimination from the F1 calendar. We had no US GP this year, there is no US GP featuring on 2009 provisional race calendar. It looks like last weekend in Belgium some first steps were taken to bring the US GP back, perhaps as early as in 2010. Bernie Ecclestone held talks with team principals and the topic was the return of F1 race to United States. There is hardly any team principal happy with the current sitaution and it looks like the F1 team bosses made this clear (yet again) to Bernie. I am not sure if the current economic climate has anything to with it, but this time Bernie seems to be listening.

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F1Wolf

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Mexican GP 1991

FIA vicepresident Jose Abed hopes Mexico will host a Formula One race from 2010. He says Bernie Ecclestone has been authorized to expand the calendar to 20 races and as a result there will be room for Mexico.

“The changes will be made by 2010 and, if it happens, we’ll need to work hard to have a proper track; still, we must wait for Bernie Ecclestone decision to include Mexico in Formula One since there are already 18 venues, and two more will accepted.”

Mexico may be “ready” but it looks like Mr. Abed has forgotten something.The 2009 Formula 1 calendar already has 19 races with Abu Dhabi being the newest F1 venue. And then, in 2010, South Korea and India are expected to host races and that means that instead of having 2 slots on the calendar to spare, FIA is already now short of one. If the room for Mexico becomes available it will not come from expanding the calendar. Some existing races will have to make that room (see more on that in this post)…

Mexico hosted F1 races between 1963-1970 and then again between 1986-1992. This very Jose Abed with his brother Julian were behind that 1986 return of F1 to Mexico. Four cities - Mexico City, Puebla, Cancun and Tijuana - are said to be interested in having the race should F1 decide to return to Mexico again.

Melbourne (Australian GP), Hungaroring (Hungarian GP) recently renewed their contracts with Ecclestone, Donnington (British GP) has been confirmed as new venue for British GP from 2010.

Photo: Williams/LAT

F1Wolf

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It has been a weekend full filled with announcements. Future of David Coulthard and Mark Webber, then the new Australian GP deal and now British GP … In a rare sign of harmony both Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone came out with rater unexpected bit of news today. While Silverstone is gearing up for Sunday’s 2008 British F1 GP it was announced today that from 2010 the race will move to Donington Park…
Max Mosley:

“After many years of patient but fruitless negotiation with the BRDC, we are delighted that Bernie has nevertheless been able to ensure that the British Grand Prix will keep its place on the Formula One World Championship calendar.We understand that the development programme planned for Donington will achieve the very high standards we and FOM expect from a modern F1 circuit. Finally, British Formula One fans will get the Grand Prix venue they deserve.”

Bernie Ecclestone:

“Finally the uncertainty is over. A contract has been signed with Donington Park and the future of the British Grand Prix is now secure. We wanted a world class venue for Formula One in Britain, something that the teams and British F1 fans could be proud of. The major development plans for Donington will give us exactly that. A venue that will put British motor sport back on the map. I am sorry that we could not have helped Silverstone to raise the money to carry out the circuit improvements and run Formula One. I believe that the government should have supported them which would have cost probably less than .002% of the government’s commitment for the Olympic Games.”

While Donington Park has been hosting Moto GP on regular basis it only hosted Formula 1 once back in 1993. The surprising announcement only came out few hours ago but serious doubts about Donington actually be ready to host the Formula 1 race in 2010 have already been raised by those familiar with the realities of United Kingdom. (see this article at GrandPrix dot com and this post at F1 Fanatic).

So are we really going to see 2010 British Grand Prix at Donington Park or is this just another chapter of Bernies mind games with Silverstone and (obviously unhappy) BRDC ?

F1Wolf

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The FIA published yesterday the provisional 2009 F1 calendar. The most important facts are that French GP is still on calendar, US GP will not return for 2009 and Abu Dhabi will make the debut.

The US GP missing again is a hot topic of the moment. But when looking at the 2009 calendar I am already wondering what other track(s) will we loose in 2010 …

The sudden appearance of Valencia and Singapore street tracks was kind of unexpected. None of these venues were talked about much prior to their inclusion in the 2008 calendar. The rumours appeared and in matter of weeks the races were confirmed. As a result, although we lost the US GP, the 2008 season features one more race than last year - 18 compared to 17 in 2007. With Abu Dhabi the 2009 season will have 19 races. That is 2 more than what is believed to be agreed on in the existing (expired) Concorde Agreement. Judging from recent opinions of some team principals it is hard to see more than 20 races on the F1 calendar - “My firm belief is the season should expand to not more than 20 Grand Prix.” (Ron Dennis), “Twenty is about the right number.” (Nick Fry), “Twenty is a big number, but it’s a sensible number.” (Christian Horner).

For 2010 season however 2 new races are lining up - India and Korea. That would require at least one existing F1 venue to loose the race. If US GP was to return, it would require 2 races to go. And that only and only if the F1 teams agree to race 20 times a year … What race(s) are we not going to see in 2010 ?

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F1Wolf

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