Grand Prix Rejects

Shadaza wrote:http://sniffpetrol.com/2012/04/20/breivik-f1-is-go/
*runs*

nome66 wrote:

Alianora La Canta wrote:Has anyone brought up the "UniF1ed" ad campaign yet? (I'm struggling to keep track of what's been discussed where this week, for reasons explained below).

The organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix did an ad campaign linking F1 with the unification of their country. Long story short (my blog has the long version): they broke Article 1 of the FIA Statutes in the process, as interpreted the way the FIA used to take Jerez's race from it in 1997 and fined Turkey in 2006. I persuaded a journalist to ask about the matter, and the unofficial response went along the lines of "sound concept, no time to sort it out (check comments)".

This is not some minor regulation. It's a requirement of French-registered organisations to have a clause like Article 1, and the FIA is registered in France. Therefore it would not be much of a stretch to imagine someone bringing the FIA to court if they thought they could gain something from it. Since the maximum penalty is dissolution...

I could say that continuing to force the race after the safety guarantee was compromised (as demonstrated in the Force India hire car incident) breaches Article 17 of the International Sporting Code, which effectively means this is no longer an internation race and, technically speaking, no points or benefits can be derived from it (or F1 cars used). However, I think you get my point that the FIA is so busy pushing the race on the unwilling that it's putting itself in considerable danger.

some one email this to the FIA. please.

Shadaza wrote:Does this mean we can't race in the USA because of the treatment of it's protesters?

Backmarker wrote:

Shadaza wrote:Does this mean we can't race in the USA because of the treatment of it's protesters?

Regardless of the USA's treatment of protesters, they're not using the grand prix to promote unity (i.e. repress their population) with a catchy slogan like "UniF1ed".

nome66 wrote:the prospect of holding this race is clearly dangerous.
this is a bigger bad decision then when CART went to texas in 2001

nome66 wrote:the cars were too fast for the abrupt high banks in fort worth. upwards of 236mph. drivers got dizzy and one or too blacked out and crashed. they were fine, but the officials and race control canceled the event and gave away free tickets to the next round. they tried to capitalize on the open wheel fanbase that came around when the indy racing league started using that track.

fjackdaw wrote:

nome66 wrote:the cars were too fast for the abrupt high banks in fort worth. upwards of 236mph. drivers got dizzy and one or too blacked out and crashed. they were fine, but the officials and race control canceled the event and gave away free tickets to the next round. they tried to capitalize on the open wheel fanbase that came around when the indy racing league started using that track.

Gosh, I don't remember hearing about that at all.

nome66 wrote:the cars were too fast for the abrupt high banks in fort worth. upwards of 236mph. drivers got dizzy and one or too blacked out and crashed. they were fine, but the officials and race control canceled the event and gave away free tickets to the next round. they tried to capitalize on the open wheel fanbase that came around when the indy racing league started using that track.

Wizzie wrote:

nome66 wrote:the cars were too fast for the abrupt high banks in fort worth. upwards of 236mph. drivers got dizzy and one or too blacked out and crashed. they were fine, but the officials and race control canceled the event and gave away free tickets to the next round. they tried to capitalize on the open wheel fanbase that came around when the indy racing league started using that track.

Forgive me for missing something but what made Texas so bad compared to somewhere like Fontana or Michigan where the speeds are comparable if not even higher? Was it just the banking?

The Passenger wrote:Due to the banking of the Texas Motor Speedway and the speed of the cars -- which was higher than that of the IRL cars (which could run at Texas) at the time -- the drivers experienced massive sustained G-loads (5.5, which is almost double the amount most people can endure and comparable to the Gs experienced by jet pilots, and more than a human body can tolerate for a sustained period of time) and almost all of them were suffering from disorientation or vertigo-like symptoms after qualifying. CART then tried to slow down the cars by removing downforce and horsepower, but they ran out of time to make the necessary changes for the race to take place safely, and thus it had to be called off.

CART really could have handled the situation better, perhaps by conducting tests at the track prior to the race (as had been requested by the track owners earlier) or at the very least starting to work on slowing down the cars after Friday practice when they still had time to make proper changes. While cancelling the race was the right thing to do after they couldn't slow down the speeds, CART suffered badly from the ensuing lawsuit from Texas Motor Speedway and lost millions of dollars, not to mention the huge damage their reputation and prestige took as a result of this whole debacle.

mario wrote:I thought that part of the problem was that there had been private test sessions before the race itself took place - Kenny Bräck one of the first drivers to do so because he had already raced at that venue with the IRL - but there were no signs of the problems that would occur during the race. Bräck, IIRC, was only marginally faster than a contemporary IRL car, whilst in a handful of private tests that occurred before the race none of the drivers were reaching either the top speed or average lap speeds that they did in the practise sessions of the race.
Concerns were raised in advance, certainly, but it wasn't until the race weekend itself, when the drivers were suddenly going significantly faster, that the problems began to arise.

CoopsII wrote:Im glad thats over with.

East Londoner wrote:

CoopsII wrote:Im glad thats over with.

It's not over for Channel 4 though. This could get quite messy.
http://www.channel4.com/news/channel-4-news-team-arrested-in-bahrain

CoopsII wrote:

East Londoner wrote:

CoopsII wrote:Im glad thats over with.

It's not over for Channel 4 though. This could get quite messy.
http://www.channel4.com/news/channel-4-news-team-arrested-in-bahrain

You can blame the BBC for this. Had they allowed C4 to pick up F1 these guys couldve enjoyed Bernie protection(!).