F1 » French F1 hopes hit by Euro Disney pull-out

For Frenchmen sake just go to Paul Ricard or Le Mans!

Canada - China - France.

I'm beginning to think Slavica decided to run off the BEs money now while he still has some. He's forgotten the first rule of marketing - people will only pay what your product is worth. More and more places are coming to the conclusion that what Bernie asks for is more than its worth. I don't think he's got an open book in the Middle East either - after Dubai and Bahrain and their vanity races (these aren't commercial, they are paid for by major sovereign wealth funds) there aren't many places left that would or could (taking into account security).

Time for BE and CVC to wake up and smell the coffee.

Let's dump all the Euro GPs. No Italy, no UK, no France, no Spain etc. Rename it the F1 ME champioship, make tones of money and lose a load of fans. Heaven forbid they run the races where the passionate fans reside.

I'd still love to see the French GP run as a support race prior to the Le Mans 24hrs. How sweet would that be!

It's C R A P isn't it?

just heard that merc have opened the largest new car dealership in the world, in ----abu dhabi. amazing that they are getting a GP next year, isnt it?

No French GP. This is really bad. There's nothing wrong with Le Man or Paul ricard as tracks, its all the extra space for the corporate / sponsor stuff, etc. most tracks cannot support all of this stuff because the were built years ago and they just dont hav the infrastructure. Its the corporates and sponsors who are paying the bills so you've got to accomoate them. A real shame about not using Disneyland Paris, I think it would have been great

Am I right in thinking that Paul Ricard no longer has the infrastructure for 'races' i.e no granstands and other support for the fans? Didn't Ecclestone raze that infrastructure to the ground to make the testing venue it is now? Didn't the Bol D'or go somewhere else because of this? Enough of the questions!! If I'm wrong, please forgive my stupidity!

Edit: just looked at the curcuit on Google Earth and it looks like I'm right!

Ramjam raises an interesting point. Bernie owns probably the best option for hosting the French GP, lacking only investment in decent stands for fans.

But he won't do it. Why? Does he think that hosting a GP isn't commercially viable at his track? Is he concerned he's going to have to bitch about himself and his failure to provide excellent trackside facilities for his own corporate guests? Does he fear having to bully himself into investing in his track by threatening to take his race away?

Whats good for the goose, eh Bernie?

@ZeR0 - Bernie is not a fool to host the race at Paul Ricard. Bernie has stake in management of that track and who else but Bernie can tell you "When F1 circus comes to town" its Circus Management (read Bernie/FOM/CVC) wins, the organizers, locales, local govt, Race "Going" fans are all losers.

F1 Circus is like Casino - Where the House always wins, and rest all can only lose.

The ACO own the Le Mans circuit, and even on the Bugatti circuit, theres NO WAY IN HELL they'd let F1 car's on there.