F1 links: British GP in World Cup clash

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Next year’s British Grand Prix will be on the same day as the football World Cup final – but the two events are at least not happening at the same time of the day. Here’s more on that story plus other F1 news and reaction:

2010 calendar reveals new British Grand Prix blow (Brits on Pole)

"Patriotic sports fans may be forced to choose between Button and Beckham or Hamilton and Heskey next summer after the new FIA calendar pitted the British Grand Prix head to head with football’s World Cup Final." I completely missed that (because I don't care about football).

First Abu Dhabi grand prix needed Renault to compete, says FIA vice-president (The Guardian)

'Mohammed Ben Sulayem said: "We did our negotiations before and everybody is happy with the result. The verdict is fair and everyone is a winner." Apart from appearing to suggest the matter had been settled before the court sat in session yesterday, Ben Sulayem also hints there were wider considerations than Briatore's role in fixing last year's Singapore grand prix by ordering Nelson Piquet Jr to crash. "I had to be loyal to my country as well as motor sport," said Ben Sulayem, whose nation hosts its first grand prix on 1 November. "Protecting the investments Abu Dhabi has made into Formula One is my duty; it is a big show and it needs teams. We all want to see Renault [in Formula One]. This is the result everyone wanted."'

Money talks as realpolitik guides FIA’s judgment on Renault crash scandal (Daily Telegraph)

"What incentive is there for a team not to cheat when the worst that can happen is a bloke gets banned and a team liberated, albeit under the threat of a suspended sentence? Formula One's rules do not make a distinction between team and employer. The charge of race fixing was laid at Renault's door not Briatore's. Renault are free to contest the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, Briatore is condemned to a life on his yacht."

Schumacher backing Button (Sky Sports)

Michael Schumacher: "Looking at the situation, I would pretty much expect Jenson to win this title."

Win Alpinestars Clothing – Yet Another Competition (F1 Badger)

"F1Badger in association with Alpinestars is pleased to announce that it is giving its readers the chance to win a full kit-out from motor sport’s leading brand, meaning that three lucky readers will be sporting the Alpinestars’ Autumn Collection come the start of October."

Am I missing something? (Joe Saward)

"Prost was a great racing driver but when it came to running a team, he failed in spectacular fashion. It all ended up in a right royal mess in November 2002 with the company going into receivership with debts of $30.5m. This left 193 people out of work."

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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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34 comments on “F1 links: British GP in World Cup clash”

  1. Prost may have made a mess leading his team, but this is an already established one and I’d prefer tgo reserve judgement. Clearly some think he’ll be alright otherwise their wouldn’t be all this speculation.
    Schuey is right, I think a lot of people expect Button to win regardless of whether they want him to or not simply by his early wins.

  2. Prost would be a strange choice, but Renault are on a PR mission to repair some of their hugely damaged image. But is he a long term replacement and are Renaults plans long term.

  3. It’s not like England will be in the cup final anyway, so I think it’s an easy choice. Maybe flick between the two events, I don’t think they’ll completely eclipse each other schedule-wise.

    1. Alot of non hardcore f1 fans won’t get tickets to the BGP because they’d miss the cup final though

      1. I’m sure Doningstone will be a sell out either way. I’m planning on getting a ticket when they decide where it’s going to be.

    2. The World Cup final is one of the only matches I would watch instead of an F1 race. I would just tape the F1 race, make sure I didn’t find out the result, and watch it later. Doing the opposite would be much harder, because I’d inevitably hear the result before I’d seen the match…

      But it’s all hypothetical, because the final will be held at night, so they won’t clash (unless we get a British GP night race!)

  4. ajokey you can’t ever flick away from f1!! :P

    1. That’s true, you’re right. But a World Cup final does come but once ever 4 years, I think it’s a fair exception.

  5. Campos and USF1 c9onfirmed they have joined FOTA

  6. sorry for triple post, everyone must be sick to death of this case but for anyone interested

    Some people will be afraid that the same thing will happen. But this was an unique case and I have learned from it.
    “If I can’t find a place in F1, perhaps for one year I will go to America and try to do a good job there until the waves have calmed down a bit.
    “I was there in August for a week and spoke with some teams,” he revealed.

    Quite annoying but this is last I’ll post about it.

  7. Ben Sulayem certainly knows all there is to know about Renaults and crashing… Think they’ll write off the repair bill he owes them???

  8. I must say I have been surprised by these rumours linking Prost with Renault because of his history as a team boss after he bought Ligier and renamed it after himself.

    The only thing I can think of is that either Renault want a popular figurehead for it’s F1 team in the short term or it is the same thing that happens often in Football, that some people think that a great player will automatically make a great manager.

    Speaking of Football has a Grand Prix not clashed with the World Cup final in recent years and they ended up moving the Grand Prix? I hope they aren’t on at exactly the same time as even though I know England won’t be in the final I will still want to watch it

  9. schumi the greatest
    23rd September 2009, 11:36

    Not too bothered about the world cup final and british gp being on same date.

    Being welsh i dont care how england get on and secondly they wont get that far anyway!

    1. Unlike Wales…

    2. Ah, the bitter Welsh. When did you last even reach a World Cup?

      1. What’s the “World Cup”?

        1. That’s what people on our side of the water say ;) although there are more and more who know about it…even some talk of the USA putitng in a bit for 2018 or 2022.

          The Olympics in Chicago..
          The World Cup…
          2 MotoGP races…
          C’mon Bernie, get on the boat here!!!!!

  10. I think Prost must be a short-term choice. Next season Renault will have someone right for the job, but for now it’s a way to begin rebuilding their image, Frenchman running a French team. Public Relations 101.

    Bernie never ceases to amaze me. You’d think he could have worked out the 2010 schedule so there wouldn’t be such a conflict. Just goes to show, long as he gets his money he couldn’t care less about anyone else. But what else is new?

  11. More worrying report in the Guardian that says Spa has lost its operating licence.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/sep/23/belgian-gp-spa-francorchamps-licence

  12. Is there that much of a crossover in audience between F1 fans who would pay to go to the British GP and the World Cup? And afterall, if they can show the Wimbledon Mens Final on the big screens at the GP I think it’s a fair bet that they’ll show the World Cup Final, especially if England get through to it…

    I’m not a football man myself, but I’d still watch it if England get through, but I don’t think there’ll be a clash – I seem to remember big football matches usually being a bit later in the day (though as I say, not a football fan) – BBC might have to juggle it’s build-up to the match over onto BBC2, but that’s no biggy.

  13. Keith- so you don’t like football, and you hate cricket (as you’ve made quite clear on the live blog)- are there any other sports that you actually like?!

  14. Ned, You mentioned cricket, I quite like the game, use to play with the batsman in link. Used to sit next to him in classroom, many years ago.

    http://www.accringtonobserver.co.uk/sport/cricket/s/1137439_lloyd_junior_praises_dad

    Don’t like football though.

    1. I like to follow all sports, including cricket, but there are only 2 I’m obsessive about- F1 and football. I’m getting bored of football as my team is doing so badly, but I’m fast becoming a MotoGP obsessive instead- MotoGP is everything that F1 should be

      1. Indeed MotoGP is everything F1 is not, the personalities, the racing, the 3 tiers in the championship. I’d find it hard to imagine anyone on the current F1 grid sporting Simoncelli’s huge afro… :D

        1. MotoGP is everything F1 is not

          You are so right KNF.

          Being able to watch all three qualifying sessions back to back on Eurosport is brilliant, it’s just a shame they’ve lost live coverage of the MotoGP race to the BBC.

          It’s also great watching a championship where politics is a lot less intrusive and rarely gets in the way of the racing. A casual MotoGP fan would never even hear about most of the politics that goes on in the sport and even fanatics don’t get to hear about that much of it as they try to keep it all behind closed doors.

          The politics you do hear about is also more rider vs rider or internal team arguments as opposed to the constant and all encompassing arguments that keep going on in F1. The teams work together and also with the organisers a lot more instead of constantly being at each others throats.

          Most importantly though, the racing is always good and they go racing on some great circuits (especially Laguna Seca, my God, what a track !!), they also manage to get some good races out of some not-so-good tracks (Circuit de Catalunya being a perfect example).

          Then there’s the fan interaction, I’ve been to a few races at Donington and I’ve always managed to talk to a few different riders each time, they’re all really happy to chat, sign autographs and have a laugh with the fans.

          I love F1 but the last few years have been a nightmare, every time the racing starts to get good something always comes along to ruin it (normally Spanky or the Poison Dwarf).

      2. Same here Ned…I agree with exactly everything you said, except I believe my brand of football is a bit different from yours ;)

        In MotoGP, you don’t see the never-ending politics. You see Grands Prix in Britian, France, and 2 here in the USA. And they still manage to race in Asia and the Middle East. Amazing, isn’t it? :)

  15. The only sport worth thinking about/doing/watching is motor sport! :P

    1. Unfortunately, ‘doing’ motorsport is rather difficult unless you have lots of money…

  16. Renault has appointed Bob Bell as its new stand-in team principal in the wake of the departure of Flavio Briatore for his involvement in the Singapore Grand Prix race-fix controversy.

    autosport

  17. i don’t know what it is about MotoGP, I can never get as excited about it as formula 1.
    Which is is strange, it has all the features of F1 which excite me but i never feel its got the tension and can’t usually be bothered to finish most GPs.

    Dont care about the drivers really either…

    Part from that love most any sport from tennis to F1 and unfortunately if there’s an F1 cup final clash i’ll watch the footie first then watch the GP on the iplayer.

    heres hoping they sort out Spa

  18. …Tour de France….

    1. Two weeks of cheating & men dressed in Lycra…

      :-)

  19. Mohammed Ben Sulayem has shown his true colors on this one….he’s willing to bypass the laws of international motorsport in the name of profit for his home Grand Prix. Dose anyone else think this guy isn’t worthy of holding a high-level position in the FIA?

    My message to Mr.Ben Sulayem would be simple…your position in the FIA requires you to show no bias- it dosen’t matter worth a d*** if your country’s economy benefits from it or not. After all, when Alonso lost his wheel in Hungary, you were more than ready to shut his car down for the next race, werne’t you?

    And while we’re at it….let it be clear that the reason you have a Grand Prix to begin with is because your people bought it, just like oil, wood, or any other raw commodity. If F1 wasen’t run as the pure profit-seeking institution that Bernie operates it as, you’d be about 50 places further back in the pecking order for a race date. You can spend all the millions you want on your new circuit, but it still dosen’t give you an ounce of motorsport passion as a nation that exists elsewhere in the developed world. So perhaps you should pay less attention to making baised decisions in favor of teams that give you a test drive (which I could probably do a better job at) and get to the business of proper motorsport governing.

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