magny-curs is a class track with a lot of history, but i guess to keep teh sport entertaining and to keep teh support for the sport going, more tracks like monoco will be on the cards i guess to get the high class interest if anything!
"Breach of duty" to walk away from negotiations, says president
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkySports.com
With less than three weeks to go before the FIA General Assembly vote of confidence in its president, Max Mosley has warned that Formula One's governing body risks losing control of the sport if he is sacked.
Mosley's position as president of the FIA has appeared increasingly untenable since allegations relating to his private life surfaced in the News of the World in March.
Calls have since come from the great and the good of the sport for Mosley's resignation, with a number of national motoring organisations affiliated to the FIA also questioning the 68-year-old's future.
However, ahead of the FIA General Assembley's vote of confidence in Mosley on June 3rd, he has written to motorsport club presidents, warning them of the dangers of sacking him.
Fight
In a letter seen by autosport.com, Mosley revealed that he, on behalf of the FIA, is currently fighting with F1 commercial rights boss Bernie Ecclestone and financial backers CVC for control of Formula One.
And, according to the letter, he reckons it would be "irresponsible, even a breach of duty, to walk away from (them)".
Mosley writes: "We are in the middle of a renegotiations of the 100-year commercial agreement between the FIA and the Formula One Commercial Rights Holder (CRH). In effect, this agreement governs Formula One.
"The CRH originally asked us to accept changes to the agreement in order to reduce the CRH's liability to tax. These we can probably concede.
"But the CRH has also now asked for control over the F1 regulations and the right to sell the business to anyone - in effect to take over F1 completely. I do not believe the FIA should agree to this.
"To do so would be to abandon core elements of the FIA's patrimony including, for example, our ability to protect the traditional grands prix.
"We would also be weaker financially but, even more importantly, we would put at risk the viability of the FIA as the regulatory authority of international motor sport and lose a valuable communication platform for the wider interests of the organisation."
The original 100-year deal between the FIA and Ecclestone was agreed in 2000, when the latter paid a reported $315 million (USD) for F1's commercial rights.
Further to his warning of the FIA being frozen out, Mosley also raised concerns that, given the 'financial crisis' he says is impending, the sport could be damaged at a time when F1's 'Concorde Agreement' - the sporting and commercial protocol existing between teams, the governing body and Ecclestone - is being renegotiated.
"In my view, we should only sign a new Concorde Agreement if it reinforces the authority of the FIA and deals properly with the major financial crisis which appears imminent in F1," he continued.
"Costs have gone out of control, income is insufficient and major manufacturers are in difficulty with their core businesses. Only with fair and realistic financial arrangements will we avoid losing more teams."
Supportive
Assuming he was to be thrown out of the FIA in next month's meeting, Mosley also wondered who might replace him, suggesting that any new president might be supportive of Ecclestone and CVC.
"Anyone could stand and there would be no list to stabilise the process and ensure that each candidate had the support of a real cross-section of FIA member clubs," he said.
"During the two to four month election period, the complex negotiations (with the CRH)....would necessarily slow or even cease.
"A new president would then take over with no knowledge of the background and, worse, might perhaps have been elected with the support of the very people with whom we are negotiating."
Mosley added that, assuming he survives the FIA's vote of confidence, he will, as president, continue the negotiations with Ecclestone before stepping down in October 2009.
and i think he is right, because he it's a very influential guy into F1 world, and without him things may start to "shake up" a bit more.
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Of all the copy shops in all of England, Trudy Coughlan had the rotten luck of walking into Document Image Processing.
It was June 2007 in sleepy Surrey County, and Coughlan, a statuesque blonde, sauntered through the door of the shop holding a sheaf of 780 pages. Scan them onto two CDs, she told the clerk, a forgettable middle-aged guy in a forgettable office park in the middle of nowhere. Nothing strange about the order, unless you happened to be a Formula One fan and happened to take a close look at the material: schematic drawings, technical reports, pictures, and financial information — enough insider dope to design a Formula One race car. Each page was emblazoned with one of the most famous logos in the world: the prancing black horse of Ferrari.
Surrey is McLaren country, just down the road from what locals call the Spaceship, the futuristic, top-secret, half underground headquarters of the McLaren Formula One racing team. But as it happened, the copy clerk was a rabid Ferrari fan — among the legion who worshipped Ferrari's star F1 driver Michael Schumacher and agonized over the fact that the Ferrari team was lagging behind top-ranked McLaren that summer.
...
"Collar turned up, back straight, chest stuck out, he glided into the arena as if he owned the fucking place. Any arena, but nowhere more effectively than Old Trafford. This was his stage. He loved it, the crowd loved him" -Roy Keane on Eric Cantona
A year ago, after finishing second to McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso at the Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton subtly let it be known that he was angry not to have won. It was the first manifestation of the underlying tensions that would later create problems within the team and result in Alonso going back to Renault.
Hamilton narrowly missed out on pole position to the Spaniard, but later it transpired that he had up to six laps’ more fuel onboard. He hounded Alonso throughout the race, and was staggered when he was called in to refuel three laps sooner than he had expected, thus nullifying the advantage he believed would win him the race. He made sure everybody at the post-race conference knew about it with a seemingly benign comment registering his surprise at McLaren’s tactics.
“Monaco is my favourite race,” Hamilton says this time around, and he is dead set on winning it. “You have the history all around, you can just feel it, and the atmosphere is fantastic. It is the Grand Prix that every driver wants to win. Being a street circuit it is very exciting to drive, there is no room for any error all weekend. To be quick you need to use every centimetre of the circuit, this even includes touching the barriers at some points.
“Unpredictable is the word that sums up Monaco from a performance perspective. It was a great race in Turkey, we know the performance is there, but at Monaco literally anything can happen. The set-up is quite a lot different, the primary requirement is fantastic traction, to ensure you can get out of the corners well. Because there are no straights, we put as much downforce as we can on the car as we don’t need to, and aren’t able, to reach the speeds of any other track.
“It is so tight, and very difficult to describe how it feels in the car because you are so low. You are hitting some corners at 180 mph, as you are braking down you know there is no run-off area, you can’t see the exit. All you can see is directly what is in front of you, probably about 50 metres. In some corners it is almost a guess, you are guessing where the car should be, hoping that you are in the right place, relying on your instinct and memory.”
Monaco is also about glitter and glamour, but he says he keeps himself as clear of that as possible: “It’s not a distraction in any way. As with any race I am just fully focused on getting the job done. Monaco weekend more than any other is about being 100 percent in the zone and so I just keep myself to myself.”
Hamilton wants to even the score to two wins apiece with the Ferrari teamsters Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. But it will be tough. All of the teams ran at Paul Ricard last week, on the shorter circuit made up to simulate the corners of Monaco, and the two top teams were only a tenth of a second apart. McLaren had an advantage last year, but Ferrari believe they will have the upper hand this time in the tight corners that abound in the Principality.
“For sure last year was okay,” says Turkish Grand Prix winner Massa. “I finished third but McLaren were very strong there. We have been working a lot on the set-up for Monte Carlo for this year, so hopefully we will have good chance to win there as well.
“Even being on the podium would be good as you always want to score as many points as possible. We know Monte Carlo is a track which can be very tricky, especially without traction control. But I am looking forward to being very strong there as well.”
Raikkonen says he has already moved on from a disappointing race in Istanbul. “Afterwards it's always easy to say what we could have done. But I never do that and this case is closed. We'll have two days of tests in France to test the solutions for the Monaco GP, and are very motivated to try to be strong on a track where we were not competitive last year.”
BMW Sauber chief Dr Mario Theissen strongly believes that his drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica will be in the hunt in Monaco too, but McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh said Hamilton’s fighting second place in Turkey had boosted his team’s confidence at a time when they desperately need another win.
“Lewis had an extraordinary sprinting race in Turkey. He's going to Monaco now, where I think we'll have a competitive car...we've worked pretty hard on that and it's a circuit that both of our drivers like. Lewis has won in F3 and GP2 there and clearly feels he could have had a crack at winning last year, and will be very keen to do that this year.”
Other points of interest are Giancarlo Fisichella’s 200th race, and the arrival of Toro Rosso’s new STR3 chassis in the hands of Sebastian Vettel and crowd favourite Sebastien Bourdais.
Weekend weather update - rain on the cards in Monte Carlo?
Welcome to the sixth round of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship, the Monaco Grand Prix on the streets of Monte Carlo.
On the weather front there is good news and bad; it will be cloudy again for Thursday’s opening practice sessions, but with an ambient temperature high of 21 rather than the previously forecast 16 degrees Celsius. Likewise, it will be cloudy but warmer, at 20 and 21 degrees respectively, on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, however, Monaco’s so-called ‘day of rest’, there may be thunderstorms in both morning and afternoon, as the temperature drops between 17 and 19 degrees.
The race runs over 78 laps or 260.520 kilometres (161.887 miles) and will start at 1400 hours local time, which is 1200 hrs GMT.
Monaco Grand Prix - facts and figures
Round six of the 2008 season takes the teams to Monte Carlo for the most prestigious motor race in the world. The annual dash through the Principality's tortuous streets is a unique test of man and machine performed in front of the glamorous backdrop of the Monaco harbour.
Ahead of this weekend’s race, often referred to as the jewel in the crown of Formula One, we take a look back at its history and cherry pick some fascinating facts about the Grand Prix every driver dreams of winning…
- The Monaco Grand Prix is not only one of the most glamorous races on the Formula One racing calendar, it is also one of the oldest. Run on the tight and twisting streets of Monte Carlo, the event was first held back in 1929 and won by British driver W Williams for Bugatti.
- Since 1950, Monaco has hosted 54 Grands Prix but it is only since 2004 that there have been garages for the cars along the pit lane. Prior to that, teams had to push the cars back and forth between makeshift garages in the paddock or an underground garage for each practice and qualifying session and the race.
- Graham Hill, who was nicknamed the ‘King of Monaco', won the celebrated race on five occasions including three successive victories from 1963 to 1965, all for BRM. He returned to the top step of the podium again for Lotus in 1968 and 1969.
- Michael Schumacher also clinched victory in Monte Carlo five times, while Alain Prost took four victories and Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart each won on three occasions. But the record of wins in the Principality resides with the legendary Ayrton Senna, who won six times.
- Of the current crop of drivers, Red Bull’s David Coulthard and Renault’s Fernando Alonso have been the most successful, each clinching victory on two occasions.
- The Monaco circuit is the shortest Grand Prix track on the calendar at 3.340 kilometres. The race distance of 260.520 kilometres is the shortest of the season and nowhere else does a race cover more laps (78).
- Monaco is the world's second smallest independent state (after the Vatican). Its 1.97 square kilometres comprise the districts of Monte Carlo, La Condamine, Fontvieille, Le Larvotto, Les Moneghetti and Monaco Ville. The total population of the state is 33,300, which means Monaco boasts the highest population density of any state in the world.
- McLaren have scored the most victories at the Monaco race (14) and in 2007 recorded their 150th win at the race courtesy of Fernando Alonso. The second most successful team at the track is Ferrari with eight, while Lotus clinched seven, including their maiden victory in 1960.
- the Monte Carlo event is renowned for throwing up surprise results. In 1972 Jean-Pierre Beltoise took a storming win in the wet - it would remain his only victory in the sport, while in 1996, fellow Frenchman Olivier Panis took his first, and Ligier's last Formula One victory at the race.
- Aside from Beltoise and Panis, Juan Manuel Fangio (1950), Maurice Trintignant (1955), Jack Brabham (1959), Denny Hulme, Patrick Depailler (1978), Riccardo Patrese (1982), and Jarno Trulli (2004) all recorded their first Formula One victories at the Monte Carlo race.
- With the Monaco Grand Prix a must-see event, plenty of famous faces flock to the circuit. Last year movie mogul George Lucas, actors Jude Law and Jean Reno, and chef Gordon Ramsey were all spotted in the Monte Carlo paddock, while in the past Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Hugh Grant and Roman Abramovich have attended.
- drivers must change gear a staggering 54 times per lap at Monaco, meaning more than 4,200 changes over the course of the race. Just 42 percent of the lap is spent at full throttle, with the longest period of full-throttle running a mere eight seconds.
- such is the Monaco Grand Prix's profile and history that it retains many of the traditions from the inaugural race staged in 1929. The most idiosyncratic of these customs is the expansion of the race weekend to four days, with the on-track action starting a day earlier than usual, on Thursday.
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quality!
i do love the monoco GP!
a brilliant race wid all teh glitz glamour etc.!
great last time wen kimi didnt finish the race, racing for mcLaren and went and sat on one of the yachts drinking champs while the race was still going on! lol
hoping for a quality race and hope it doesnt rain, although the rain could turn it into a diff type of race completely!
Ferrari locked out the front row of the grid in the Monaco Grand Prix, with Felipe Massa set to lead out Kimi Raikkonen. Briton Lewis Hamilton starts in third for McLaren alongside team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.
eurosport.yahoo.com wrote:
Brazilian Massa (1:15.787) took pole with barely half-a-minute remaining in Q3 from team-mate Raikkonen (1:15.815).
Hamilton (1:15.839) shot over the line moments before Massa, almost stealing ahead of Raikkonen and consigning Kovalainen - who had just set the second-fastest lap - to an eventual fourth spot.
Britain's David Coulthard impressed in the Red Bull before smashing it into the barriers accelerating out of the chicane at the end of Q2, damaging the car and ripping two wheels from the chassis.
That meant he was unable to contest the top-10 shoot-out and will start in 10th position. His team-mate Australian Mark Webber will begin the grand prix ahead of him.
BMW-Sauber secured fifth spot through Robert Kubica (1:16.171) but the outfit's other driver Nick Heidfeld (1:16.456) disappointed by failing to make it through Q2, taking 13th spot.
Monaco resident Nico Rosberg looked in good form as he won sixth position for tomorrow's race, 1:16.548 his time.
Renault's Fernando Alonso (1:16.852), seeking an unlikely third straight victory in Monte Carlo, begins in seventh ahead of Jarno Trulli (1:17.203), who overcame early issues for another impressive run.
Toyota's Timo Glock (1:15.907) was just ahead of Honda's British driver Jenson Button (1:16.101), with Heidfeld separating him and Williams' Kazuki Nakajima (1:16.479).
Towards the bottom of the grid Honda man Rubens Barrichello's (1:16.537) poor Q2 session was further complicated by a steward's investigation into whether he had obstructed another experienced F1 driver Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella (1:17.823) - which will start from last - in Q1.
The new Toro Rosso struggled with Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastien Vettel only managing 16th and 18th, while Bourdais will also suffer a five-place grid penalty for using a new gearbox.
Nelson Piquet Jr had a woeful time in his Renault with Adrian Sutil also struggling.
05-14-2008, 11:47 AM
Mosley - FIA could lose F1 -
05-19-2008, 09:34 AM
Monaco GP Preview -
05-22-2008, 10:48 AM
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