Could a London Grand Prix ever take place?

Few things in sport are guaranteed to generate publicity like someone high-profile in Formula 1 talking about running a grand prix around the world-famous sites of central London.

After all, what's not to like? Who doesn't think it would make one of the most spectacular sporting events the world had ever seen?

That's clearly what the PR agency which represents one of McLaren's biggest sponsors was thinking when they invited the media to a lavish event at London's RAC Club on Thursday to hear Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button talking about what it might be like to race around such a track.

An expensively produced video was played. Hamilton and Button said all the right things - while being careful not to be seen in any way to diminish the importance of Silverstone as the home of the British Grand Prix.

And a virtual race was staged around the track with teams led by the McLaren drivers featuring Rio Ferdinand, Melanie Sykes, Olympic gold medal winner Amy Williams and Radio One DJ Sarah-Jane Crawford.

All in all, an effective way to generate a bit of extra media coverage ahead of next weekend's ninth round of the world championship at, yes, Silverstone.

In what will doubtless have been fantastic news for the PR agency and sponsor in question, though, the story developed a life of its own even before the event was held, when F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was quoted in a newspaper saying "maybe we would front it and put the money up for it".

A London race would see the drivers go past a number of iconic monuments.

Within F1, the idea of a race in London in such circumstances has been greeted with intense scepticism. "Of course it's not going to happen," one senior figure said on Thursday. "You know that, and so do I. But it makes a great story, doesn't it?"

On the back of it, there was an inevitable media whirlwind.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was asked about it, and said he was "broadly positive providing we can satisfy the air quality and noise issues".

Which, of course, they never could. So, apart from the fact that it's a PR stunt on which Ecclestone has chosen to offer an opinion, that's the first reason why it is unlikely ever to happen. There are many more.

Before we get into those, however, it is worth mentioning that Ecclestone has tried to make a London Grand Prix work before.

In the mid-noughties, he discussed it with Johnson's predecessor Ken Livingstone and the Live Aid promoter Harvey Goldsmith, focusing on the two biggest hurdles - money and logistics.

Holding such a race would mean closing off part of central London for at least three days and disruption for much longer as preparations were made. There is an inherent cost in that.

Then there was Ecclestone's fee, setting up and securing the circuit, sorting out infrastructure, policing and so on.

On the plus side, a grand prix would showcase London and boost the city's profile, and probably - all things taken into account - bring in more money than it cost. Not that London, as one of the three biggest tourist attractions in the world, needs any extra publicity.

Five years ago almost to the day, I asked Ecclestone about these very plans. "I spoke about it with the mayor a couple of years ago, I think," he said. "He was very supportive. But we came to the conclusion that it would be too expensive."

A source close to Ecclestone expanded on that. "Bernie put a lot of effort into it," he said. "He said they looked long and hard at it and they couldn't make it work.

"There was very little money forthcoming from Livingstone, so it had to be self-supporting and they needed a way of getting people in.

"But there was only room for 30,000 people and, with the money they needed to pay to put it on, that would have meant charging £500 a ticket."

Damon Hill, then the president of the British Racing Drivers' Club which owns Silverstone, added that he had spoken "to Harvey Goldsmith about it a while back. I think it's dead. Logistically, it's a non-starter."

Which brings us back to the hurdles. The first being the idea that Ecclestone would put up the money for it. That's not how it works - venues pay a huge fee to the commercial arm of the sport, which Ecclestone runs, for the privilege of hosting F1.

That's not to say that F1 stumping up the money to host a race is a bad idea. Quite the contrary - some senior figures in the sport believe that's exactly what it should do to establish itself in America.

There is no market F1 wants to crack more than the US but last autumn Ecclestone played a game of brinksmanship with this season's new race in Austin, Texas, saying it would not be put on the calendar unless it paid its fee.

A similar situation seems to be developing with the proposed race in New Jersey overlooking Manhattan - an event F1 needs much more than one in London.

Then there's the fact that Britain already has a very popular grand prix at Silverstone, which has a contract until 2027, with a break clause either side can exercise in 2020.

With countries apparently queuing up for races - Russia is due in 2014, Mexico is also said to be imminent, Thailand is keen - the idea of holding two races in one country is seen very much as a thing of the past.

Equally, this is the second idea for a London Grand Prix that has come up in the past six days - on Friday another newspaper reported plans for a race around the Olympic Stadium.

Asked about this by BBC Sport at last weekend's European Grand Prix, Ecclestone said: "We're talking."

Hardly a surprise, is it, that F1 is so full of cynics?

In F1 - especially where Ecclestone is involved - one learns to never say never. But in a nutshell, what of the London Grand Prix?

Great PR coup? Yes. Likely to happen? Don't hold your breath.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/06/could_a_london_grand_prix_ever.html

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Victims Of Their Own Success?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/GWkQfpq7qz0/victims-of-their-own-success

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Singapore swing hands Vettel the initiative

Lewis Hamilton cut a remarkably phlegmatic figure after the Singapore Grand Prix, considering his retirement from what seemed a victory for the taking left his championship hopes in tatters.

The McLaren driver said all the right things after the race about not giving up, but the sad reality is that he is 52 points behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with only 150 still available.

To expect Hamilton to be able to make up more than a third of the points still remaining on a man who is driving one of the best seasons in Formula 1 history is ambitious in the extreme, although it's certainly going to be entertaining watching him try.

Hamilton's performance in Singapore confirmed two things about this season - McLaren are the team to beat with the consistently fastest car and the 2008 world champion is driving superlatively well.

Lewis Hamilton

A gear box failure caused McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton to retire from the Singapore Grand Prix. Photo: Getty 

His pole lap on Saturday was a sight to behold, all controlled aggression and commitment, brushing the walls, judging the balance between risk and reward to perfection to leave his rivals breathless.

Until that point, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had appeared to be evenly matched with Hamilton but when it mattered the German found his car's grip had mysteriously disappeared. Hamilton found plenty, though, to go more than half a second clear of anyone else.

It was, as McLaren sporting director Sam Michael put it, a "fantastic" lap and he followed it with a controlled performance in the race, taking only as much as he needed to out of the car and tyres, confident that he had pace in reserve if Vettel upped his pace behind him.

But then the oil started leaking out of his differential, he lost his seamless gearshifts, then third gear and finally all his gears, and he sadly coasted to a halt at Turn Five with more than half the race still remaining.

It was the latest in a series of disappointments for Hamilton this year, without which he would be right up with Alonso in the championship.

For nearly all of them he has been blameless. Only in his collision with Pastor Maldonado in Valencia could you perhaps lay any small fault at his door - of course the Williams man drove into him, but ex-drivers, including Ivan Capelli, have questioned whether Hamilton might have been wiser in the circumstances to leave him a bit more space.

Despite the series of McLaren-related incidents that have cost him his best chance of the title since 2008, Hamilton's mood upon getting back to the paddock was notably different from his subdued bearing after taking pole and victory in Italy two weeks ago.

In Monza, he was downbeat, almost monosyllabic, despite his crushing performance. Here, the speed was the same, but the disposition far sunnier.

It remains to be seen whether that was to do with him making up his mind about his future one way or the other.

But it would take a brave man who gave up the pace of the McLaren for the uncertain and unimpressive form of Mercedes, whatever the difference in remuneration, real or potential, there may be between the offers.

"I think it would have been a nice result for us but we still have more races to go," he said.

"We really couldn't afford today but it is what it is. The good thing is we have good pace. I have to go and win the next races."

On his and McLaren's current form, he could easily win all of them, but if the season continues in its topsy-turvy way, with wins shared about, it is difficult to see him making up so many points on Alonso.

Vettel, though, is a different matter. The low-downforce circuits of Spa and Monza behind them, the Red Bull is likely to be competitive everywhere.

Even if it is not as strong as the McLaren, it is certainly consistently quicker than the Ferrari and in that context a 29-point deficit following the victory he inherited from Hamilton in Singapore is eminently bridgeable.

As Red Bull team boss Christian Horner pointed out, Vettel "was 25 points down with two races to go in 2010, which indicates anything is possible for all the drivers. We need to keep taking points off Fernando, which ideally means getting a few more cars between us and him."

And there's the rub.

Alonso has not won since Germany in July. A potential win escaped him in Italy two weeks ago because of a mechanical problem in qualifying, but Ferrari's poor performance in Singapore, when he had been expecting to fight for pole and victory, was a wake-up call.

On the form of this weekend, Alonso does not look likely to win in normal circumstances unless Ferrari can bring some more speed to the car.

But what he does keep doing is finishing in the points.
In the 10 races since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, Alonso has retired only once - after being hit by the flying Lotus of Romain Grosjean in Belgium three weeks ago. Of the nine he has finished, seven of them resulted in a podium - including two wins - and the other two fifth places.

No-one else has consistency anything like that, and it is in that consistency that lies his best hope.

The concern for Alonso is that if both McLarens and Vettel finish races, those podiums will be hard to come by, and in those circumstances that gap would come down quickly indeed.

So well has he been driving this year that Alonso has to still be considered a narrow favourite for the title.

But while McLaren's weaknesses have made the championship a long-shot even for Hamilton, as Alonso leaves Singapore, he will be casting worried glances over his shoulder at Vettel.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/09/in_singapore_lewis_hamilton_cu.html

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