[derisgun]

Circuit owners announce the suspension of construction of the Circuit of Americas track.

FORMULA ONE - F1: US GP In Question As Work Suspended At COTA

Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs says no state funds will be paid out before the Austin GP.

FORMULA ONE - F1: State Funding For US GP At Austin Under Threat


It doesn't look good for this event happening. I hope things go better in New Jersey.

[dr-eavealer]

Stick a fork in it. Let the lawsuits begin.

The market in and around New Jersey is substantially larger than the market in and around Austin, Texas.

[JOR4qxYH]

I am beyond pissed at that troll bernie

firs tI heard his somewhat baffling comments over the weekend about no faith in Austin
then I find out they had not even given them the official contracts

I'm telling you that F1 is going to be in serious trouble here if they try to back out of Austin
No Austin means legal action, which means no NJ GP either, which means a highly publicized law suit with very justifiably pissed of parties who seem to have been sold a scam

Red Mcombs in no pushover and certainly won't take this lying down. If Bernie thinks they can brush them aside, he has another thing coming

I should not be surprised that Bernie would screw this up, just when everything seem to be going well

what a mess, what stupidity

[masaredera]

Stick a fork in it. Let the lawsuits begin.

The market in and around New Jersey is substantially larger than the market in and around Austin, Texas.

Yeah it's looking like it's over before it can even begin.

[jhfsdhf]

I am beyond pissed at that troll bernie

firs tI heard his somewhat baffling comments over the weekend about no faith in Austin
then I find out they had not even given them the official contracts

I'm telling you that F1 is going to be in serious trouble here if they try to back out of Austin
No Austin means legal action, which means no NJ GP either, which means a highly publicized law suit with very justifiably pissed of parties who seem to have been sold a scam

Red Mcombs in no pushover and certainly won't take this lying down. If Bernie thinks they can brush them aside, he has another thing coming

I should not be surprised that Bernie would screw this up, just when everything seem to be going well

what a mess, what stupidity

Are you absolutely sure that it's Bernie's fault? I wouldn't start accusing him with the amount of information we have. Talking about trouble, F1 has no activity in the States and its finances do not come from there so in order to get into trouble you need a race and presense, which hopefully will happen in the future.

[roundman]

Peter Windsor didn't turn up did he?
At least DC drove around the track in a Red Bull before the dream was crushed lol.

Seriously I hope they sort this mess out soon as I'm very much looking forward to the official US GP, as it would be nice to get it back on the calendar.

[Xtatotvk]

I was concerned that the circuit was in trouble after Bernie's comments at the weekend.

We don't know what or who is to blame for this fiasco but it appears that funding that needed to materialise hasn't for some reason. It could be that the funding fell through because the contract wasn't finalised or it could be that the contract fell through because commitments were not met. We just don't know and until some evidence comes through, we are just guessing.

However, the parallel with Donington might be drawn

[tgs]

I have two theories..

1. Having arranged the New Jersey race for 2013, which is arguably in a bigger market, Austin is being dropped as a venue with less profit potential to clear space for other money makers (Russia, etc).

2. This event always depended on state and local government money. There were many of opponents of this event because the state of Texas had to dole out a lot of money to fund it. Perhaps they're having an upper hand now? There is some scarce but interesting info on the wikipedia article. I chucked when I read: "In June 2011, the Austin city council endorsed the United States Grand Prix, with a vote of 5-2. As a part of the endorsement, the sport will pay $15,000 in carbon offsets and $5 million to establish an on-site research project into environmentally-friendly technologies." Gotta love the politics of liberal city councils...

[siklop]

I have two theories..

1. Having arranged the New Jersey race for 2013, which is arguably in a bigger market, Austin is being dropped as a venue with less profit potential to clear space for other money makers (Russia, etc).

2. This event always depended on state and local government money. There were many of opponents of this event because the state of Texas had to dole out a lot of money to fund it. Perhaps they're having an upper hand now? There is some scarce but interesting info on the wikipedia article. I chucked when I read: "In June 2011, the Austin city council endorsed the United States Grand Prix, with a vote of 5-2. As a part of the endorsement, the sport will pay $15,000 in carbon offsets and $5 million to establish an on-site research project into environmentally-friendly technologies." Gotta love the politics of liberal city councils...

I don't think your first theory is correct since Bernie wants two US GPs, not one. And it's not about profit, the 25 million sanction fee for Austin is considerably less than many other races are willing to pay. And BTW the sanction fee doesn't go into Bernie's pockets as many like to say over and over again, the teams get a lot of it ( will probably get more in the future).

[TodeImmabbedo]

A little more information has surfaced, see Austin Grand Prix plunged into doubt after track construction is stopped in dispute over race contract - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com.

Seems the dispute is between two Austin parties, the ones who own the rights to hold the race dealing with Bernie, and the builders of the track. The contract has to be transferred from the first to the second.

It is compicated, and we can not know exactly what is happening, but a couple of things can be surmised.

The Austin people cannot have been overjoyed to see Bernie deal with the NJ promoters, even before they had ever held a race. It is one thing to market an unique US Grand Prix, like almost every other country, and to market something like USGP West.
It is unbelievable that the circuit group would spend millions building the venue without a firm contract from Bernie guaranteeing the race, as seems to be the case.
I am forever amazed that Bernie can get any American group to deal with him, given his record of the last 25 years.
We will know soon enough if the race is on next years's calendar.

[Gometesstem]

I am beyond pissed at that troll bernie

firs tI heard his somewhat baffling comments over the weekend about no faith in Austin
then I find out they had not even given them the official contracts

I understand it differently, that the race organisers are the ones who hold a contract with Bernie for a race in the US, but have not passed on the contract to the circuit builders/owners.

This is a tiff between these two parties and Bernie can't do much beyond banging heads together.

[EDIT I see D28 beat me to it]

[tsovimnpb]

Load of bluff and bluster. They just need to sort this out.

Can't see how anyone's blaming Bernie for this p*ssing contest though

[Andromino]

I understand it differently, that the race organisers are the ones who hold a contract with Bernie for a race in the US, but have not passed on the contract to the circuit builders/owners.

This is a tiff between these two parties and Bernie can't do much beyond banging heads together.

[EDIT I see D28 beat me to it]

Great minds think alike. I hadn't actually read this as it took longer to write mine than it seemed. Got distracted by the eye candy on Countdown. Cheeky little black dress with an animal print top today

BTW, they are in real trouble if the countdown clock is anything to go by

http://www.fullthrottleproductionslp...own/index.html

[obHQNsY2]

Great minds think alike. I hadn't actually read this as it took longer to write mine than it seemed. Got distracted by the eye candy on Countdown. Cheeky little black dress with an animal print top today

That Jeff Stelling is quite the little minx, isn't he?

[Allbrunette]

By the way (and completely off topic), did you hear about the time Carol Vorderman got her calculator stuck up her bum and had to work it out with a pencil?

[risyGreeple]

With talks of Carlos Slim pushing for a GP in Mexico, i wouldn't be surprised if Austin died down! I always thought Austin was strategically a good location for the US. Draw plenty of Muricans and a lot of South Americans. There's plenty of support for Perez, Maldonado and the other South-south Americans.
New Jersey will definitely be glamorous and if a Mexican GP happens that will take care of South America.

[hwood]

Austin cancelled Ecclestone ready to drop Austin GP from 2012 calendar as circuit disputes escalate - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

[Ornamiviant]

Peter Windsor didn't turn up did he?

I was much looking forward to Jacques Villeneuve winning the inaugural GP at Austin for USF1. Now my hopes have been dashed.

[dayclaccikere]

At least DC drove around the track in a Red Bull before the dream was crushed lol.

Yeah, when I saw that I thought - now here's an idea!! Leave the track as it is and just hold the race on it as a dirt track - that would be awesome...!

On another note, I think Bernie probably had this whole scenario worked out.. He always wanted a race in New York, and go in giving the contract to Austin, all of a sudden he gets (to all intents and purposes) his New York race in under a year, surprise surprise..

What really p****s me off about it though is the sheer arrogance of people like Bernie saying 'well, it doesn't matter really, they can stay on the provisional calendar and then we can cancel it, or delay it a year, whatever really..' Well, what about people who live in/near Austin, who are looking for work, who are anticipating a race, who are/were putting in capital improvements in a difficult economic time to infrastructure, accomodation, hospitality, etc - then suddenly, there's no race, and a great white elephant on the horizon. And that's without mentioning those who (like myself) would not go to NJ for a race, but were actually looking forward to heading over to Texas for a combined holiday/race/etc..

Never mind solely the local support - if you want full grandstands, you will get them filled with travelling fans if your race is in the right place and on a decent track - just look at Spa and Monza.. Even Magny Cours drew a decent crowd, from all over Europe and I think Texas would have done the same.. But still, there's another street track. Yay.. F1 needs more of those..

[gvataler]

Yeah, when I saw that I thought - now here's an idea!! Leave the track as it is and just hold the race on it as a dirt track - that would be awesome...!

On another note, I think Bernie probably had this whole scenario worked out.. He always wanted a race in New York, and go in giving the contract to Austin, all of a sudden he gets (to all intents and purposes) his New York race in under a year, surprise surprise..

What really p****s me off about it though is the sheer arrogance of people like Bernie saying 'well, it doesn't matter really, they can stay on the provisional calendar and then we can cancel it, or delay it a year, whatever really..' Well, what about people who live in/near Austin, who are looking for work, who are anticipating a race, who are/were putting in capital improvements in a difficult economic time to infrastructure, accomodation, hospitality, etc - then suddenly, there's no race, and a great white elephant on the horizon. And that's without mentioning those who (like myself) would not go to NJ for a race, but were actually looking forward to heading over to Texas for a combined holiday/race/etc..

Never mind solely the local support - if you want full grandstands, you will get them filled with travelling fans if your race is in the right place and on a decent track - just look at Spa and Monza.. Even Magny Cours drew a decent crowd, from all over Europe and I think Texas would have done the same.. But still, there's another street track. Yay.. F1 needs more of those..

So Bernie should just pay the bills and make the crowds happy? F1 is a tough business and if you don't have money to build a circuit and pay the sanction fee then you will not have a race and someone else will. This Bernie-hatred has gone way overboard particularly in this matter.