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[dmoore]

Interlagos must modernise to survive

Interlagos is the latest circuit to come under fire from F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone.

The criticism is not before time according to most of the paddock, which has put up with the cramped, outdated facilities at the Sao Paolo track without as much as a murmur from the powers that be, in marked comparison to the regular maligning of the pre-2010 Silverstone, for example.

With an F1 calendar under ever-increasing pressure for events and Interlagis competing with first class facilities and government money of the type offered by Abu Dhabi, Ecclestone told Brazilian newspaper Estada de São Paulo that the "worst circuit" on the F1 calendar must see "significant improvements" to continue to host motorsport's elite.

Ecclestone is hoping that Brazil hosting the soccer World Cup in 2014 and Rio having the 2016 Olympics could spark badly-needed upgrades at Interlagos.

"Long ago, in 1972, I believed in Brazil and brought F1 here, but I can no longer be questioned by the teams about the worst circuit in the championship," Ecclestone declared. "The future depends on significant improvements."

Currently, Interlagos has a contract until 2015, the track has decided the last two world championships through its late season date and there can be no denying the passion of the Brazilian fans, but none of those factors are sufficient to guarantee the venue's place on the calendar without significant investment.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns22517.html

[myownalias]

It's all part of Bernie Ecclestone's master plan to have all Tilke designed tracks by 2020! Tilke tracks may well have top class pits, paddock and hospitality but they don't produce good racing, As a spectator I would rather have good racing at tracks like Spa Francorchamps, Interlagos, and Suzuka than have pretty buildings and poor racing!

[f1ea]

It's all part of Bernie Ecclestone's master plan to have all Tilke designed tracks by 2020! Tilke tracks may well have top class pits, paddock and hospitality but they don't produce good racing, As a spectator I would rather have good racing at tracks like Spa Francorchamps, Interlagos, and Suzuka than have pretty buildings and poor racing!

Interlagos is a really nice track. The atmosphere there is awesome as well. The scream when Massa was "World Champion for a minute" was deafening. You wont get that at Bahrain! Also Brasil is a top producer of racing drivers and definitely a solid market for F1. I doubt it will be let go.

F1 and Bernie are more concerned with an 'exclusive' show like Singapore (which is beautiful... fantastic... whatever you want to put it), but not really much about the racing. But i think they are overestimating the impact of shuch flashy circuits... the flashiness and uniqueness of the Singapore GP fades away by lap 5...

[Hammer278]

Lap 5?? More like after the formation lap....

[kerc]

It's the way Bernie "motivates" track administrations to keep things up-to-date.

[Rivers]

Well I expected nothing less from Bernie. He threatened even Monaco to be dropped, so no big surprise.

And I can definately agree that these Tilke tracks provide nothing except great buildings. The reality is that Interlagos nearly always provides great races. We had a Schumachers `last` race in 06 with lots of overtaking; we had in `07 a 3-men title decider with the man with the least chances to take the title actually doing it; then `08 where Hamilton nearly gave the title away - I don`t really understand what McLaren were doing there that weekend, but it certainly provided tense last laps;
`09 was rather a formal title decider, but the race was again full with exciting stuff.

So it would be a big loss to loose Interlagos. So I rather see this as a Bernie`s trick to make sure things do get upgraded.

We have no more races in France, Austria, Imola gone, well USA looks set to come back; but from Bernie`s point of view its all ok. I`m not really sure how Bernie`s 25 race calendar will work out; but with the rapid pace of Bernie`s expansion a 25 race calendar is the only way to keep the old races.

Bernie is who he is, and he likes to get things done the way he wants them to be done. We`ll see how another new track turns out in Korea; hopefully it will be a better race than the 'great' Abu Dhabi circuit poor performance. So we`ll see.

[Hansy]

Half the races on the calendar are crap.

Let's raise the ratio!

[RA Dunk]

It's all part of Bernie Ecclestone's master plan to have all Tilke designed tracks by 2020!

Hopefully the poison dwarf wont live that long.

[cap-dude]

Interlagos is always a great race. You simply can't put it down, because 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 have all been pretty epic climaxes to a season.

I think we'd all rather than go to Interlagos than Bahrain.

[Hammer278]

I dont mind letting go of 3 tracks in the calendar just to keep Interlagos - scrap off bloody Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Valencia.

[Gaz]

whats with all this modernize modernize modernize s***.

whats wrong with heritige.

[Juliet P]

whats with all this modernize modernize modernize s***.

whats wrong with heritige.

Apart from the spelling? j/k

[nish2280]

I wonder if they even consider other designers before they assign Mr. Tilke. What i mean is, do they go through the same process as most sporting event organizers outside Motorsport go through and have many designers submit concept designs for the arena and facilities or does Bernie just pick up the phone and say to Tilke "heres some land, build a track" and to which Tilke responds "aww not again".

[RA Dunk]

I wonder if they even consider other designers before they assign Mr. Tilke. What i mean is, do they go through the same process as most sporting event organizers outside Motorsport go through and have many designers submit concept designs for the arena and facilities or does Bernie just pick up the phone and say to Tilke "heres some land, build a track" and to which Tilke responds "aww not again".

Knowing Bernie he probably has some sort of financial benefit out of it by using Tilke for new tracks etc, remember everything Bernie does is for money there's no Mr nice guy in him everything revolves around money.

[Gaz]

whats with all this modernize modernize modernize s***.

whats wrong with heritige.

Apart from the spelling? j/k

Gaz Spelling > Correct Spelling.