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[darwin dali]

Looks yummy

[LewEngBridewell]

Haven't had a Frenchman on the grid since the days of Sebastian Bourdais and Romain Grosjean.

Charles Pic has a brother called Arthur, one year his junior, who's also a racing driver. I hope Marussia can provide Charles with a decent platform on which to demonstrate what he can do. Jerome D'Ambrosio didn't have much of a chance...

[andrew]

Jerome D'Ambrosio has done well considering the equipment he's had. Glock was interviewed yesterday and said that pushed him hard this season and that they were both on the same wave-length. Shame for him to get given the big-E but I guess money talks.

[scotty]

So is this guy just gonna get one season, fail to impress cause the car is so crap and then get unceremoniously sacked too? What is the point, really?

[andrew]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

[myownalias]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

Why would Ecclestone want France back on the calendar when he is commissioning more and more races in Asia and the Americas? That goes totally against BE's train of thought on location!

[What's Burning?]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

Why would Ecclestone want France back on the calendar when he is commissioning more and more races in Asia and the Americas? That goes totally against BE's train of thought on location!

Supply and demand. After all there are only 20 races on the calendar.

[myownalias]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

Why would Ecclestone want France back on the calendar when he is commissioning more and more races in Asia and the Americas? That goes totally against BE's train of thought on location!

Supply and demand. After all there are only 20 races on the calendar.

And twelve teams that refuse to race more than 20 races per season... without the teams, there will be no races!!!

[What's Burning?]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

Why would Ecclestone want France back on the calendar when he is commissioning more and more races in Asia and the Americas? That goes totally against BE's train of thought on location!

Supply and demand. After all there are only 20 races on the calendar.

And twelve teams that refuse to race more than 20 races per season... without the teams, there will be no races!!!

You may not have watched watched today's SPEED broadcast, but Will Buxton interviewed BE on the grid pre-race, and asked him what was going on with Austin and why was a contract not signed... BE's answer was classic shrewd business. There are two things the people in Austin don't have, money and a pen.

The quickest way to drive up the cost for a GP is to have a lot of venues bidding for them.

[bud]

So is this guy just gonna get one season, fail to impress cause the car is so crap and then get unceremoniously sacked too? What is the point, really?

Rotating door is on hyperdrive in F1.

[Hammer278]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

Why would Ecclestone want France back on the calendar when he is commissioning more and more races in Asia and the Americas? That goes totally against BE's train of thought on location!

Supply and demand. After all there are only 20 races on the calendar.

And twelve teams that refuse to race more than 20 races per season... without the teams, there will be no races!!!

You may not have watched watched today's SPEED broadcast, but Will Buxton interviewed BE on the grid pre-race, and asked him what was going on with Austin and why was a contract not signed... BE's answer was classic shrewd business. There are two things the people in Austin don't have, money and a pen.

The quickest way to drive up the cost for a GP is to have a lot of venues bidding for them.

+1.

Again, people might hate on MrE for it but this serves a double purpose - making F1 look and feel even more exclusive. Exclusivity is the name of marketing and MrE is doing it perfectly.

[myownalias]

You may not have watched watched today's SPEED broadcast, but Will Buxton interviewed BE on the grid pre-race, and asked him what was going on with Austin and why was a contract not signed... BE's answer was classic shrewd business. There are two things the people in Austin don't have, money and a pen.

The quickest way to drive up the cost for a GP is to have a lot of venues bidding for them.

No I didn't, I don't watch Speed coverage... watched it during the 2009 season, the reverted back to the BBC because it's a poor imitation of European coverage, anyway I digress!

And it can also backfire on him, if the costs rise too much, many European and American (North & South) countries will simply decide it's not worth it, if the race is going to make a loss year after year, it's simply not worth it when cuts are being made around the world, which is what happened with Canada, they refused to pay Bernie's extortionate rates so it was dropped, and Bernie went back and did a deal, e.g. dropped his fee to get it back on the calendar... countries simply won't pay over the odds to have F1 in their country, it has to make financial sense!

[andrew]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

Why would Ecclestone want France back on the calendar when he is commissioning more and more races in Asia and the Americas? That goes totally against BE's train of thought on location!

France have been wanting a GP for a while now. Stick a local interest on the grid and the demand becomes more pressing and the event is more marketable which in turns generates more $$$$s.

[mnmracer]

Haven't had a Frenchman on the grid since the days of Sebastian Bourdais and Romain Grosjean.

Ah yeah, those were the days.

[myownalias]

I wonder if MrE has greased Virgin/Marussia's palm with silver? A French driver on the grid will maybe help bring back the French GP which is seemingly one of MrEs many desires.

Why would Ecclestone want France back on the calendar when he is commissioning more and more races in Asia and the Americas? That goes totally against BE's train of thought on location!

France have been wanting a GP for a while now. Stick a local interest on the grid and the demand becomes more pressing and the event is more marketable which in turns generates more $$$$s.

That's all well and good but something has to give and many of the circuits/countries have many years remaining on their contracts... unless his Bernieness has a get out cause (which is probably does, knowing the old coot), he won't be able to breach the contract without mutual consent of the representing country! More than 20 races is never going to happen, the teams won't allow it, if many more tracks are added, it'll because a year round sport!