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[Ferrari man 009]

With the news that London will allow street races in future (opening the door to F1 potentially)...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28261960

...what about having the "European Grand Prix" return for the purpose of having different European cities host a street race. For example, London could apply for and host it one year, Paris the next, Rome the one after etc etc.

Just thought it would be a nice idea, and it would be at a different city each year. It would also be potentially easier and cheaper for some countries without an F1 track (like France) to host a race once in a while.

Anyone else think its a good/bad idea?

[CookinFlat6]

Nowadays only petrolheads would want City centers to get blocked off and polluted with noise and chaos for a weekend. Especially with the new formula E the only way to get this done would be massive bribes all round and Bernie appears to have lost appetite for that traditional mechanism

Nah, too much opposition from the 'saner' politicians in european cities who know which side their bread is buttered, even Rome couldnt be bribed recently

[sagi58]

Toronto still hosts the Honda Indy in July.

Yes, streets get blocked off and yes, traffic is a nightmare;
but, that isn't the only event that calls for it.

Here's the official website: http://www.hondaindytoronto.com/

[LiamCatterson]

I fear the idea of London being used for F1...Just because you might have the chavs shoot the tyres off the cars

[Hammer278]

I'm sick of street races already, Singapore GP sucks since all I like about the track is seeing sparks from cars at night. Valencia was the pits, thank goodness its out of the calendar.

Monaco is still a favourite of mine since it's the tightest by far and is actually really a STREET circuit. Making more "street" circuits as wide as hell and lots of run offs, couple with steel barriers instead of tyres and gravel doesn't make it better than any other traditional race circuits out there.

[Roth]

It puts great pressure on the race to succeed not only in entertainment value but economically too. There's an annual battle between organisers and locals in Melbourne; and it doesn't even close down the city, just the nearby park. For many racefans it's one of the highlights of the season, but the NIMBYs and naysayers come out in force to appose the noise, disruption, environmental impact, and costs to taxpayers, reading the bottom line and not the incalcuable monetary benefits to the city as a whole.

I like iconic street races, visually impressive ones that don't look like they're being held any old place. I love Valencia as a track but as a spectacle it's rather dull. Now if you could convince London to shut down Trafalgar Square or NY Times Square for two weeks then that would be great. But more likely they'll be moved to some anonymous easily controlled area which negates the idea of a major city street race.

In the annual hoo-ha over Melbourne, Sydney usually pipes up and tries to woo Bernie with promises of cars around Olympic Park, but if there's gonna be a race in Sydney it's got to be the Harbour Bridge and Opera House or nothing.

It's a great idea but better realised on Xbox than in reality.

[f1boy]

Is New Jersey still on for 2015??

Also looking forward to Russia this year. Around the Winter Olympic park is nearly a street race.......

[elfinitty]

Actually,this sounds like a great idea,but the problem is finding suitable places for the races,if we try new places each year,these venues might have their first race,or the first one in a long itme and there could be some problems with the European race each year.But still,I like the idea somehow,it'd be interesting to see this happening

[RyRy]

Actually,this sounds like a great idea,but the problem is finding suitable places for the races,if we try new places each year,these venues might have their first race,or the first one in a long itme and there could be some problems with the European race each year.But still,I like the idea somehow,it'd be interesting to see this happening

I don't think finding a place would be that hard, it's once a year for 6 days. Setup safe temporary bridges to allow people to work and maybe open up sections (crossroads) of the track when there is no racing to allow traffic to flow and when racing is going on just provide adequate signage to explain diversions.

A London street race would be a GREAT place for a F1 race because the sound would reverberate massively because of all the buildings, it would get a HUGE amount of people watching from building and streets. Regardless of if it is boring for TV viewers it would be an amazing way to get new people interested in F1.

The sheer amount of people in London (including Tourists) would make it financially viable.

[ckilger12]

Toronto still hosts the Honda Indy in July.

Yes, streets get blocked off and yes, traffic is a nightmare;
but, that isn't the only event that calls for it.

Here's the official website: http://www.hondaindytoronto.com/

If you go up to Toronto for the weekend and use public transit or walk. The traffic isn't too bad. I usually go up every year for that event. Unfortunately where I live its the best open wheel action that comes somewhat near me. I was really hoping the GP in NY/NJ would happen, I would do that in a heartbeat

[stonemonkey]

How viable would it be financially to prepare a route around a city for F1 for a one off race that's going to another city the next year that will then need the preparation and so on.... Be good to see but i doubt it makes much sense.

[geetface9]

Having seen how many people turned out for the tour de france this year as it rolled through britain, I can see a London race as quite feasible

[sagi58]

How viable would it be financially to prepare a route around a city for F1 for a one off race that's going to another city the next year that will then need the preparation and so on.... Be good to see but i doubt it makes much sense.

"One off" tends to create an illusion of "rare" and "unique", and
that might be a dream come true for sponsors/advertisers/hosts!

[CookinFlat6]

How viable would it be financially to prepare a route around a city for F1 for a one off race that's going to another city the next year that will then need the preparation and so on.... Be good to see but i doubt it makes much sense.

dont forget a lot of this is based on the fact that they had a mini trial run several years ago which was successful, according to bernie. London could handle this effortlessy, the carnival would probably take more effort and thats been going every year since the 60s, if they made enough profit after costs and after bernie they would want to keep doing it. And its not like any permanent facilities would be needed so it wouldnt cost much relatively. They wouldnt even need frogmen on standby like in Monte Carlo
I think the biggest costs would be in preventing more than a few Londoners seeing it for free which is a bit ironic

[Frontrunner]

I still really like Monaco even though there is basically no passing opportunities, its a different challenge for drivers. I really enjoy racing on it on Codemasters F1 games more so than your regular circuit. Same can be said about Singapore, very different to Monaco, I always look forward to Singapore every year, it fast becoming one of my favourite races of the season.

It will be interesting to see how this Azerbaijan street race looks but don't really need anymore Street races in F1 unless of course they get Adelaide back in a surprise comeback.