This was on the Reuters news wire this morning:
LONDON — Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has cast doubt on New Jersey hosting a Grand Prix in June, 2013, despite a 10-year agreement announced last year.
"Maybe the New York race will be 2013," he told the BBC on Tuesday. "It's a when — 2013 or 2014."
The east-coast race is likely to be coupled with Canada on successive weekends and would give the United States two rounds of the championship, with Austin in Texas due to make a debut on the calendar this November if its new circuit is ready in time.
New Jersey's street-circuit race is due to be held on the banks of the Hudson River with New York's Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.
The United States, a key market for Formula One manufacturers such as Ferrari and Mercedes as well as team sponsors, has not had a Grand Prix since Indianapolis in 2007.
Is Bernie's brain overworked these days? Has he got too much on his mind? Has he got New Jersey mixed up with Austin, as a result?
As the story says, Austin can host a U.S. GP this year "if its new circuit is ready in time." New Jersey, on the other hand, could hold a race tomorrow. The “track” is there; they just have to repave the streets. I had a photo in my blog last week of their garages and pits that seem to be further ahead today than Austin’s.
The fact of the matter is that F1, in the end, could care less about Austin. New York is the prize. The sponsors (and the beautiful people) want Montreal and New York in North America, just like they want Monaco in Europe.
In the minds of F1 people, Austin will be up there with Hicksville (a.k.a. Indianapolis) in no time.
Your reporting is so far off the mark as to be embarrassing. NJ cannot hold a race tomorrow and is unlikely to ever hold a race. Saying "the track is there" is ridiculous. Have you ever actually driven the proposed track? If you had you wouldn't be saying that all they have to do is pave the streets. There is no way that the proposed design comes anywhere close to being FIA compliant. And there's no place to put 100,000 fans (the promoter's claim) even if they could get them in (which they can't). If you're going to try to act like an "investigative reporter" I suggest that you start actually investigating, asking the right questions of the locals who would be seriously inconvenienced by this ridiculous proposal. The photos recently displayed on some blogs purporting to show F1 garages under construction in NJ are equally ridiculous. The construction is for an office building approved long ago. There is no zoning approval for use as an F1 garage and anyone who thinks that the promoter is going to be able to use something by claiming it's "temporary" better consult the NJ zoning statutes. Keep an eye out for the lawsuits on this one. They are not far away.
Posted by: Manny Petrovich | 04/17/2012 at 09:30 AM
Surely you intended to say that F1 couldn't care less about Austin.
Posted by: Greg W | 04/17/2012 at 03:36 PM
What's up with F1 anyway? Are they actually going to be successful in North America? Does anyone watch it anymore? Last time I saw F1 highlights it was from someplace in China - looked like the empty parking lot behind the Happy Fortune Cookie Co.
usually when Bernie is in the news he he's telling some town he's pulling their race - but now the US gets two?
I like auto-racing but F1 is very strange - like it all happens in a parallel universe.
Posted by: croozer | 04/18/2012 at 07:30 AM