As much as I love F1, it's been hard to fathom how carmakers get any real return on the astronomical investments it takes to compete at the top level. As for the Dubai track, it's a spectacular facilty for racing with an astronomical price tag too.......for as I saw it, 50,000 seats.. What a college football game seats... Still perfur the old circuits, oh well, F1 is still amazing and love to follow it!!!
I've been trying to decide whether I think the new ban on mid-race refueling will make things better or worse. So far I've come up with more pros than cons.
This has been expected for a while now, yet I was surprised to see the headline. Mercedes takes over Brawn F1 team (news.bbc.co.uk) Includes new driver speculation plus McLaren buying back Merc's 40% of McLaren Group by 2011 but Merc continuing to supply free engines for "at least the next six years."
Formula 1 Drivers Lineup to Race Shifterkart in Las Vegas The 13th annual SKUSA SuperNationals held at the Rio Hotel will feature Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Buemi, and Nelson Piquet Jr; there are likely to be one or two other F1 drivers on hand as well. Scott Speed can't make it, his brother Alex will be there. November 18-22.
There's been a lot of speculation about Button moving to McLaren lately. McLaren finally made an official announcement today that the deal is done. So, McLaren bought (or are in the process of buying) Merc's share of the company back from them, and their drivers will both be Brits...I guess this means it's an all British team now? Merc claim their team will be international (better publicity for auto sales) but speculation is they'll hire two Germans because they're hoping to be the team that finds the next German champion. Sensing a theme here. Lotus, which is now owned by Proton (Malaysian) said a while back they hope to end up eventually running Malaysian drivers. USF1 say they want to end up with American (or at least North American) drivers. We know Merc will run in the old Silver Arrows color scheme...might be interesting to see other teams reverting back to the old national colors.
Believe it or don't...makes good sensationalistic press either way... Michael Schumacher in line for sensational Formula One return at Mercedes (telegraph.co.uk)
Plenty of sponsorship $$$ for the Merc team as well I imagine. Hmmm, we seem to have left all the 2009 biz behind...time to start a new thread.