F1 trademarks Las Vegas, New York and Miami grand prix titles

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Formula One has trademarked titles for races in Las Vegas, New York and Miami. F1 previously raced in Las Vegas in 1981 (picturesd) and 1982.

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After winning another term yesterday, does Jean Todt get too little credit for his work outside F1?

The president of the FIA does more than just deal with F1 and Jean Todt has done a lot outside of F1.

Jean Todt was a big part of the formation of the World Endruance Championhip in 2012, the first time there had been a world sports car championship for 20 years. He was a part in Formula E getting started up and has done things to help the World Rally Championship get out of the irrelevance it was in a few years back when it didn’t even have a full-time promoter in 2012.

And the FIA under his leadership has also played major roles in road safety which have seen continued gains in that area. And of course there is the continued safety improvements brought into F1 and other motorsport during his time.

Among other things that don’t get the attention of a lot of that.
RogerAyles

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Keith Collantine
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57 comments on “F1 trademarks Las Vegas, New York and Miami grand prix titles”

  1. Man, that spanish federation is strong – re: Jorda

  2. I was fearful of Liberty taking of F1 for this reason. As far as time zones go, the US and South American races are the worst for Australians like myself. 6am start times AEST on a Monday morning means I either have to take a day off work or arrive late. I love F1, but increasing the amount of these races is really going to hurt me personally.

    On another note, F1 doesn’t have a great following in the US, is having 4 US races + the Mexican race actually viable for the promoters and circuit operators? Las Vegas isn’t that far from COTA which isn’t that far from Mexico. It seems that expansion for the sake of expansion isn’t necessarily the right thing here.

    1. Mark in Florida
      9th December 2017, 5:04

      Well…. l have had that same problem for years here in the USA. Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia etc. That’s why I have a dvr, I wake up in the morning and watch the races. If you follow an international sport you have to make adjustments sometimes.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        9th December 2017, 5:14

        I’m a Canadian viewer and I echo this statement. The Asian and Australian races aren’t the majority of F1 races in a season, so this doesn’t matter much to me.

        1. south american here who also suffers when the circus arrived at China and Malaysia (that was the hardest of all). Although, Australia and Japan race times are fine

      2. Same here. Check DVR before bed, no internet until after i watch in the morning.

    2. @dragoll wat? Vegas to Austin is quite far. I’d guess its like driving from Rome to London, maybe farther.

      Or in the land of oz, Melbourne to Brisbane….

      1. It’s a two and a half hour fligth. No close at all

    3. @dragoll, you say that those two circuits are close together, but COTA and the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez are nearly 1000 miles apart.

      After all, most of the circuits in Europe are far closer to each other than that – nobody is saying that there shouldn’t be a German GP and Belgian GP in 2018 even though the Hockenheimring is less than 35 miles from Spa-Francorchamps.

    4. @dragoll The distance between Las Vegas and Austin is a massive 1,743.59 km by air, so it’s a lot greater than the Austin-Mexico City distance alone (which is enormous already).

    5. @dragoll I don’t have any sense whatsoever that they are going to try to have 4 races in the US. Not even one additional race is around the corner for at least a few years, and I doubt they will add more once they do have a second one.

    6. Austin to Las Vegas is 1266 miles. Austin to Mexico City is 944 miles.

      Silverstone to Hungaroring is 1169 miles.

      By your logic, there shouldn’t be a race in Monaco, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium or Italy, because they’re all “too close” to the UK race.

  3. I’m not sure that a “Standing” ovation is the best way to recognise Billy Monger, however, one thing is for sure, this is one of the things that I love about motorsport and the community. The community rallies around its own and I’m really glad for Billy’s sake that he is not only able to receive funding, but also support and help throughout his accident and subsequent treatment. We see it with the support Schumi’s family, as well as the support shown to Maria de Villota as well as the chance given to Kubica. While I’m sure some people will raise other negatives, I think on a whole, motorsport personnel are a tight knit group who look out for each other.

    I would love this kind of exposure to be what defines F1 and motorsport in general.

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      9th December 2017, 5:12

      I agree. They compete on the track but that doesn’t get in the way of supporting each other when one gets injured.

    2. @dragoll Pulling out Monger to F1 races and awards must just be agonizing for him as it just highlights what he has forever lost.

    3. @dragoll – I don’t think Billy Monger would see a standing ovation as anything but a sign of (deserved) admiration and respect. Agree with the rest of your comment, the support shown to him has been very heart-warming.

      @balue – I’m sure these are invitations and not compulsory attendances, so if he was that agonized, he’d have just turned down the invite (and as they were not publicly announced invitations, no one would have been the wiser).

      To me, Billy seems to be made of sterner stuff than you or I. When he first attended the British GP as Hamilton’s guest exactly 3 months after his crash, I did wonder if it had fully sunk in that he’d been through a life-changing experience. Then, I read about how he’d already tested out a car in July and planned to return to competitive racing. I could only shake my head in awe and amazement.

      No doubt, he might have “what might have been” moments, when he looks at fellow racers competing and succeeding in other disciplines. But rather than wallow in those emotions, he’s instead turned it around such that it is those drivers that are in fact the ones looking up to him.

      1. I too see from what we did get to see of Billy Monger an incredibly strong and resilient young person @phylyp. I really am looking forward to see where he takes this impressive mindset in his life, something we can only really admire.

  4. Probably no country has done a better job of making sporting events spectacles (than the U.S.). Whether it’s boxing events in Vegas, a UFC fight in Madison Square Garden, NBA All-Star games, the U.S. has probably led the world in making spectacles that have sports at the center of it.

    Do we need to brace ourselves for half naked women lounging over the cars on the grid, men in washable suites and white shoes smoking stogies in the pits and OMG Trump presenting the winners trophy while wearing an F1 cap saying “lets make F1 great again”. This is the greatest racing car race of all time ever!

    1. Oh dear… F1 is doom…

      1. @ruliemaulana Like the avatar by the way :-)

        1. @keithcollantine – thinking about using it for this site, now that FOM have let it go? :-)

        2. Thanks. I done it to match this memorable and iconic site.

    2. Half naked women…? yes please.

    3. Michael Brown (@)
      9th December 2017, 17:43

      But who doesn’t want to make F1 great again! #MF1GA

      1. There’s always a bunch of pretty girls on the grid before every formula one race, isn’t there, in generally quite revealing costumes subject to local cultural sensibilities? I doubt the lasses are there because of their amazing and deep knowledge of motorsport.

    4. Trump almost certainly doesn’t even know what Formula 1 is. And if he were to show up to any of those 4 US GP’s I for one would not go to whichever one he decides to show his disgusting, ugly orange face at.

  5. Carmen Jorda chosen for the FIA?
    Almost as ridiculous as Robert Mugabe being appointed as a WHO goodwill ambassador.

    1. FlyingLobster27
      9th December 2017, 7:09

      It doesn’t end there. According to Endurance-Info, the new head of the Manufacturers’ Commission is disgraced French politician François Fillon. He was the catholic-conservative candidate at the last presidential election, and his campaign was marred by evidence he had paid his wife as his assistant for far longer than he admitted to, and she was unable to say what tasks she had performed to earn vast amounts of taxpayers’ money.

  6. I see LV as the most unrealistic option out of the cities mentioned primarily due to the number of Casinos there. Furthermore, according to Joe Saward, the west coast doesn’t seem to be a great priority after all due to the problems created by the time difference to Europe, so as far as he believes, the focus for a possible second US race is firmly on the east coast.

    1. What do the casinos have to do with it? Aren’t there casinos in Monaco? And probably Singapore?

      I’d personally love an LVGP (not saying they should base the decision on me). But could drive there from California (Austin and Mexico too far). If its a street circuit could stay on the strip and walk to the track. Hopefully it happens

      1. @danziol ”Las Vegas won’t join, and if it does it’ll be off the calendar within 3 years. The idea of having a road race on the strip of a few years ago will never work because the casinos won’t let the roads close for an F1 race. Too much casino money at stake and too little interest in F1 in that area to justify it. Las Vegas doesn’t need F1 for a draw and doesn’t want a draw that makes getting to the casino hard. Developers and casinos there are more interested in NFL, NHL, and other sports right now so F1 would have to be completely foreign investment and there’s no return in holding an F1 race any more from just the race tickets thanks to Bernie. It’d be a money loser so in the end it’ll never come together.”
        – A very valid point from this article: https://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/06/23/ecclestone-expects-18-races-2017-f1-calendar/

        1. @danziol Obviously, I’m aware that Bernie isn’t in charge anymore, but regardless, the overall point of that quote is obvious, and what matters.

      2. @danziol Furthermore, Monaco only has one Casino, unlike LV, so it’s apples to oranges comparison in that regard.

    2. If there was to be a race in LV or anywhere else in the West Coast, the race would have to start at either noon or 1 pm local time, and no later- that area is 8 hours behind UK time and 9 hours behind Western European time- unlike the east coast. An 11:00 pm or midnight local start time for the LV GP would not be a bad idea either but of course this would have to be done on a Saturday night, and the last time there was a GP on a Saturday was the 1985 South African GP, and a lot of rules have changed since then so I don’t know what would have to be done in order to make that happen.

      1. @mfreire Agreed. If an F1 race were to take place in any place operating the Pacific Time, then 12 pm would be the ideal local start time as it would mean that the European equivalents would be the same as with the current US GP venue using 2 pm as the local start time.

  7. @keithcollantine (or anyone) can you explain what that new F2 testing rule means? Maybe it’s too early in the morning, but having trouble working it out.

    Does it mean F2 drivers can’t test any single-seaters more powerful than F2 cars, except for F1 cars? What does that mean in practice? No Indycar/Super Formula testing?

    1. I think it means, “Welcome to F2, Lando Norris. We er… heard a rumour that you did absurd quantities of unofficial F3 testing while you were doing that series. Just in case said rumour was true, we wanted to make it clear that you can’t do that in F2.”

      Don’t think it’s anything more than to stop people doing unofficial testing.

      1. @neilosjames, I’m interested in hearing more about the rumours of Norris undertaking a lot of unofficial testing in Formula 3 cars – do you have a source for that? If he had been running a lot of unofficial testing in Formula 3, then it might indeed explain why the FIA would want to introduce a new regulation placing much tighter restrictions on unofficial testing now that he is stepping up to Formula 2.

        @graham228221, the way that I am reading it is that the FIA is not banning a driver from testing an Indycar or a Super Formula car, but they are not allowed to take part in private test sessions – in other words, limiting them to the open test sessions which are open to the public and to third parties that those other series run.

        The Indycar series runs five open tests during the season, so if an Indycar team was interested in a Formula 2 driver, it seems that they would be allowed to run him in a test during the season. Similarly, the Super Formula series runs multiple open test sessions during the season – in fact, they completed a two day test session just two days ago, where Oliver Rowland was taking part in that test (having tested for Racing Engineering in an official Formula 2 test only four days earlier).

        I would therefore read it in the same way that Neil had – that what the FIA is doing is imposing tighter restrictions on just the private tests to make it harder for a driver to gain an advantage by simply being able to rack up a lot of mileage in private testing.

        1. No reliable source, so I made sure to say ‘rumour’. But, it’s talked about like an entirely open fact on some F1 forums and Reddit.

          Could be true, or could have all sprouted from one person making stuff up… but then, this particular rule appearing at this particular time, when he’s moving up to F2, seems a bit too perfectly timed to be a coincidence.

    2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      9th December 2017, 11:56

      That’s how it reads to me. More monopoly chasing. Surely Indy/SF teams have every right to seek out F2 drivers for private testing, and it’s a matter for their F2 team whether this is contractually permissable. Toyota/Honda/Chevy ought to find the backbone Renault didn’t, and take FIA to task for these overreaching anticompetitive business practices

    3. I think the intent is to stop actual or potential unlicensed testing, as @neilosjames says… …but worry that this means that F2 drivers won’t be able to do any Super Formula or Indycar testing/racing without leaving F2 completely (since both series also fall foul of the rule)?

  8. I know next to nothing about Carmen Jorda, why is her appointment such a big deal and what is she meant to be doing?

    1. Her earlier comments about how women should not be competing against men sound pretty much opposite of what the role is supposed to be.

    2. Her role is “to create a sports culture which facilitates and values the full participation of women in all aspects of motorsport.”
      Since she was promoting a separate F1 championship exclusively for female drivers and argues that females always will be at a disadvantage to males in racing due to biological differences, some said it was against the idea of women compete as equals. I think I can agree with her on that.

    3. Adding to what @bleu and @ruliemaulana mention, it is also quite a telling sign that instead of singing one of the drivers out there that HAVE achieved success in their racing careers (or are still achieving it), they chose a driver who’s highlight was probably a simulator run for Renault/LotusF1 and being a regular WAG shot in the F1 footage when she was one of several “testdrivers” that team had at the time.

    4. I went through the twitter-replies to Jorda’s announcement of her FIA Commision appointment. There seem to be three reactions possible:

      The first is to say her appointment is stupid/imcomprihensible/laughable without any further argument why.

      The second is based on race results. Responders found her results ‘very disappointing’ and therefor she’s unfit to serve on the commission. Coincidentally I never came across any of the responders names in any race result whatsoever, so maybe they should ask themselves if they were fit to comment in the first place (by their own standards).

      The third objection is that Jorda has expressed an opinion, the responders don’t agree with that opinion and therefor she’s unfit to serve on the commission.

      Now the last objection is at least interesting. Jorda’s opinion is that there should seperate racing competitions for women. In her opinion, women stand little chance in a mixed competition, because of physical attributes. This opinion has proven very controversial in our gender sensitive times. Let’s take a look at it.

      Motorsport started in 1894 with Paris-Rouen trial and quickly expanded from reliability runs into many different forms. Monoposto’s, sports cars, on-road and off-road, probably every form on four wheels has been tried. And for most of of the time there has been no formal restriction against women competing.
      Our motorsport history books, magazines and annuals are filled with thousands and thousands of men, all competing at the highest level. But women? Yes, there have been some, but if you try to name a few that competed on the highest level, how far would you come? Five, maybe ten? Against the number of men it’s neglictable.
      So we have 123 years of motorsport, where woman could have competed on a level playing field against men and it hasn’t happened. I realise there are social and cultural issues and prejudice as well, but where are the ones that slip through the mazes and defy all odds?
      Shouldn’t we conclude that the ‘level playing field’ approach hasn’t worked for the last 123 years and that maybe Jorda has a point?

      And finally, a tricky point: looks. I wonder what the reaction would have been if Carmen Jorda wasn’t such a beautiful woman. Would we (men) even care or pay attention to anything she said? Michelle Mouton is also on this FIA Commission and has been for a while. From the top of my head, she is the only woman in motorsport history to have been in the running for a top-level Championship (she came 2nd in the WRC). Now she is in her 60’s and you wouldn’t see her on the cover of a fashion or glamour magazine. How often has she made the mainstream motorsport press the last couple of years. Never?
      And isn’t that how men handle sensitive gender issues often? If a woman is older and not very pretty, she can be ignored. If a woman is young and very beautiful, we can make sexist jokes without taking her seriously.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        9th December 2017, 17:48

        Speak for yourself. I put Mouton on a higher level because of her results.

        1. He obviously already spoke for himself ;)

      2. I agree with Carmen Jorda that there should motor racing series exclusively for female drivers but not for the same reason that she gives, after all there have already been women who have proved that physical attributes are not an obstacle for female success in many forms of motor racing, my reason is to increase the number of female participants in the sport.

        This doesn’t mean that motor racing should be split into men only and women only leagues and I don’t believe anyone, including Jorda, wants this to be the case, but to have more female drivers succeeding you first need to make the pool of female drivers much greater than what it currently is.

        To include series that are exclusively for girls and women alongside existing series, certainly in karting and the lowest formulas, is a good idea to increase the pool of female talent, and you have to imagine that the girls and women who have greater success in these female only series will have the opportunities to take part in the main series against all drivers.

        I don’t understand why people would have a problem with this because, as you say Leo, for well over a century there have been ridiculously low numbers of female drivers and you can’t honestly expect this to change unless you make it possible for more girls and women to have an opportunity to race and have some success, even if it is only against other girls and women.

      3. @Leo B

        I don’t see why it requires motorsport expertise to argue that people should have expertise for the role they are appointed to. This seems like a general rule that is true for all jobs.

        Your claim that both objecting to having one specific woman in this role is sexist and so is not objecting to another women being in this role is extremely absurd. Doesn’t that more logically show that people are not motivated by sexism, but by the qualities of the specific women in question? Isn’t that what we want: that women don’t get special treatment, but get judged for their qualities?

        1. @aapje

          I don’t see why it requires motorsport expertise to argue that people should have expertise for the role they are appointed to.

          Yes I know, you don’t have to be able to lay eggs, to smell if they’ve gone bad. I just don’t understand see why Jorda’s race results are a factor in determining if she’s qualified for the job.

          Your claim that both objecting to having one specific woman in this role is sexist and so is not objecting to another women being in this role is extremely absurd.

          Do I claim that? I think not. I don’t make any judgement about Jorda’s qualifications for the job. The only thing I argue is that one of her opinions, which is used as an argument against her, might hold some value. I might have taken a complicated approach, so read Robert’s comment above if you want a clear and straightforward explanation.
          I don’t really get the second part of your sentence. Do you think I object to Mouton being on the commission? (I don’t, at all). I mentioned her to show that a women who has the results and track record, but doesn’t have the ‘tabloid section’ looks (anymore) is largely ignored by press and public.

  9. I think she’s quite fit, so let her have the job I say ;)

    1. …seriously?

  10. The title “Hamilton made Bottas vow…” sure makes it sound like Hamilton went to Bottas and made Bottas vow something to him. In actuality, Hamilton made a vow to himself about Bottas.

  11. I agree with Sebastian Vettel that Formula E is not the future of motor racing but it’s not because of the fact they are powered by electric motors, after all that is the whole reason for it’s existence, it’s because the future of motor racing is categorically not to abandon purpose built circuits all around the world in favour of closing down the streets in busy cities on any given weekend, not to mention silly rules like fanboost that have no place in something claiming to be a professional sporting competition.

  12. Maybe F1 could utilize the Las Vegas street circuit that was used for ChampCar; that is in the original LV strip (all the modern hotels and facilities are further south near McCarran Airport); even though that part is the ugliest part of a city that is already ugly and horrendous to begin with.

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