The FIA World Council will not meet for another three weeks but much work is going on to prepare the dossiers that will be reviewed by the Council members.
One of the items that is traditionally part of the June meeting is next year’s Formula 1 World Championship calendar, so it is no surprise that each year at this time there is some chatter about the dates for the following season.
We expect that there will be 20 races in 2014, with New Jersey and Russia being included in the calendar and Korea dropping out. There is some discussion going on over the question of testing, particularly as next year’s engines will be new. The word is that after last winter’s poor weather in Europe, some of the teams want to book a test in the Middle East in order to make sure they get hot-weather running before the start of the season.
This being the case, there is then a cost-saving argument about the first race as it makes little sense to ship all the equipment out for a test and then not use it to go racing. Thus there is believed to be a push going on to make Bahrain the first race of the year, and to move Australia back to the second slot on the calendar.
This has happened before, with Bahrain opening the season in 2006 and 2010. There are several counter arguments, not least that the first race of the year always attracts more attention and it's probably not sensible to push F1’s relationship with Bahrain into the spotlight.
It may, however, just be part of the negotiation process. The Australian GP has a contract that lasts until after the 2015 race, and there are talks over whether this deal should be extended to 2020, with an option to 2025. The Australian politicians, who pay for the race, want to keep costs down, while Bernie Ecclestone wants to keep them up. The stories may, therefore, just be part of the negotiating process…
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Not likely
Can't see the Bahrain move going ahead, if only because in light of the situation over there and all the talk about F1 being hijacked for publicity purposes it really would be like waving a rag in front of a bull. Personally I'm still surprised they bother to keep going with the race in the first place (and wondering who drafts FOM's contracts if they can't invoke a force majeure clause when there's a riot going on down the road), but then I suppose doing the sensible thing doesn't tend to suit Bernie much if the state of the sport is anything to go by...
On the testing point, if F1 is really that concerned about the impact of the weather then might I make a potentially bold suggestion? Ship the cars over to Australia earlier and use one of the numerous tracks they have over there for testing instead. Granted, there may be some licensing issues to resolve, but I would have said it's feasible and it would certainly help in the PR stakes.
I am surprised the Korea Gp,
I am surprised the Korea Gp, is being dropped so soon. You would expect them to have a 5-10 year contract in place. Has Bernie shafted another race track ? My favourite advert would be Jenson Button, in the shower, with some Head and Shoulders....
Merc "secret" test
So what do folks think, including Joe?
I'll be very surprised if Merc have not covered themselves legally before using the 2013 car to test. I think it'll turn out that they did enough with the FIA to be OK, but that Pirelli will take the rap for not having invited all the other teams to test this year (they apparently asked all of the teams last year). Pirelli will then get a mild censure along the lines of "I know you did it for safety reasons (delaminations), but don't do it again unless properly".
If Merc have covered themselves then they've clearly gone against the spririt of what was trying to be acheived, but for Red Bull to complain on this basis would be pretty ironic considering flexi-wings, hand adjustable suspension, engine maps, etc.