Formula One, the world’s preeminent auto racing league, is actively scouting downtown Miami as a potential site for a new Grand Prix.

Executives and engineers with the global racing brand were in town this month, meeting with Miami’s new mayor and the city’s head of film and culture to go over potential racing circuits and logistics. Racing planners have already put together a half-dozen routes that would have high-performance vehicles zooming around AmericanAirlines Arena, over the causeway to Dodge Island, down Biscayne Boulevard and — in what sounds like a non-starter — through the PortMiami Tunnel.

Routes and logistics are being discussed with the hope of bringing a race to downtown by 2020, according to events director Vicente Betancourt, Miami’s film and culture administrator. But everything is preliminary, he said.

“It’s like the Super Bowl of auto racing,” said Betancourt. “Hopefully we can make it happen.”

NASCAR, the uniquely American form of stock-car racing, holds its season-ending championship races at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Unlike NASCAR, which races almost entirely on ovals, Formula One’s series is comprised of 15 road courses and five courses laid out on city streets.

Under new ownership and looking to expand its U.S. presence, Formula One has been talking much of the year about adding races to its lone United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. An event in Miami, or possibly Las Vegas or New York, has been publicly discussed. They haven’t mentioned a possible return to the site of their most recent United States run, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The United States Grand Prix ran there using a road course that included part of the oval used for the Indianapolis 500 from 2000-2007.

On Nov. 7, the racing company filed for new trademarks on races in the three locations, according to AutoGuide.com. And the following day, Sean Bratches, Formula One’s managing director of commercial operations, was in Miami with a team meeting with Mayor Francis Suarez and checking out city streets. Betancourt, who began talking to racing organizers in May while visiting France during the week of the Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix, said Bratches left Miami with much still unsettled, including the circuit.

“They had their track engineers come down and look at the streets,” he said, adding that any inclusion of the PortMiami Tunnel was out of the question. “We’ve got to see if it works and what it would cost them to actually bring it out. I think the ball is pretty much in their court.”

Miami has hosted street races since 1983 over some of the same streets being looked at by Formula One. Two years ago, the city hosted the Miami ePrix, an electric automobile race under the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile’s Formula E racing series that ended up being a one-time event.

For Formula E vehicles, which travel at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, the city erected barricades and shut down streets around a 1.3-mile track. Some of the barricades remained up for the Ultra music festival two weeks later. Formula One cars can top 200 miles per hour on a roughly four-mile circuit.

Though the event is still mostly an idea, opponents already have emerged. Last month, a conservative state politics group known as Better Florida Alliance took out advertisements in the Miami Herald warning of “months of construction,” “street closures” and “big-time noise pollution.” The ads stated that “elected officials and their corporate fat cat friends want to turn our taxpayer-funded streets into a race track,” perhaps an allusion to the hefty amounts some cities and states pay to court the race.

“I was very blunt with [Formula One] and said we’d love to entertain it but we have no money,” Betancourt said.

Michael Hernandez, communications director for County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, said the county, which owns and runs the port, has not had any discussions with the city or Formula One about a race. Formula One representatives didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.

Tuesday Practice/Testing
Position Driver Team Time Laps
1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:37.768 | 99
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:38.066 | 109
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.551 | 123
4 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:39.270 | 137
5 Lance Stroll Williams 1:39.580 | 29
6 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:39.762 | 115
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:39.803 | 85
8 Nikita Mazepin Force India 1:39.959 | 90
9 Robert Kubica Williams1:41.296 | 100
10 Sean Gelael Toro Rosso 1:41.428 | 117
11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:41.681 | 97
12 Oliver Turvey McLaren 1:41.914 | 105

Wednesday Practice/Testing
Position Driver Team Time Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:37.551 | 118
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:38.490 | 141
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:38.736 | 132
4 Sergio Perez Force India 1:38.818 | 52
5 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:39.148 | 72
6 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:39.444 | 109
7 Robert Kubica Williams 1:39.485 | 28
8 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:39.782 | 105
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:39.810 | 124
10 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:39.947 | 86
11 Charles Leclerc Sauber 1:40.666 | 149
12 Lando Norris McLaren 1:41.714 | 118
13 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:43.345 | 61
14 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:44.827 | 63

Mercedes has now joined Ferrari in threatening to quit Formula 1 after the 2020 season.

Earlier, Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne said that if Liberty Media proceeds with its plans for the 2021 engine rules and budget cap, the Italian team could withdraw and race elsewhere.

And now, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has admitted he is not happy following one year of Liberty leadership.

"Nothing," he said when asked by Kronen Zeitung newspaper to point out a Liberty-inspired highlight of 2017. "Doing erratic actions like Michael Buffer in Austin does not make the sport any better."

When told that Liberty just wants closer racing, a better engine and cost controls, Wolff scoffed.

"But we do not see any vision," he said. "Nobody knows where the journey is going. All we know now is that sales and profits have fallen sharply."

So when asked if Mercedes could join Ferrari in its F1 quit threat, Wolff didn’t back down.

"Such a scenario is quite conceivable," he said. "Just as it is for Ferrari. If we do not see what Formula 1 stands for, then we have to ask ourselves the difficult question: not if but where do we want to operate in motorsport at the highest level?"

SANTANDER CONFIRMS END OF FERRARI SPONSORSHIP

Reuters

29 November, 2017

2 Comments

As we reported earlier this week Santander is ending its long-running sponsorship of Ferrari and Formula 1 at the end of this season and teaming up with the Champions League instead, the Spanish bank confirmed on Wednesday.

The announcement came in a statement confirming a new three-year partnership with the UEFA competition.

The Statement said: “At the end of this year, Santander will conclude its successful sponsorship of the Formula One racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, which it has supported for the last eight seasons.”

“The bank will also conclude its corporate sponsorship agreements with F1 which have helped increase Santander’s brand recognition around the world over the last 11 years.”

Ferrari finished runner-up in this year’s Formula One championship.

Santander’s sponsorship of Formula 1’s oldest and most successful team coincided with the arrival there in 2010 of Spanish double world champion Fernando Alonso, who has been at McLaren for the past three years.

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he is battling a personal dilemma over his future in Formula 1, because he wants to continue but he doesn't want to keep missing out on other life experiences.

The world champion's contract with Mercedes runs out at the end of next season, and it is expected that discussions for a new two-year contract will begin over the next few weeks.

But while it is thought highly likely Hamilton and Mercedes will agree terms, the Briton confesses that part of him wants to start exploring other opportunities away from the race track.

"It's like the weather. It's about trying to find the balance," said Hamilton during an interview with selected media including Motorsport.com about his mindset regarding his future.

"I've currently got another year with the team and I do want to continue. But, I'm at that point where there's that question."

Hamilton is attracted to doing things with life well away from the race track, but is conflicted because he knows that if he does quit F1, he is going to miss it.

"You can't come back to F1. Whatever happens, you are gonna miss it. If it's next year, if it's five years from now, you're gonna miss it when you finish.

"There's a saying you stay as long as you can – I'm not quite sure about that exactly, but there is a lot of life left beyond it. There are things that I've missed in life.

"I was talking to my best friend the other day about things that I do envy or look forward to, like living in one place, getting a routine, that's my gym, I have game night with my friends here, my family.

"Each year I stay in the sport, I delay those things. But from 40 onwards there's so much time for it."

Hamilton said that not missing out on other things he wants to do in life was brought in to reality by the recent death of an aunt.

"My auntie died from cancer and on her last day she said, 'I've worked every day with the plan of stopping one day and doing all these different things, and then I ran out of time.' So I'm battling with that in my mind.

"So I do live my life day-by-day and try to live it to the maximum. So that's what I'm fighting with – I want to keep racing but there are these other things I want to do. I want my cake and I want to eat it. I just want to make sure I choose the right time, but I think I will."

Hamilton says that he has no interests in a political career, but says there are many cultural things he wants to get involved in.

"I think I am a big part of the culture I bring to F1, where I'm from. Appreciating that more in other locations. Admiring that… The charity stuff I've done before, but I'm really starting to focus on the future as my time comes to an end in F1, putting things in place for that part of my future."

He added: "I have discovered these other strengths and qualities and I don't mind going to start in a company at the bottom and working my way up, if that's what I end up doing.

"I don't mind doing an internship. I'm excited about learning new crafts. It's exciting, it's risky and I like the idea of that. It's different if you're worrying about pension and you don't have the financial stability. So that helps. It's just because it's exciting. What am I going to do?"

Toro Rosso trialling a Halo with a winglet mounted on top, in an effort to mitigate the aerodynamic consequences of the safety device. Teams are permitted a fairing around the halo with a 20mm tolerance.

Lance Stroll is set for his LMP2 debut, having been confirmed in Jackie Chan DCR JOTA’s lineup for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

As predicted by Sportscar365 last week, the Williams F1 driver will join Felix Rosenqvist, Robin Frijns and Daniel Juncadella at the wheel of one of the team’s Oreca 07 Gibson entries in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.

Lewis Hamilton has comfortably come out on top in Autosport's Formula 1 team principals' top 10 drivers poll for 2017, with Esteban Ocon impressing at number five.

In what has become an end-of-season tradition, Autosport asked all 10 F1 teams' bosses to rank their top 10 drivers, based on on-track performances over the course of this year's 20 races.

Points are awarded using F1's scoring system (25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1) to generate an overall winner.

Votes are kept secret to ensure team bosses are willing to take part and can give their honest opinion of drivers up and down the grid.

Hamilton, who won nine races this season on his way to a fourth world title, collected an impressive 233 points from a possible maximum of 250 to retain top spot.

Though it is one point short of last year's tally, the number of teams on the grid this term has been reduced by one, following Manor's departure, making this year's score even more dominant.

It is Hamilton's fourth successive victory in the poll.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who secured two wins this year, is 90 points adrift in second.

Hamilton's closest rival in the championship Vettel slotted into third, two points shy of Verstappen but two places higher than last year.

But Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas is at the foot of the top 10, one place lower than he was in this ranking when at Williams in 2016.

Mercedes protege Esteban Ocon is the highest new entry, coming in at number five, one place behind Daniel Ricciardo but ahead of world champions Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

Ocon has had an impressive season for Force India, scoring points in all but two races to finish eighth in the drivers' standings, 13 adrift of team-mate Sergio Perez.

Nico Hulkenberg is the other new entry, at number nine, with Renault team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr finishing two points ahead in joint seventh in the poll.

Perez drops out of the top 10, along with last year's world champion Nico Rosberg, who retired at the end of 2016.

POS DRIVER POINTS CHANGE
1 Lewis Hamilton 233 -
2 Max Verstappen 143 -
3 Sebastian Vettel 141 +2
4 Daniel Ricciardo 112 -
5 Esteban Ocon 73 New entry
6 Fernando Alonso 65 -
7= Kimi Raikkonen 49 -
7= Carlos Sainz Jr 49 +2
9 Nico Hulkenberg 47 New entry
10 Valtteri Bottas 39 -1