The recent dropping of F1 Canada Grand Prix had a backlash of angry Canadian fans venting their anger online, and even local Canadian newspaper depicting the F1 Supremo as being ‘greedy’ in reports and cartoons.

It is reported Bernie asked for a reported $175 million for a five year deal and the organizers didn’t budge.

The 78 year old President and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration defended that his offer was a ’steal’ compared to the other GP around the world.

Bernie Ecclestone

“We do business worldwide and nobody else thinks we’re unreasonable. We’ve got a queue of people that want races. So we can’t be unreasonable. Everyone in Formula One loves Montreal. I said to organizers you can come to my office, pull any contract out of that drawer for all the overseas races, take any one of them, cross out the name and put your name, and that’s what we’ll do. Because what was offered them was less than we get anywhere else in the world.”

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Current F1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, I think has too much time on his hand.

He earlier this year raced against a jet plane, now he will race in his McLaren MP4-23 car against Britain’s triple Olympic cycling gold medalist Chris Hoy.

Dubbed “man and machine” race, the event at the ‘Race of Champions’ which will be held this coming December at Wembley Stadium, will prove to be a unique race.

Who will win? … Hamilton of course, I’ll wager anyone against me. How about drinks on the loser eh?

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Missing some F1 action? Well how about some A1GP held recently at Chengdu. A1GP is unlike F1, where the race format for each car represents their country rather than constructor.

Each car is identical and it all depends on the driver skill and team effort that will be the deciding factor who will win the race. The A1GP cars are designed by Ferrari.

Under the hood is a 4.5-litre Ferrari V8 engine that is capable of delivering up to 600 bhp. A1GP cars can go to 160km/h from zero in under three seconds and a top speed of 300km/h for your info.

But still I prefer the sound of an F1, its totally unique. I can’t wait for next season to start.

Next A1GP race will be on 23rd November 2008 in Malaysia to be held at the Sepang International Circuit.

Official Site: http://www.a1gp.com

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CEO of F1 Management and Administration Bernie Ecclestone says that he wants Chinese Grand Prix to stay put after China GP officials reveals they are considering of pulling out of F1.

Bernie responded to the media saying, “We have a contract until 2010 with an option for five years after that. We will talk to them about it, and meet up and see how we can help them.”

Well I do hope China GP do sticks around. With its enormous and growing fanbase, the possibility is endless.

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After its last brave attempts by Canadian officials to save the Canadian Grand Prix, they can now move on and put closure regarding the whole issue.

There were a glimmer of hope as the authorities plead their case to business owners and F1 fans by opting to raise hotel taxes.

This is so they could raise funds to continue hosting the F1 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

But it seems the plans wasn’t feasible enough to hotel owners and fans, as the current prices itself was exorbitantly expensive already.

Well Goodbye Canada GP … RIP, it was good while it lasted.

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When Chinese Grand Prix contract expires after 2010, it seems the China GP official are considering of the contract renewal.

They have doubts on the renewal as the huge cost of hosting the F1 event and slow sales of the tickets have saw their profits dipping and just breaking even only.

The officials also cited that their main sponsor Sinopec, which might not renew their sponsorship as another factor.

China officials GP added that they wanted a “win-win situation” and it all hinges on cooperation on both side.

If indeed China GP dropped out of the F1 calender, it won’t be the first. France GP officials withdraw their F1 status for next season, after citing cost as the main concern.

But it seems venues for the F1 in the Asian region doesn’t seem to lack any interested tenders as Singapore joined the F1 ranked this year, while there are plans to stage South Korea GP in 2010 and Indian GP in 2011.

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Recently Force India F1 leaves the comfort of Ferrari and tied up with McLaren for their future engine supplies.

McLaren Applied Technologies and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines will now supply Force India Formula1 Team VJM02 cars with engines powered and built by Mercedes-Benz.

In details, McLaren will supply Force India with “gearboxes, hydraulic systems and Mercedes-built engines” plus “operational support” and the new “kinetic engine recovery system” (KERS).

The deal also allows the Indian funded team to have access to access to McLaren’s network of suppliers.

Force India F1 team was formed by Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol who bought the Spyker F1 team for $88 million back in October 2007.

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At the Professional Motorsport World awards ceremony held in Cologne, Germany on Tuesday night, Formula One’s first ever floodlit night race last September in Singapore was named “Motorsport Facility of the Year”.

The Singapore Grand Prix circuit beat the other nominated competition such as Europe Grand Prix Valencia circuit, Toyota Racing Development’s chassis engineering building in Cologne and the high-tech equipped motor racing facility in Sweden.

The F1 leg in Singapore was a commercial success and received accolades all around the world for integrating the circuit layout to the surrounding bustling city atmosphere.

Other winners at the award is Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost who who the “Team principal of the year” award. He led his team to sixth place in the F1 constructors’ championship.

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Giedo Van der Garde is the 2008 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion and he is getting his F1 test with ING Renault F1 Team.

He is expected to take a shot at the F1 car on 17-18th November at the Barcelona circuit.

The 23 year old driver had a fine season in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series Champion where he won 5 races.

Currently Van der Garde has signed to GP2 Series driving where he’ll drive under iSport International team flag for the next season of GP2 Asia Series season. He has an option on the 2009 GP2 Series season

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DOB: April 25, 1985
Country: Netherlands (Rhenen)
Current Team: GFH Team iSport

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At the FIA General Assembly annual meeting in Paris recently, it was election time for vacated posts in the FIA.

Basically the FIA General Assembly is made up of FIA’s member clubs and national organisations presidents who votes for possible nominees to get the post.

The top job as the new FIA Deputy President for Sport goes to Nick Craw. He’s the President of the Automobile Competition Committee for the US. A former driver and now turn board member and on the many management committee on his portfolio.

The following people was also elected by the FIA General Assembly:

• Vice President of the FIA for Sport - Mohammed Ben Sulayem ATCUAE (United Arab Emirates)
• Member of World Motor Sport Council - Enrico Gelpi ACI (Italy)
• Vice President of the FIA for Mobility and the Automobile - Jorge Rosales ACA (Argentina)
• Member of World Council for Mobility and the Automobile - Karen Bryden AASA (South Africa), Tim Shearman CAA (Canada), Rudolph Zumbühl TCS (Switzerland) and Augusto Lagman AAP (Phillipines)
• FIA Honorary Deputy President - Marco Piccinini ACM (Monaco)
• President of the FIA Academy - Rosario Alessi ACI (Italy)
• FIA Representative to the European Commission for the interests of motor sport - Carlos Barbosa, President of ACP (Portugal)

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