As I mentioned in one of My recent Articles , Mr Bernie Ecclestone Seems All Too keen on removing Some Historic Grand Prix Tracks off The Formula 1 World Championship Calendar . And In The Process Bringing New Tracks In the Arab Countries And The Middle East . I already said Im all for These New Grand Prix Circuits However Im not Happy About Our Tradition Being Removed In the forms of Other circuits .
We have the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Removed Which is A fantastic Race to watch Guaranteed . With A Huge History In Motorsport . We Need A US GP .
There Is Imola At San Marino Which Was Taken Off Two seasons Ago . Although Not One of The longest Serving Formula 1 Circuits Around It Still Has A History Of Producing Monumental Races , This One Could see A Return One day .
Now i Know Suzuka And Fuji Motor Speedway In Japan Are Alternating Between themselves Every Two years, thats Great , Both have A Great History and deserve Their place On The Formula 1 Calendar .
Hockenheimring In Germany , Grober Preis Von Deutschland , Makes It Return This year After A Two Year Absence , Im Pleased to see It back In The Mix .
There have also been rumours About Other Grand Prix Circuits Biting The Dust , Silverstone And Magny-Cours Namely . These Rumours Seem to have Died down For Silverstone with the New Planning Permission To Regenerate The Circuit Getting The Green Light . Magny-Cours Is Still Anyones Guess .
However The Grand Prix Im Least Happy To Hear About Being Removed From The Formula 1 Calendar Is Albert Park ,Melbourne.
Surely The Famous Season Opener Cant Be Removed Completely , I Know That Some Of The Local Residents Are Against The Grand Prix But Come On Its One Weekend out Of 52 . They Cant Hate The Sport That Much . It Could Be Moved To A More Permanent Location At The Phillip Island Circuit .
Adelaide Got Removed Back In 1995 After Damon Hill Won The Last Race There . It Was Only On The Calender For 10 Years, Keke Rosberg Winning The First Adelaide Grand Prix In 1985 .
Lets Have A look At What We Will Be Missing Without An Australian Grand Prix .
Albert Park Race Circuit , Melbourne , Australia :
First Graced The Formula 1 World Championship Calendar In 1996 , Damon Hill Being The First Man To Win The New Australian Grand Prix , After Becoming The Last To Win The Old Adelaide Grand Prix .
It Has Been The First Race On The Calendar Since It Began In '96 Except For The 2006 Season Where It Was Held At Bahrain .
5.303 Kilometres In Length ,3.295 Miles . 56 Laps . with The Drivers Covering A distance Of 191.110 Miles Over The Course Of A Race . Situated Just Outside Downtown Melbourne, Around The Outside Of Albert Park Lake .
Michael Schumacher , No Surprises , Has Won The Race The Most Times In The Modern Era Of Formula 1 Taking The Albert Park Cheqeured Flag 4 Times .
Ferrari Also Have The Most Wins Here With 6 Albert Park Wins Under Their Belt , Mclaren Are Closest To Ferrari With 4 Victories .
There Are 16 Corners To Albert Park . Many With Famous Names . Here Is A List From Corner 1 To 16 :
Jones , Brabham , White Ford , 4 , 5 , 6 and 7 un named . Lauda , Clark , 10 and 11 un named , Hill , Ascari , Stewart , Prost and 16 also un named .
Last Pole Sitter : Lewis Hamilton ,Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes , 2008 .
Last Winner: Lewis Hamilton , Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes , 2008
Lap Record : Michael Schumacher , Scuderia Ferrari , 2004 , 1m:24.125 .
Rubens Barrichello , David Coulthard And Giancarlo Fisichella Are The Only 3 Drivers To Have Raced In Every Albert Park Grand Prix . Michael Schumacher Would Of Been On That List Too If He Hadnt Broken His Leg At Silverstone in 1999 .
Its Another Fantastic Race Circuit That Deserves Its Place On The Formula 1 Calendar .
I dont See The Problem With Adopting The Same Routine That Japan Are Using . We Could Have Indy One Year Canada The Next . Magny-Cours One Year Paul Ricard The Next . And So On . It Would Mean We Get To See Our Favourite Race Circuits , New And Old As Well As Keeping Alive Formula 1's Amazing History .
I Personally Have Many Fond Memories Of Albert Park As Im Sure Most F1 Fans Will Too . It Would Be A Shame To Lose Such A Charismatic Place .
I Think This One Is more to do With The Local People Around Albert Park Than Bernie Ecclestone This Time . They Dont Like the noise and air Pollution That f1 Cars Cause , Hello but you do realise that your aircraft cause more pollution than an f1 car in both respects .And do they realise how lucky they are to have a Grand Prix So close to home , If only there was a GP circuit near my house i would be in my element .
Well Bleachers What Do You Think ? Should Albert Park Be Replaced By The Phillip Island Circuit ? Should It Stay And What Do You Think Of Bernie Ecclestone Taking Big Money Deals For New Circuits At The Expense Of Famous Well Loved Original Circuits ? Answers Below And Possibly Stars And POTD's .
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3 months ago
I'm getting sick of Bernie's antics. I am so gonna pursue him this weekend. Melbourne looks set to go. The locals hate it. The local council/parliament hates it. Environmentalists (don't get me going) really hate. Not just air pollution but noise pollution.
What the hell do they expect? Bernie will probably sell this to some new cuckoo land. The little grey monster will probabaly think an Iraq GP is a good idea, the track layout perfectly around land mines. You run wide and you die.
Actually, I hope he doesn't see that. he'd probabaly say it's a good idea.
3 months ago
Yeah Me too , my Article on Imola Really Got Me Thinking . Its Not Right . I do agree With New Circuits Of course I do . Its Just That there are some circuits that should have a big " DO NOT REMOVE " sign on them . Melbourne is like A carnival Atmosphere , beautiful women , Fat cat businessmen . Beautiful weather . its just an all Round Great GP And Ill Probably Like The Phillips Island GP But I Still Want Melbourne .
And I bet The Every Day Cars Cause More Pollution In Melbourne Over The Course Of 12 Months Than 20 f1 cars do In a weekend so there is no reason to moan about fuel and noise pollution , Their Airline Is Quantas for god sake The Largest Of The Skies (before the airbus ) and they cause massive pollution .
An Iraq GP Haha , Sounds Painful . But You Never Know with Bernie if someone offers him enough we could be watching an IraQi Gp In The Future .
3 months ago
Dont think we can really blame Bernie for this one ... Not really down to him, he is getting big pressure from the locals and is it really worth fighting it ? ... Not really I wouldnt have thought, I dont know how many people would want to fight to keep this circuit, maybe more than I suspect ? I dont know ... But I think on this one we can lay off the Ecclestone and give the locals some grief, ha ha !
3 months ago
Well thanks for the comment ben . i have had a little swipe at the locals in the article too ,
big bernie is the big man in formula 1 so its gotta be part down to him if this one stays . i would fight for it . but i dunno , a fair few aussies seem to want the melbourne gp to stay too .
you never know it could end up staying lets hope so .
3 months ago
Well Mark, to just negate your article, you need not fear for Albert Park as they have signed a deal to keep Albert Park on the calendar till 2015.
3 months ago
Great News , So it should stay on he calendar . thanks sara .
I bet the locals are very happy about that news ha ha .
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