[Frost__2001]

Formula 1 Not Coming Back to U.S. for 2008
July 14, 2007
Source: Insideline

LONDON — Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George confirmed on July 12 that the U.S. Grand Prix won't be held next year. IMS and Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone had set the day as the deadline to reach an agreement but did not do so. Ecclestone was quoted by Reuters as saying, "Let's see if we miss America." No other U.S. venue is set to hold a Grand Prix event instead of Indianapolis, Ecclestone said.

The U.S. Grand Prix had been held at the Indianapolis circuit since 2000 after eight years in which there had been no United States Grand Prix event. George said his organization and F1 mutually agreed to discontinue the event, which has not been a big profit center for Indy, and will "leave the door open for a potential future date."

This year's U.S. Grand Prix was held on June 17, and rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton of the U.K. won the event.

What this means to you: American fans look like the losers in this one.

[CanadaSVT]

Been there for F1 once and many times for Indy. Wasn't very good place for F1. I think the tire fiasco in '04, where only about 4 cars participated in the race killed it for any American fan support. Montreal rocks!

[NefCanuck]

Tony George lives to cut off his nose to spite his face it seems. It was his insistence of being the "uberchef" of open wheel racing that lead to the split and the creation of CART & IRL and now he's screwed US F1 fans.

The only reason he hasn't screwed the pooch WRT NASCAR is because NASCAR will simply walk away and find another venue and fill it if they can't have the Brickyard b/c of Tony's stupid human tricks...

NefCanuck

[oldeguy]

No great loss, unless F1 decides it's to expensive to come to North America for one race. Apparently, there is a track in Utah that is up to F1 standards

[FocusGuy7476]

I'm not really surprised F1 is gone from Indy, when one race in NA basically sells out and the other barely has the stands filled it would be a logical decision to cut that one race and move it another location. I heard Singapore and Korea two new location being considered for 2009.

They are also removing the French GP for next year, and were considering Sliverstone if the track wasn't updated, but that won't happen cause British fans would be pissed at that.

[K_OS]

The US Grand Prix is great exposure for most of the manufacturers that are trying to sell cars. Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari count the US as there #1 market and I'm sure that they are pushing Bernie to put another grand prix in the US wether that happens at Indy or another track is still to be seen.

Laterz :)