Melbourne Grand Prix - should it stay or should it go?

[Alby_Green]

Interesting that the very parochial Herald Sun is running an online poll today about whether the GP should stay in Melbourne or not.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/opinion

I suspect that the result will be yes (to stay) but would be curious to see what some interstate residents think or how you would vote/did vote?

Mine was a no

[MightyEagles]

I think Melbourne should lose it and it come back here and combine it with the Clipsal 500.

[magpie in the 80's]

I think Melbourne should lose it and it come back here and combine it with the Clipsal 500.

so the F1 would be a support race to the clipsal 500

[devilsadvocate]

If Australia will lose the GP altogether as a result of Melbourne losing it - then it should stay in Melbourne.

If another city could pick it up, then take it off those Vic upstarts.

For the record, I'd love to see the F1 GP back in SA, but I don't think it's viable with the Clipsal currently being such a success. Perth could be a good option, particularly with Bernie's obsession with timezones and European audiences.

[MightyEagles]

I think Melbourne should lose it and it come back here and combine it with the Clipsal 500.

so the F1 would be a support race to the clipsal 500

Yeah, Have the clipsal 500 1 week with the F1s having a couple warm-up races. Then the next week have the Australian F1 GP with the V8's.

[BIG SEXY]

bugger the F1s. went to most of the F1 races and have been to all clipsals, f1 runs a distant 2nd IMHO
glad melbourne took it and hope they keep it so they keep on making losses and running 2nd rate events!

[heater31]

bugger the F1s. went to most of the F1 races and have been to all clipsals, f1 runs a distant 2nd IMHO
glad melbourne took it and hope they keep it so they keep on making losses and running 2nd rate events!

I agree while I went to the last in Adelaide and enjoyed it but now we have moved on and found something bigger and better. The drivers at clipsal are Australian and approachable plus the smaller scale support events are really interesting even if you only see them once a year.

The F1s on the other hand were a different kettle of fish. I managed to get access to the gate where the F1 drivers entered the circuit while some of them were genuinely nice blokes (M.Salo, O.Panis plus some others) but others were complete wankers and thought they could do what ever they want (I am looking at you Mr Jean Alesi )

[Snaggletooth Tiger]

I've now got that CLASH song going thru my head!

[devilsadvocate]

Good point heater.......I was going to call Jean Alesi a dodgy Frenchie wanker, which he is, but Olivier Panis was a great advertisement for the way elite athletes should behave and he's a Frog too.

Just another example for my book of non generalisations.

[Mr66]

Race contract extended to 2015 according to today's Herald-Sun.
Damn.
The only good thing about it is the FA-18s which are jaw-dropping.

[devilsadvocate]

It is good that it's staying in Australia.

It would be a disaster for Aussie sport to lose the F1 round. Lets hope Melbourne and their bumbling organisation team doesn't **** it up for the rest of Australia.

[devilsadvocate]

The decision has just been made to shift the British GP from Silverstone to Donnington. Madness by that wanker Eccleston. A decision purely motivated by greed. Donnington was last used for the European GP in 1992 and in terms of it's GP readiness it's still back in 1992. Unsafe, short and crap facilitied for drivers, corporates and the people that seem to matter least to everyone in the F1 world, the fans.

FU Ecclestone. Money grabbing edited by mods

On qualirfing, Webber has just gone 3rd fastest in the last 15 to qualify for the top 10 pole position shootout. Red Bull are looking decent this season.

keep the colourful wording to yourself devilsadvocate not on here please

[devilsadvocate]

Webber on the front row!!!!!!!!!!!

Got pipped by Kovalainen, but awesome effort.

[Cambridge Clarrie]

Great effort by Webber. He has the talent to win races/championships... Just needs the car and maybe Red Bull can provide it next season...

[devilsadvocate]

Great effort by Webber. He has the talent to win races/championships... Just needs the car and maybe Red Bull can provide it next season...

Agree! I hate it when people go on about him having the car when he was at Williams. He DIDN'T. Williams were rubbish when he was there. They could put it together for an awesome qualifying lap, but they couldn't complete a race to save their lives.

I also agree that Red Bull could provide it next season. Their improvement has been excellent since their inception. They're also proving themselves in the reliability stakes as well as speed. Currently sitting 4th in the constructors championships, they've got a great base for next season if they can up their funding a little.

[devilsadvocate]

All over for Webber already. Got jumped by Hamilton at the start then spun it on the 4th corner and is now circulating at the back.

Couthard is out of his final British GP on lap 1 in an incident with Vitel.

Hamilton is on fire all over the back of Kovalainen. Both McLarens are street ahead of the rest.