More voices in F1 say Sunday's Belgian GP should have been cancelled
Aug.31 - Formula 1 is considering tweaking the rules so that events like Sunday's farcical Belgian GP cannot be officially designated a "race".
Following criticisms from the drivers including Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, Alfa Romeo on Monday took the step of issuing a media statement to condemn the way the situation was handled.
The team said it would have been "dealt with a lot more appropriately by not having at all the 'race' we witnessed yesterday," Alfa Romeo declared.
"We hope lessons were learnt yesterday, lessons that will improve the way we operate in the future and that put the supporters of our sport in the position they deserve to be."
Alonso told DAZN that while he was tempted to "bite my tongue", he sees Sunday's events as more akin to a "marketing decision" than a competition.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali denied those sorts of claims - that considerations about contracts and money led to the farcical two-lap 'race' behind the safety car.
"It wouldn't have been an easy decision," former team owner Giancarlo Minardi told La Repubblica. "They needed to guarantee both safety and contracts.
"My first thought when watching the TV was 'I'm glad I'm not Michael Masi making this decision'."
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl, however, defended the F1 race director, declaring that although "nobody wanted a race like the one we got, in the end there are established rules and they were applied".
The German said it is mainly teams who were disadvantaged from a points-scoring point of view that are now "crying and complaining".
"I think we need to accept that when you are competing, days like this can happen," Seidl added.
Even the international media, however, was scathing of Formula 1's decisions.
"At Spa, Lewis Hamilton was right - opportunism and politics prevailed," declared La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Moves are now afoot to ensure that an official two-lap safety car 'race' cannot be claimed to have taken place in the same way in future.
"At our next meeting for next year, we'll look at a whole lot of things that you know we can all look at, to see what everyone wants," said the FIA's Masi.
Putting it more emphatically, McLaren supremo Zak Brown said: "The regulations state that after you do a few laps it can be called a race. I think that needs to be reviewed."
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This is not complicated:
You either, a) run a race, or b) cancel a race.
But you don't FAKE A RACE.
Refunds or (Monday racing/re run on different sunday, difficult with an already jam packed calendar), look at it this way fans come to watch , KNOWING that even watching motor racing can be extremely dangerous and that there's no litigating against the circuit should something happen ie a fatality, and yet they willingly stand metres from the track and accept that risk , but the weather and there all for court action/refunds blah blah blah come onnnnn ...
Yes Yes fans should come to races of course they should , i'm just saying, in the terms and conditions of buying a ticket, does it say refunds will be given in case of bad weather er no , and yet it rained from when thursday? with a forecast of heavy rain all weekend...!!
YOU PAYS YOUR MONEY AND TAKES YOUR CHANCE this aint amazon , or ebay , now this rant as it is, maybe they will give refunds but , the lawyers for the circuit, liberty, and fia really wont wanna touch it with a bargepole IMO
Course i could be wrong lol
Some of what you are saying is true, nobody is responsible for the weather and many outdoor event will specify that tickets are not be refunded in the event of weather based cancellation.
However, Formula One has now grown into a humongous international corporate money maker. This would never have happened in the absence of paying fans. A Formula One season is now a global annual event made up of individual and connected local events where great corporate money is made regardless of the weather.
Last Sunday drivers were paid, team bosses were paid, commentators were paid, tv networks were paid, heck, everybody was paid...
Could it be time to consider the refund problem from the fan’s perspective?
I have a lump in my throat TP...,So given the problem that some people are seeing , how dyo think the issue can be resolved, with day tickets/weekend tickets/some races completed /some cancelled/some privately owned tracks agreeing/and some state funded tracks not agreeing, a nightmare that's without the EU talking about noise and environmental pollution with regard to running the race/rerunning the race/country court actions a many i predict.
So its that easy is it? refunds for everyone
Easier in Bernies day , well course everything was easier 20/30yrs ago and there was only 16 races a year, problems were solved using suitcases full of cash etc, now we've the environmentalists to add into the equation, look at the Dutch gp and there nitrogen nightmare.
Out of interest, what part of my previous post was incorrect in your mind?
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