Funny thing is Bernie doesn't give a toss about that.. in fact, thats exactly the reaction he wants to see... it puts pressure on the people on the other side of the table so he doesn't have to get up from his child eating booster seat and apply pressure himself..

Before everyone jumps on Bernie or marmots or plywood, are there any reasons anywhere for its removal? Just in case there's another issue, like they've discovered oil in the river or something.

(And I would SO go to a North Korean GP. They've got streets wider than circuits.)

I guess Bernie won't stop until each and every oil baron has his own GP.....

Really, the worst part of this whole decision is the absolute slap in the face to the North American F1 fan. First, you remove Indy, now you remove Montreal. What is the FIA and Bernie trying to say to the F1 Fan in NA. We don't care about you? Don't watch us? Give us more money and you get your race back? How big can the ego get for these guys. Are the auto makers such as Honda, Toyota, BMW, and Mercedes going to make any noise about this decision, not having an F1 race in North America? Just unfathomable.

I agree, it seems like Formula One is now only about politics and greed. It just gets worse and worse. All the news from day to day is bad, hardly anything about RACING ITSELF.


NO RACE IN NORTH AMERICA?????


WTF???

I also read this morning after 2009 they're looking to "homologate" engine power. "They" are ruining F1, whether it's making boring Tilke tracks in the desert, Ferrari-biased rulings, dumb safety car/pit rules, killing V-10's, small displacement...

Again, I have to say, "why not just let them run karts?". Basically where it's headed.

/ hoped to go to Montreal next year
// "oh well"
/// try to like Bernie, but he keeps doing dumb crap like this
//// Something is wrong when you have two events that pull in 100,000+ people and you can't figure out how to make money from it
///// Something is doubly wrong when you decide to IGNORE that potential!

Yeah,Its gonna be great when the grandstands are empty in the last race of 09. Couldnt they atleast keep the last race in some country that has heritage in motorsport(Oil is not that)

great post.

Politics and greed certainly seem to play a larger role than the past. Bernie's greed, quite frankly has gotten out of hand. No matter how many tickets or hot dogs a promoter sells, its impossible to make money or even break even hosting F1. This is just wrong imo.

"RACING ITSELF" - I did read y'day that Nick is very happy to keep his BMW seat




Slap me down, how could I forget about AD and its rich racing history

This sucks

little bitches.

Astonishingly shocking decision. Deeply upset.
I've never been to Canada, wanted to go at some point, but always too busy.
Now I regret not finding the time.

I'm really upset for Canadian F1 fans, that are truly nice, knowledegable and wonderful people.

The largest car market in the world (North America) and no race, boy I bet the likes of BMW and Mercedes and over the moon about this news.

On the fans side, Canada nearly always throws up great races, it’s one of my favourite rounds of the year, still I’m sure yet another street race will more than compensate for it

That was one of my fave tracks! Always exciting!! This realllly sucks!!!!

As Cindy Lauper once sang... "Money changes everything". You can kiss many sponsors good-bye with this move as they have lost the North American market and the N-A fan base will shortly follow. As a fan of this sport, I must say my interest is quickly drifting away, as with any sport, when money takes over as the principal driver, the core and heart of the sport is lost.

So long F1, it has been a lot of fun watching over the years but I can no longer be a fan of a sport where GREED rules above all. Have fun in Abu-Dahbi trying to sell energy drinks to shieks!

Wasn't this supposed to be a WORLD championship?

They say they want F1 to go green: so they organise night races, with the huge light spending they need. All very green (don't know if it's the correct expresion in english).

Now they say the WC has to be a true WC... oh yeah.

But I still believe it will be back on calendar after digging deep into piggy bank...

At this rate Bernie should build a track in the middle of the desert that can be reconfigured every 2 weeks and a they could just race there every 2 weeks. They then would only need to build luxury boxes around the pit complex no need for stands. Maybe even a runway and helipad so the "Fans" can fly in for the race and fly out within just a few hours. This setup would allow for Bernie and his friends/fans to move easily around the track and not have to mingle with the lowly old race fan who would normally be at the race for a fun afternoon.

The only hope is that this is just a pawn in Bernies game to get the number of GP's increased.

Christ on a pony.

I attended my first GP in Montreal this year. It was wonderful.
TV relays like 1% of the actual visceral experience of being there.
Cheesy Poofs showed me the best spots to view the circuit.
Epic quali on Saturday.
BMW & Kubica's first win on Sunday.
Great atmosphere all weekend.
So glad I attended now.
So sad it's going to be my last.
As wonderful as it was I can't see myself getting on plane to give that tiny putz another nickel.

Montreal is great. I'll be back race or not.


Bernie/Max just die already

If money could talk, it would smell and sound like Bernie Eccle$tone, and it would $tink really really bad!

I think it's really absurd to say it's no WorldChampionship because there's no North American race in 2009, there's still Brazil in it, isn't? And that's on the other side of the globe like the North is, but to see Canada go, is a real shame!

It always (almost always) had the most exciting races, also very much fun to watch and it has a real history with F1.

Sometimes I wished that Bernie wasn't involved in the Great Train Robery, but looking how he is robing the fans from they're fun tracks....... this is a whole NEW Great Robery! The man never loses his tricks.....

Please send him some brain............

one of the best races of the season
track was abit gnarly, but that provided a challenge, spectators seem happy with the place, cant remmber much moaning from the teams/media

once heard you love someone, or something for their faults, this circuit isnt perfect by far, but maybe thats why we love it

Might as well stop with the F1 Championship and start naming it F1 Asia Series... It's going to happen. America deserves to see more F1 and the teams will surely want to have a market in North America...

I don't like this at all...

Buford, cover your ears!

This could be a great opportunity for North American open-wheel racing to re-assert itself. Much as I'm no Tony George fan sometimes the devil you know is better than Ecclestone. I think we've all had quite enough of Bernie's bullshit on this side of the pond.

Toronto got it's GP back thanks to the Andretti's. How's about IRL steal away F1's slot in la belle province?!?!

Dude seriously, you'd be counting on Tony George to do something intelligent.

I think more likely is a Sprint/Nextel/Winston Cup date, with ISC/NASCAR somehow pulling in more of the profit than normal.

An ALMS/IRL weekend would be cool thought, and I'd probably go up to Montreal for that, but it's not F1. I saw an article estimating this will be a $350 million dollar loss to the Montreal economy.

On the plus side this sentence may never have been typed before.

this is just the prologue.

When Donington fumbles the ball.......

Dear Bernie.

Screw you. Asshole.

Your former friend, Bogman

Bernie's Song:


Money makes the world go around
The world go around
The world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go 'round.

A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound
A buck or a pound
A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go around,
That clinking clanking sound
Can make the world go 'round.

Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money money money money money
Money money

Don't I know it but sometimes ya just gotta dream!

Who know's? If Forsythe & Kalkhoven can stand to be next to the guy then maybe there's hope.

It's all about the money, Formula One is just a vehicle on which to hang the buckets to collect our cash..........................................

Again - it's about budget vs revenue. The auto manufactures already have solid metrics which tell them that they can count on X amount of cars sold every year in America. That could be a core budget - over that is growth - developing new customers which is only a small portion of the overall budget.

The GROWTH will be huge in these emerging markets - some passing the core market for the US even. That's huge cash and THAT is why not one manufacture is standing up for the US or in the way of these decisions.

On a family trip to Montreal a few years back we stopped to take in the circuit. It wasn't a race weekend so we were able to drive on parts of it and just take in the atmosphere. What a lovely place. Later we drove up to Gilles' hometown and enjoyed the small but very interesting museum there dedicated to him. I loved every minute.

...I've been looking for reasons to walk away from F1 and have had plenty recently. The last few laps at Spa almost changed my mind, but this may be the final straw. I could really give a crap about a sport that features an increasing number of races at faceless, featureless, interchangeable tracks with no racing history, in places I have no interest in ever visiting. I realize that the only races I really look forward to seeing each year are the places with a past--Spa, Monza, Monaco, etc. I wonder which one will go next.

What's the point in sport anymore? They just want Money Money Money barely any of the teams are there for the racing, for the manufacturers its about selling cars.

Who wants to see the best drivers at the best circuits anyway

Scandal, scandal, scandal... 18 races again

wonder if theres enough room todo a big weekend. ALMS, IRL, NSC(or other nascar series) and for shits and giggles CORR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjzfg-ieDlM&feature=related

I don't think NASCAR would ever share a track with IRL, and probably not ALMS since they own a competing sports car series.

I wish Bernie and Max would just go away.

I said the same thing at Finnish F1 forum and got banned

North Korea? I think you mean South Korea...

I seem to remember BMW being pretty pissed about the US GP being dropped from the Calender last year,
I see what you are saying about growth markets but no manufacturer in their right mind would want to lose presence in their core markets.

How many times to you hear WRC Manufactures go on about focusing on the core market when talking about events such as New Zealand?

I'm sure there will be unhappy voices in boardrooms in Japan and Germany

North Korea will be fine, assuming Kim Jong is willing to pay. Just build new track in the middle of nowhere, with gigantic facilities for Bernie´s VIP guests, and off you go.

Someone posted that the tarmac "debacle" helped end the Montreal race. Poppycock. I was there the three days and watched at the hairpin. There was no "debacle." Charlie Whiting and the lads spent a few minutes checking the temporary repairs and then the sessions were given the green light. The races were great, no one suffered due to the tarmac repairs. Hardly a debacle.

Now, empty stands at new venues in the far east, etc? Now THAT'S a debacle.

This has pretty much killed any F1 fandom I had left.

No need, there's unused roads and 46 storey hotels for the trillions of tourists that don't go.

So, still no reasons? It's not been replaced by anything, and Bernie is always keen to ensure that there are more races on the calendar rather than fewer. Maybe it's a typo.

Greed

This is a sick joke. How can they keep boring tracks like the Hungaroring, poorly attended races like Bahrain or China, while dropping exciting well attended races like Montreal?

Relax....

How many times have we seen the next years calender published with various venues missing that somehow appear by the time the season starts.

Because of the sanction fees. Unfortunately now that F1 is owned by CVC and CVC have a massive loan to repay to RBS, they need to fill the schedule with the most profitable events.

Well fcuk you too, formula one....

Apologies if already posted, it seems the Canadian GP organisers didn't know this was coming:

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news...007173403.shtml