Quote :

formula 1 supremo bernie ecclestone has confirmed donington's hopes of hosting the british grand prix next year are over after the circuit failed to raise the funds to complete its redevelopment plans.
Donington had until last monday to sort the financial situation, having failed to raise a £135 million bond last week.
"there's no donington. They've missed the deadline which we kept extending for them," ecclestone told reporters in abu dhabi.
"it's unfortunate for them, to be honest with you. It was the credit crunch that caused them to be in trouble because their intentions were good, that's for sure.
"it's bad for tom (wheatcroft) because he's been an old friend for a long time."
ecclestone insisted he is still in talks with silverstone to reach a deal for the 2010 race and suggested the ball was on the british track's court.
"we're talking. A deal can be done if they want to," he said, adding there were no differences of opinion over contract details.
"there isn't actually. As far as i'm concerned, no problems."
the f1 boss also praised abu dhabi officials for their work with the state-of-the-art yas marina circuit that is hosting its first race this weekend.
"what they've done is unbelievable. It was in april 2006 i saw and spoke to the crown prince, and at that time we didn't start to discuss a race.
"but during dinner we came up with the idea that maybe we should have a race here, and it's magic what they've done.
"i never thought it would be finished like this. I thought bits and pieces would be done. I said to them 'i hope we're not going to be racing on a building site.'
"but no one is going to top this... Although i'll be happy if someone does the same."

Hurrah, Donington is saved (assuming they can put some tarmac back where they'd dug it up already).

Sauce ?

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/1 ... _doningtons_f1_hopes.html

Yay

Quote from tristancliffe :

Yay

yay a load of contractors left unpaid and out of work... huurraaaaaahhhh rejoice!

It's a shame. Although I would have preferred the GP to remain at Silverstone, having 2 F1 standard circuits in the UK would have been very good for British motorsport in general.

Current f1 cars demands tracks like Istanbul and Spa, not whatever they could destroy donnington into.

Quote from heson :

Current f1 cars demands tracks like Istanbul and Spa, not whatever they could destroy donnington into.

eerr... monaco?

if they raced at donington how it is now, it would be an awesome track with all the bumps and such making a challenge for the drivers.

however the overtaking opertunitys would be hard to find.

Since when has Donnington been notably bumpy?

Anyway, Bernie needs to be put in the old people's home, he does nothing but harm.

Yay, Northamptonshire keeps F1! W00t! I live like only an hour or less away from Silverstone! Still, a shame that Donnington has failed to redevelop.

Quote from Intrepid :

yay a load of contractors left unpaid and out of work... huurraaaaaahhhh rejoice!

I think you looked to deep into tristans reply.

I think he's more celebrating over the fact the track will hopefully be rebuilt back into it's original configurations? Although i may be wrong, and he hates donington with a passion

Quote from 5haz :

Since when has Donnington been notably bumpy?

Anyway, Bernie needs to be put in the old people's home, he does nothing but harm.

i kinda figured since its not that new, im sure it probably would for an f1 car though.

Quote from shaun463 :

Yay, Northamptonshire keeps F1! W00t! I live like only an hour or less away from Silverstone!.

Theres no guarentee of that either.

Take it to something even more hilarious, like Brands Hatch or make a city track in London.. that seems to be Bernie's favourite trick.

Never understood that, we have so many permanent circuits in the UK, why the heck do we need a street circuit? And all F1 street circuits will be inevitably compared to Monaco, In which case London will probrably lose out going by the UK's last street circuit effort which was in Birmingham, the most glamourous city in Europe.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Take it to something even more hilarious, like Brands Hatch or make a city track in London.. that seems to be Bernie's favourite trick.

now brands would be good :P especcially due to the fact i live like 40 mins away lol

No thanks, we don't need another circuit ruined. :rolleyes:

Cadwell!!!!!

Good one, its been a while since we saw flying F1 cars.

Lydden Hill? Todt wouldn't be keen seeing as its Mclaren territory.

well only if it was kept on the original gp layout ofcourse lol, lydden lol i could imagine that, just wident the current layout, then they really would have somethign to moan about when it comes to the track

Quote from DejaVu :

I think you looked to deep into tristans reply.

I think he's more celebrating over the fact the track will hopefully be rebuilt back into it's original configurations? Although i may be wrong, and he hates donington with a passion

I only hate Donington because my race was cancelled due to rain - flooding around the new F1 tunnel - and I was pre-booked for the replacement round. I didn't get to race there.

It's a wonderful, wonderful circuit as it is (was?), and I'm glad it's got a bigger chance of staying un-ruined

And don't let them anywhere near Cadwell - not that they could ever develop it to F1 standards. The most awesome of awesome circuits.

Maybe Rockingham would be a good place to host F1. The facilites aren't far off. It's a bit like Indy, but with more character (on the infield - obviously the Indy oval has way more character and history than the UK's attempt). And it wouldn't be ruined by making it wider with more runoff; because it's a bit naff as it is (even though I go quite well there generally).

I remember seeing the proposal for Rockingham in Autosport way back in about 1998/9, I remember it being very bullish about the GP coming to Rockingham, its amazing how the standards for F1 tracks have changed since then.

rockinghams coming to LFS too.