Ecclestone Aiming For N.Y. GP

March 30th, 2010

MELBOURNE, Australia — Bernie Ecclestone reckons there will be a United States Grand Prix near New York.

“I’m trying to do it for 2012,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport. “It would be in front of Manhattan, in New Jersey, with the skyscrapers in the background, 15 minutes from the heart of New York to the circuit, it would be marvelous.”

The question is, however, if NASCAR failed to penetrate the New York market, what chance does F-1 have?

- In an embarrassing design oversight, it turns out that the fuel tank in the Virgin VR-01 is too small. The drivers may be able to complete a race distance, but only by running the engine on very lean settings.

The team had to ask the FIA for special dispensation to change the size of the fuel tank as the rules do not permit such modifications during the season. The good news is that Virgin won’t have to pay.

“It will be the supplier whose issue it is who has agreed to redesign it, so it won’t cost the team anything,” Virgin magnate Richard Branson said. He declined to say who the supplier was.

- The FIA has started using an eye in the sky system to ensure the teams do no work to their cars while they are in impound. Rather than put all the cars in a single large pit garage overnight on Saturday, a camera is installed in each team’s garage. Sensors trigger the camera if there is any movement near the cars. With two new teams this year, garage space is at a premium and eliminating the overnight impound garage helps ease the demand for space.

- Nick Heidfeld has replaced Pedro de la Rosa as the chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers Ass’n. Now that the latter is racing for Sauber instead of being a reserve driver at McLaren he didn’t have the extra time needed for the GPDA duties. Conversely, former Sauber drier Heidfeld is Mercedes’ reserve man this season. GPDA directors Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso have also moved aside and have been replaced by Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa.

- Emerson Fittipaldi commissioned a unique series of watches to be made for the world champions who attended F-1’s 60th anniversary celebrations in Bahrain. Each watch was engraved with the driver’s name and the year he won the title.

- Lewis Hamilton has had plenty of people offering to be his new manager now that his father no longer does the job. Hamilton even got a voicemail from one Bernie Ecclestone joking that he was looking for work.

- Jaime Alguersuari’s teenage reign of F-1 has ended. After becoming the youngest driver ever to start a grand prix last July, he was still 19 years old when the 2010 season began. The Spaniard turned 20 on Thursday. Australia marked his 10th F-1 start.

- Michael Schumacher, 41, spent much of the race battling with Alguersuari far back in the pack. The youngster was clearly not awed by the seven-time champion. “I think on the one hand I’m quite happy as I had a long fight with Michael which was nice. I was under a lot of pressure, but I was able to keep him behind me for many laps until I made a small mistake at turn 13 with a few laps to go and he managed to pass me.”

- Australia marked the 450th GP for Ferrari and Shell. The two companies have renewed their partnership for another five years beginning in 2011. As part of the deal, Shell has sold 72 million Ferrari model cars! While their relationship dates back more than 60 years, Ferrari has not exclusively used Shell as Agip has also supplied the team with petroleum products.

- Virgin nearly bought Brawn instead of starting up its own team. “There was a stage where we came very close, but it didn’t happen,” Richard Branson revealed. “We are not used to writing out big checks for successful, established companies. We like to start things from scratch. We have created 200 to 300 new jobs, we have new technology, a new team with Virgin branding…it is much more exciting that way.”

- Film star John Travolta visited the Albert Park paddock, creating a photographer and TV crew frenzy that exceeded any attention given to drivers.