Is South Korean GP cancelled? Who would replace it?

[Diesel]

Why not go back to China? I would personally like to see another race at China than lose a race completely, it's going to wreck the championship if we lose the race.

If it's only 3 races remaining realistically the championship is a 2 horse race, the other won't have a hope unless Alonso & Webber have some DNFs.

[MikeFromCanada]

For what it's worth, Korean organizers say they will "have no problem hosting the race October 24th". The FIA is conducting an inspection October 11th.

http://en.espnf1.com/korea/motorsport/story/29590.html

Christian Horner also is 100% confident it will go as planned.

[andrew]

The Korean organizers say the race will go ahead (well they're bound to arn't they?).

Bernie Ecclestone has massive doubts (well we all know he like to put pressure of tracks/organizers to bend his way).

Claim and counter claim is all it is. Best just to sit tight until the race is confirmed as either going ahead or being cancelled.

Though, I would have thought if the race was off, an alternative venue would have at least have been the subject of pretty strong rumours by now. As there have been no rumblings and wotnot I think the race will go ahead and this is just BE turning up the heat on the Korean organizers.

[fritticaldi]

With still five drivers fighting for the title If the race in Korea is cancelled then there are only three races left.
Would Bernie and the FIA allow this?
If a replacement is found , logically it would be Japan at Fuji Speedway under the Pacific GP name.
The new Algarve circuit is a valid option.

[andrew]

^^ Is there enough time left to organise s replacement race? These are usually planned months in advance. Does anyone know if the FIA have some sort of contingency plan for a race not being able to go ahead or is this unprecedented?

[WhiteBlue]

I think that Bernie is a bit pissed off by the delays that have occurred. But there is very little doubt that the race will go ahead. Why did they allow all these prolongations of "final" inspections? Probably because they can see that is very doable to finish the remainder of the work in the time available. There is not even an asterisk at the Korean entry of the 2011 calendar. Bernie needs the money from that race and he knows that canceling the race now will cost him massively. The Koreans also must be aware that a final screw up will be unacceptable. So nothing except a full blown war will stop the race to go ahead IMO.

[Tomba]

Birnie has already got his money for this year, I see no loss for him.

http://koreangp.blogspot.com/2010/09/fi ... final.html

[WhiteBlue]

http://koreangp.blogspot.com/2010/09/fia-to-inspect-korea-after-final.html

Auto Motor und Sport said that, from a commercial point of view, the organisers have fully paid their race sanctioning fee.

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 81492.html

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 82462.html

I have read the AMuS articles. There is no reference to the fee being paid. Your source koreangp.blogspot.com has invented that part of the story or they are covering up another source for that info. At least their quotation is incorrect.

[WilliamsF1]

I have no access to AMuS, guess we have to take your word for it.

But everyone knows, race sanction fee to Birne is paid in advance than the week before the GP, not like the pre-concord days when they went around with bags of money.

[WhiteBlue]

I did not know that and I'm frankly surprised that the promoters agree to pay before they see the cash flow. It would be an unusual demand IMO. I do know that several promoters including the Canadian GP were running up debt with Bernie in the past. So it cannot have been the usual practice at least in that place.

[WhiteBlue]

[Shrek]

I'm thinking that it will not be run now, it was close but that's probably the final nail

[horse]

Urg. Could they get more incompetent? Heads shall roll.

[andrew]

The crane accident happened earlier in the week and has caused next to no delay. The organisers still feel that they are on course to finish in time for the inspection.

Incidently, someone overloaded the crane. Bit of a fundamental error.

[WhiteBlue]

The crane accident happened earlier in the week and has caused next to no delay.

Thats why I posted the pics. Everybody can see that the damage is immaterial to running a GP.