MOTORSPORT: Bangkok a threat to Oz GP

Thailand has struck a preliminary deal with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone for a Singapore-style night street race from 2014.

The news coincides with the revelation this week that the 2012 Australian GP in Melbourne cost Victorian taxpayers $56.7 million.

Victorian major events minister Louise Asher said she was unhappy about the mounting costs of the Melbourne race and that the state’s government would be seeking a better deal if the contract was to be extended beyond 2015.

There were suggestions during last weekend’s Singapore GP that the Asian city-state’s renewal of its contract with Ecclestone was on more favourable terms that its first five-year deal.

Singapore has been a significant addition to the F1 calendar in the past five years and, having given Ecclestone the first night race in the East he so wanted, would have had serious “wedge” in its latest negotiations with him.

Ecclestone has repeatedly made it known in recent years that he would prefer the Melbourne race to be run at night to make it more time-friendly for F1’s main TV audience in Europe.

However, Victorian governments of both political persuasions have ruled out the huge cost of lighting Albert Park for a night Australian GP.

Even if they had been prepared to foot that bill they would have risked massive public opposition to moving the noisy event to night time.

The compromise has been a twilight race.

While concerns grow about the escalating costs of staging the GP in Melbourne, Ecclestone is hardly likely to look favourably on Asher effectively calling for him to cut the race fee.

His attitude will be that if Victoria doesn’t want to pay his price there are other venues that will – and he will use the Thai deal as (preliminary) evidence of that.

And – with races in Japan, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – he may argue that the expanding world championship can live without an Australian round.

Next year’s F1 calendar could be finalised at a World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris tonight (September 28). Melbourne’s race will be confirmed for March 17 and there could be two in the US – a new race in New Jersey, on public roads beside the Hudson River with New York’s Manhattan skyline as its backdrop, and the other in Austin, Texas which in six weeks will host its first GP.

There are also moves for the revival of a French GP in the near future, perhaps at the Paul Ricard circuit of which Ecclestone is an owner.

The Thai GP is likely to be funded in the same way as Singapore’s – 60 per cent by government and the rest by private business interests.

Red Bull is likely to be one of the partners in Bangkok. Thai tycoon Chalerm Yoovidhya is Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz’s partner in the energy drink company (Red Bull Racing’s Australian driver Mark Webber demonstrated an F1 car on the streets of Bangkok two years ago in front of a crowd reported to be about 100,000).

Thailand’s one and only GP race-winning driver, Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanuban – better known as Prince Bira – had planned a Bangkok street GP in 1939 but that dream was dashed by the outbreak of World War II.

The contract details for Thailand’s entry to the world championship, including the race fee, are some way from being finalised, but with government support and Red Bull involved it is only a matter of time.

Now it seems that the drive is Hamilton’s if he wants it – and if he does, seven-time world champion Schumacher will effectively be driven into a second, and permanent, retirement.

Mercedes team chief Ross Brawn, who worked with Schumacher in all his title years and had instant success in his one year as a team owner in 2009 before selling to Mercedes, has admitted facing “a difficult decision” over Schuey’s future.

The BBC’s authoritative F1 writer Andrew Benson reported this week that Mercedes had offered Hamilton a contract and that some Mercedes executives believed 43-year-old Schumacher should retire after only one podium in the three years of his comeback.

Despite a couple of major mistakes this season, Schumacher has out-qualified teammate Nico Rosberg eight-six at the 14 GPs so far this season and is said to want to continue to strive for success with Mercedes.

“But he’s a long way from the driver he used to be,” Benson noted.

McLaren, which initially wanted 27-year-old Hamilton to take a pay cut next year, is now reported by Benson to have increased its offer to the 2008 world champion. It is said to be preparing for next season on the assumption it will have Hamilton on the team.

The 18-year-old Brabham, who was born in Florida but grew up on the Gold Coast, won the US F2000 Championship in his debut season overseas and will graduate to the Star Mazda Championship in America next year.

In the meantime, under the scholarship, he will contest two rounds of the Formula Renault BARC UK Championship at Silverstone on October 6-7, two races in that category’s northern winter series at Brands Hatch on October 20-21 and two more at Rockingham on November 10.

But while it has been a dream year in America for Brabham, fellow Australian Will Power has reflected on the sour end to the IndyCar season, missing the title for the third year running, in a blog here and Racer.com has a perspective on Power’s Team Penske and its drivers, also including out-of-contract Ryan Briscoe here.

Citroen motorsport chief Yves Matton said the WTCC could be “a serious option” for the manufacturer and its superstar rally driver Sebastien Loeb starting from 2014 or 2015.

Loeb is in line for a ninth straight rallying world title this year but it has been revealed this week that next year he will only compete in selected World Rally Championship rounds – raising a question mark over his participation in Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour.

Loeb has previously shown interest in sports car racing, especially Le Mans, but Matton said a WTCC project “would give him the opportunity to pursue his career in track racing with the support of the manufacturer with which he has worked since his competitive debut”.

“For Citroen the WTCC would enable us to showcase our ‘Creative Technologie’ in major markets, such as China and Brazil,” Matton said.

“The final decision regarding this program is linked to the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) regulations and, obviously, the determination of our current and future partners to support us in this project.”

Citroen has confirmed that oil-rich Middle East emirate Abu Dhabi will partner its WRC team season.

The manufacturer demanded its motorsport arm source 60 per cent of its WRC funding externally after a big drop in its road car sales.

Finnish driver Mikko Hirvonen will lead Citroen’s WRC line-up next season but there is no word yet on who will drive its other factory entry in the rounds Loeb does not contest.

Meanwhile, Peugeot has revealed its all-new 208 R5 rally car – the replacement for the 207 Super 2000 car that won six Intercontinental Rally Championships.

Featuring a five-speed sequential gearbox mated to a turbocharged 1.6-litre engine developing 209kW, the 208 R5 is likely to compete in national and regional championships around the world.

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