Anyways, Honda has been pulling resources from their motorsports division and been focusing on just making cars and getting through the financial problems. It doesn't really make sense for them to host that expensive event when they're not involved in F1 anymore. Fuji is one of the biggest PR events of the year for Toyota and they've decided it's not worth the cost, I wouldn't count on Suzuka coming back as a recurring event unless they Bernie gets involved.
Edit: Oh, Suzuka is indeed hosting this year, it's just called "2009 FORMULA 1 FUJI TELEVISION JAPANESE GRAND PRIX" to confuse everyone...
How stupid is the budget cap if one of the manufacturers is now pulling their race due to cost cutting?
This is EXACTLY what Max was warning the teams about. The chance that due to decreased profits for major car manufacturers, the F1 teams would not be able to compete at the same level indefinitely, and there would be no new teams to replace those that go belly up.
Listen, this is the situation at the moment:
Car sales are at an absolute low. Major car manufacturers are going belly up around the world, and the magic words for those that haven't yet is "cut costs", and "mass reorganisations".
I ask you 3 questions... The answer to the 3rd one you can derive from the answer to the first 2.
1.) Is there a guarantee that the manufacturers will be in F1 after 2011?
No.
2.) Is there a guarantee that there's somebody who's willing to spend upwards of $100 million a year to be a backmarker in case another teams goes belly up?
No.
3.) Is the continuity of F1 as a class guaranteed without the guarantee that there will be enough teams to have races in 2012?
Is a budget cap really that stupid, if the ultimate goal of it is to change the answer to all 3 of those questions from 'No' to 'Yes'?
Max, with the budget cap, was not thinking of the teams when he proposed the cap, and that is not his job. His job is to think about F1 as a class and do everything needed to guarantee its existence beyond 2011. As such, creating a healthy financial situation at this time should be his top priority. If that means a budget cap, so be it. Another option, which is basically what FOTA proposed but more strict, is to ban every technology thinkable, return to the basic chassis with engines that use carburators, and a simple 6-speed H-pattern shifter/gearbox, and steel brakediscs, with absolutely no testing whatsoever, so that teams are allowed, but unable, to spend anything over 45 million a year on F1.
If I have a choice, then I opt for the budgetcap, and a greater degree of technological freedom so that the SMARTEST team wins, and we see innovations back into F1. Because since manufacturers have entered F1 en-masse there's been a painful lack of innovation. It's all about making things smaller and lighter, instead of smarter and faster.
from playing both in gran turismo for years, i think fuji is the better track.
this kinda sucks. they build these tracks in the UAE and shit, nobody goes to them, but they get rid of montreal... no wonder half the teams don't want the FIA in control anymore.
Factory teams did not oppose budget cuts, just the sum proposed by Mosley and the timeframe. For big teams this would have ment cutting budget down to a quarter which is just not possible in that short time, it's not simple as shutting factory lights one hour earlier. Lots of people will lose their jobs and partnership deals have to be cancelled, getting all that sorted out is not going to be cheap or one day task.
FIA does not create the calendar... FOA/FOM does (Bernie), FIA just approves it, just as they do with every other racing schedule in the world.
They were offered a cap of $100 million in 2010, and $65 million from 2011 onwards... They refused the offer. Not because it would be impossible for them, but because they wanted their own proposal to be 100% accepted. There's plenty of correspondence between FIA and FOTA on the FIA site to show that.
It's puzzling that some posters have jumped to conclusions about Toyota, the FIA budget cap, and F1 spending.
Everything in business is decided on the balance of cost vs benefit. It seems that while Toyota are reasonably happy with the marketing benefit of competing in F1, hosting an F1 GP is not returning the desired benefits. Therefore: cut the race.
This has little or nothing to do with the spending of the Toyota F1 team. The running of the team is a separate issue from running of the track.
I think your ideoledgy is not possible at all, the $45 milliion dollar cap was way too outrageous its not realistic at all for a team to just drop from operating in the 100s of millions to go to that figure, soo many jobs will be lost, operating eqipment the teams have used in other seasons will be pointless and it will probably cost as much money to transfer to the Cap(think about all the contracts they would have with there staff and Suppliers they couldn't meat up to, they would have to pay shit loads to terminate contracts).
The Teams Wanted to stay under the same rules and afterall they ARE F1 when it comes down to it.
The Smartest teams can still win and its happening right now, you do Realise F1 could possible be under threat from other series in the technoledgy department which would desrtroy its prestige, right now its the most maketable Motorsport in the world by far, The drivers don't want to be in second rate cars driving for teams they were racing in there previous development series, so its only logical it wasn't accepted.
Max and Bernie Both have to learn They can't just force rules like this or they just will leave its as simple as that.
One question?
How many teams will leave under the current rules then the budget cap?
The Budget cap looked like it would of lost 8 teams where as all of the teams plus 3 have accepted the current.
8 teams lost is much worse then making the teams happy.
But you see this is not all the information, the teams have agreed to reduce costs over the course of 2-3 years to get back to the early 90s level of spenditure. which would be about 50-120 million depending(Its what they agreed under the unconditional contract).
You just can't blast rules and expect them to work it takes time to adjust expecially when these teams are soo huge that the operation has time to slowly get in the budget zone.
The FIA govern the sport but when it comes to operating a Current F1 team they have no idea at all.
I hated Fuji. They could have built it in a better place, instead of at the bottom of a bloody dormant volcano and where it rains all the time. Not to mention i found the racing boring there.
Tim, its fun to watch rainy F1 races but not the torrential rains at Fuji, where the race is led more by Bernd Maylander in the Safety Car than it is by an F1 car.
I really liked Fuji. 
