Circuits

Another week, another discussion about which circuits we should run at. This time Lee McKenzie of the BBC interviewed Bernie and amongst other things they discussed:

• Delays at the New Jersey race scheduled for next year (Bernie sounding skeptical over its appearance on next year's calendar)
• Possible London race around the Olympics site which would be from 2014/5 onward, maybe but NOT at the expense of Silverstone
• Valencia and Barcelona sharing the Spanish GP (or rather, that Bernie actually likes Valencia)

This lead me back to my long held thought that Bernie should categorise about 4 types of races:

• Classics - the 5 races with the longest heritage, given a cheaper hosting fee (Monaco, Silverstone, Monza, Spa and Montreal)
• Heartland - 5 races from Europe, possibly on a rotational basis to afford a "moderate" fee (Nurburgring/Hockenheim, Magny-Cours/Barcelona, Hungaroring/Imola, Istanbul/Valencia, A1-Ring/Estoril?)
• Continents - 1 from each non-Europe region (N America - USA [1 of several], S America - Interlagos, Africa - Kyalami, Asia - Suzuka, Oceania - Melbourne) each charged a "moderate" fee
• New races - each new race given 5 years to prove itself (2008 - Singapore, 2009 - Abu Dhabi, 2010 - Korea, 2011 - India, 2012 - Texas) or looking forwards (2013 - New Jersey, 2014 - Sochi, Russia, 2015 - London?)

Having said that, the sport is shifting to Asia, so perhaps the categories need adjusting:

Classics: Monza, Monaco, Silverstone, Spa
Europe: Germany, Spain, France/Hungary, Imola/Turkey
Asia: Suzuka, Sepang, Singapore, Shanghai
Continents: Montreal, Interlagos, Kyalami, Melbourne
New: Abu Dhabi, Korea, India, Texas.

In either case I appear to have dropped Bahrain (oops - not that hosting the worst race of 2010 and its politics entitle it to much sympathy) and Hungary (at least as full time) and replaced them with Kyalami (my ignorance of other African tracks being the main reason) and the part time return of Turkey. Simply speaking, if new tracks prove themselves, they should replace another track from their category (ie Abu Dhabi should prove itself better than say Shanghai to survive another year, but Korea would most likely be dropped).

Assuming I've followed the second group's logic my 2013 calendar would be:

Melbourne (continent - Oceania)
Sepang (Asia - #1)
Shanghai (Asia - #2)
Turkey (Europe - #1)
Barcelona (Europe - #2)
Monaco (Classic - #1)
Montreal (N America)
New Jersey (New - 2013)
Silverstone (Classic - #2)
Nurburgring (Europe - #3) followed by the summer break
Hungaroring (Europe - #4)
Spa (Classic - #3)
Monza (Classic - #4)
Kyalami (Africa) - technically not new
India (New - 2011)
Singapore (Asia - #3)
Korea (New - 2010)
Suzuka (Asia - #4)
Texas (New - 2012)
Interlagos (S America)