From fading hopes for a Danish Grand Prix to the prospect of a London race, plus news of the British and Mexican events excelling in 2018, here’s a round-up of all the Formula 1 calendar news from December 2018!
Danish GP hopes dashed again
Plans for a Grand Prix in Denmark have hit another stumbling block after the promoters of the proposed circuit in the city centre of Copenhagen closed in November. Hopes of a Danish Grand Prix had previously been set back by the Copenhagen Mayor stating that the city would not be willing to pay for the event itself. The now-folded company had spent a large amount of money on planning and researching the event, and even had a track designed with help from Jan Magnussen and Hermann Tilke. Nevertheless, government minister Helge Sander is still open to the idea of a race elsewhere in the country, telling Autosport: “if a sufficiently interesting project emerges elsewhere in Denmark, it should naturally be tried, provided the relevant practical, sustainable and economic conditions are fulfilled.”
Mexico voted best of the year, Britain is best-attended
For a fourth season in a row, the promoters of the Mexican Grand Prix won the prestigious ‘Best Promoter’ award at the FIA Prize Giving Gala. The Mexican race has won the award in every season since it rejoined the calendar in 2015. Fancy attending the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix and experiencing the award-winning carnival atmosphere first hand? Read everything you need to know about the event in our extensive Mexico Grand Prix travel guide.
The Mexican Grand Prix was the second-best attended race event in 2018, behind only the British Grand Prix. A total of 340,000 fans attended Silverstone over the July weekend, while seven race weekends saw over 200,000 fans pass through the turnstiles. Read all about the 2018 attendance figures here.
London Grand Prix?
Elsewhere, Autosport report that Liberty Media are exploring the option of holding a London Grand Prix. The race, which Ross Brawn says would ‘complement’ the existing race at Silverstone rather than replace it, would be held on the outskirts of the capital city. The plan appears to have been backed by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who says a London Grand Prix would be possible. A spokesperson for the Mayor commented: “The Mayor believes that it should be possible to organise a race in London in the future and has asked his team to explore options with F1.”
Meanwhile, negotiations and speculation on the future of the existing British Grand Prix at Silverstone continued last month, with some outlets reporting the organisers were going to hand over all profits from the event to Liberty Media in order to keep the race on the calendar. A spokesperson later said the claim was ‘pure fiction’.
Winter Testing to be broadcast
Tickets for pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya went on sale earlier this month, with paddock access on offer to the general public for the first time.
Can’t make it to Barcelona? No problem – the action will be broadcast, at least in some form, on F1TV in February. While there has been no formal announcement of this yet, and no indication of whether the broadcast will be a full-scale live production or a highlights programme, Matt Roberts – F1’s Director of Market Research – appeared to confirm that F1TV will be covering winter testing during an AMA on Reddit. The whole post is worth reading, as Roberts covers a variety of intriguing, and rarely spoken about, F1 topics. Winter Testing begins on February 18.
