The Mayor of Montreal, Gerald Tremblay, has proposed an increase in hotel taxes over the weekend of the Canadian Grand Prix, in a bid to raise several million pounds in extra revenue.
Wee Bernie Ecclestone is still demanding overdue payments from this season’s race, and he hasn’t been paid yet. Canadian officials had hoped to raise the cash privately - Guy Laliberte, the founder of the Cirque du Soleil, was touted as a possible backer - but now Tremblay and co. are so desperate to get the GP back on the 2009 calendar that they are prepared to raise taxes to do it.
Tremblay said: “[Ecclestone is] not interested in where the money’s going to come from, he just wants to get the money to which he thinks he’s entitled.”
Show him the money and you may get your race back.
Red Bull’s paddock girls, or Formula Unas to give them their proper name, show up at every grand prix and do a very good job of making the pit lane a prettier place.
At Brazil, the “winning” Formula Una from each grand prix (translation: the hottest local girl at each race) is invited by Red Bull to attend an end-of-season party. All of the Unas made it to Interlagos… except one.
Montreal’s Formula Una - better known as 19-year-old Katrina Lesko - required a visa to be allowed into Brazil. So Red Bull informed her that she should get her paperwork sorted. She duly obliged.
But when Lesko transferred from Montreal to Washington on Wednesday, and was asked to present her visa for Brazil, the immigration officer refused to let her get on the plane to Sao Paulo. Why? It might have something to do with the fact that Lesko pulled out a brand-new Visa credit card.
Officials of the axed Canadian GP are looking for a new race promoter, following their crunch meeting in London with Bernie Ecclestone.
Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay said after the showdown that it is “still possible” the event could feature on the 2009 calendar, while Quebec economic minister, Raymond Bachand, admitted that the sticking point is cash:
“We must find a promoter from the private sector who will take the event into their hands,” he told reporters at Montreal airport.
Rumours suggest that the promoter could be Guy Laliberte, the founder of the Cirque du Soleil. Laliberte is known to be a big F1 fan - he regularly attended the Canadian GP - and he has a wallet deep enough to bail out the event (Cirque du Soleil is worth more than $1billion, and Laliberte has a 95% stake in the company). Not only that, Laliberte is friends with Bernie Ecclestone.
The mayor of Montreal flies into London today to make a case to reinstate the axed Canadian Grand Prix for 2009. Mayor Gerald Tremblay is set for a showdown in the capital tomorrow with Wee Bernie Ecclestone, in a bid to reinstate Montreal’s lost weekend.
“We’ll be meeting Mr. Ecclestone to see how much he wants this Grand Prix to be held,” said Raymond Bachand, Quebec’s Economic Development Minister (Bachand will be present in the meeting with Ecclestone and Tremblay). “If the conditions are financially responsible, we’ll save this event. If they’re totally unreasonable, we’re in trouble.”
We could tell you that this brunette quartet were spotted at the recent Nascar event in Montreal. We could also tell you that they were there to promote Cintron’s new energy drink. But there’s really no point, given that you’re probably still looking at the photo and not these words blah blah blah all work and no play makes Grid Crasher a dull motorsport blog…
Martin Brundle has escaped penalty for asked Wee Bernie Ecclestone at the Canadian GP what he thought about the “pikeys putting tarmac down at turn 10″.
The watchdog Equality and Human Rights Commission condemned Brundle’s use of the word, and a spokesman for the British F1 broadcaster apologised for the slip. Despite 36 complaints to ITV and Ofcom, the TV watchdog accepted the explanation that Brundle did not intend the use of the word to cause offence. Quite right too. We weren’t offended, but then we love pikeys.
After missing the recent Hungarian GP while on his traditional mid-season break, Brundle will be back in the F1 paddock at Valencia for the European GP in a fortnight’s time.
1. 1982 Monaco Grand Prix
Poor Didier Pironi led on the final lap but his car broke down in the famous tunnel. Andrea de Cesaris then stopped on the approach to the casino complex, allowing Riccardo Patrese - who had already spun out - to trundle over the finishing line in his re-started Brabham.
