MONACO — Stands are empty, hotel rooms available and tickets unsold.
Formula One’s most glamorous race, the Monaco GP, is feeling the pinch of the global financial crisis.
Formula One’s slim-downed, cost-conscious version arrives at the principality of Monaco, one of the world’s wealthiest states, for the 67th time. But the atmosphere is clearly different this year.
Although there will be movie stars and models frolicking aboard two-story yachts as always, the downturn has touched this tax haven that many F1 drivers call home.
Empty stands stood out in front of the harbor during Thursday’s first practice day and thousands of the 45,000 tickets were still available on Friday for Sunday’s 78-lap race…Â Details
Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton has thanked his father Anthony for steering him through the greatest ordeal of his motor racing career.
Hamilton has this year been trapped in a roller-coaster of troubles due to his involvement in the infamous ‘Liar-gate’ episode, his struggle with his McLaren car’s lack of performance and then a fall-out with the British media.
On the circuit the Englishman’s title defence has faded in the face of stiff competition from compatriot Jenson Button, who has surged ahead in the championship race in a Brawn GP car.
Hamilton is adamant, however, he has emerged from …Â Details
Just when it seemed like following a broad, corporate-management style and using incremental improvements had become the best way to make a Formula One car, radical new technical regulations this year have brought a sudden return to an old approach.
With the series driven by car-manufacturer teams in recent years, the best cars were created by evolving from a fixed design, with a huge staff contributing various elements to the whole. In the past, however, the best cars and teams had been made by brilliant minds and strong men like Enzo Ferrari, Colin Chapman of Lotus or John Barnard at McLaren…Â Details
