Formula One bosses have confirmed that F1 is returning to North America – specifically to the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal, Canada. The track is always a popular one with drivers and is the fastest street-style circuit on the calendar.
Montreal’s tourist board has joined with the Canadian government to produce five years of investment worth around £8.5 million to end the financial dispute that saw the race dropped from the 2009 calendar. Whether that investment will be used to update the slightly aged pitlane facilities or simply to pay the Bernster remains to be seen.
The pencilled date for the race is the 13th of June 2010 with final confirmation of the calendar expected to come in mid-December 2009. Silverstone GP is, of course, working to a deadline of the 9th of December 2009 to get contracts in place.
Montreal always produces a dramtic race – who can forget underdog Takuma Sato passing world-champion Fernando Alonso on the back straight or, of course, Robert Kubica’s massive high-speed shunt that left the unflappable Pole, well, unflapped.
F1 newbies USF1 would, I’m sure, rather have heard the announcement that a new deal had been struck with the Georges (owners of the historic Indianapolis USA Circuit) so that they could race on home turf, but a Canadian race is about the best they’re going to get in F1-2010.
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Sunset Full (R)
