Oh, the Bathurst track? I LOVE that stretch! I always try to catch the races whenever they’re on (usually on EuroSport here). What’s it called again, the touring car race? The Bathurst 1000 or somesuch? Incidently, does Wayne Gardner still race in that class? I recall him being quite competitive when he switched to four-wheelers after his bike career.
Still, given the safety standards of modern F1, I’d say the odds of holding a GP there could be described as “incredibly fucking low”.
It’s perhaps even more dangerous than the old 'Ring. It would kick ass, but it would also be nervewrecking to watch.
One thing that might take a bit away from Michael Schumaker is the lack of competition in F-1 these days. By that I mean a couple of things.
It’s actually kinda frightening reading about the disparity in financing between some of the teams. IIFC Ferrari’s budget for F-1 this year is somewhere in the neghborhood of $100-150 million, and that doesn’t include drivers salaries. At the other end of the spectrum there are teams with budgets that top out at around $35-40 million, which means the situation resembles that of Major League Baseball.
Another factor is the simply the lower number of F-1 teams, which I think in 2003 is around 12-14.
Again, this is due in large part to the huge amounts of money needed to finance a team.
One other bit of info, I’ve heard that there has been a good deal of talk about bringing back the Nurburgring, as in the entire old course to be used for the German Grand Prix. of course it would need some fixing up with estimates being in $85-90 million range.
