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Organizers, fans and media alike were shocked when the news broke that Formula One Management and the FIA had canceled the perennial Canadian Grand Prix, but the prospect remained open for local officials to renegotiate the contract. We're disappointed to report, however, that those prospects have now all but completely dissipated, as negotiations between the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone and representatives from the Canadian federal, Quebec provincial and Montreal municipal governments have broken down. And everyone's fingers are pointing at Bernie.

According to Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay, Ecclestone put forward an outrageous proposal extorting exorbitant multi-million-dollar fees from the race organizers, who receive backing from the three levels of government. The Canadian representatives then began considering levying a new tax over local hotels to cover the cost and planning to establish a non-profit organization to come up with a fiscally sound counter-offer, but even those prospects were completely shut down when Ecclestone stated his refusal to budge from his terms whatsoever. And so, with the US Grand Prix still out of the running – for the time being, at least – the top level of motor racing has completely abandoned North America altogether.

[Source: Autosport | Image: Lluis Gene/Getty]

Ever wonder how expensive it is for a manufacturer to compete in Formula 1 racing? Not surprisingly, it ain't cheap. Each of the successful teams spend hundreds of millions of dollars on their programs, but success is not necessarily tied in to how much dough was spent. For instance, Ferrari, winners of this year's constructor's championship with 172 total points, spent about $2.4 million per point in 2008. McLaren and BMW, numbers two and three respectively, spent a bit more than that figure, but still under a cool $3 mil. Honda and Toyota, though, had budgets nearly as large as the top-tier manufacturers yet scored significantly fewer points. In fact, Honda's meager 14 points cost the automaker over 28 million buckaroos a piece, making theirs the most expensive points of all. On average, teams spent about $4.3 million per point. No wonder the sport is looking to cut its budget as soon as possible. Thanks for the tip, Keith!

[Source: F1 Fanatic]

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix

It doesn't get any closer than this. A photo-finish has nothing on the last-minute – make that last-second – end to yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix, the ultimate decider of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship. Even if you were watching it, chances are you might have missed it. It was that close.

Heading into this final round, the rival pair of young guns Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) were the only two in contention for the drivers' title. But Hamilton's lead in points would mean that Massa would have to win the race with Hamilton coming in no better than sixth place. The win would put the two tied in points, but give Massa the crucial extra grand prix victory to just edge out Hamilton and claim the title. Any less and they'd have to start counting podiums. Saturday's qualifying set the stage: Massa on pole, wildcard Trulli beside and team-mate Raikkonen behind him, with Hamilton stuck in fourth place on the grid. Les jeux sont faites; all bets were placed and the dealer spun the ball. And we wouldn't know who had taken home the prize until the very end. Follow the jump to read how it turned out.

We're not going to tell you who won yesterday's season finale at the Brazilian Grand Prix. We'll leave that to Noah in his usual race recap. What we will tell you is that Lewis Hamilton bounced back from a scandal-ridden season that saw his McLaren team excluded from the championship in 2007 to capture this year's World Drivers Championship. That makes Hamilton the youngest F1 champion ever in only his second year as part of the grand prix circus. British-born Hamilton won the title 67 days before his 24th birthday. With five wins in 2008, he successfully managed to avoid the sophomore jinx. Hopefully he won't follow in the footsteps of Jacques Villeneuve and abandon a successful team for a startup with lots of money and zero success. The really big question for Lewis now is will he acknowledge that he is in fact the Stig? Thanks to Richard for the tip!

[Source: Formula1.com, Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty]

The last round of the Formula One Grand Prix has in recent years been held in Brazil. Next year's provisional calendar makes Brazil the penultimate round, and puts the final race in Abu Dhabi at the country's brand new track. The F1 circus runners got a chance to see the track where next year's championship will be decided (cross fingers), and as one might expect from something out of the Middle East, it's got everything and then some.

Designed by the man who created the Bahrain, Sepang and Valencia tracks, the Abu Dhabi circuit gets a course that runs through a hotel, a pit lane that runs under the track, and boasts 20 turns. Around the track will also be Ferrari World, the Yas Island Marina, a water park and sports facilities. All of that is fantastic, but we want the one thing we haven't heard about yet and that we didn't get from the new tracks in Valencia and Singapore: passing. Check out the galley of high-res images below and see if you think that enormous back straight will do the trick.


[Source: F1 Fanatic]

Could one unthinkable action be followed by another? It may be, if Formula 1 heads get their wish for a standard engine for the racing series. Both Toyota, a team near the bottom of the standings, and Ferrari, which is up near the top as it usually is, have expressed their concerns about such a plan, with both entities threatening to pull out of the racing series if such a path were taken. A Formula 1 world without Ferrari is practically unfathomable, as is seeing a Prancing Horse powered by a McLaren/Mercedes powerplant.

Does one knee-jerk reaction deserve another? Probably not. Our guess is that cooler heads will prevail and the FIA will come up with another alternative to lower the costs of competing in F1. This is, after all, the path that the FIA often takes when it comes to making major rules changes. Thanks for the tip, everyone!

[Source: F1-Live, Photo by Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty]

In the wake of the FIA's shocking proposal to move to standardized spec engines across the Formula One grid, the participating teams have met to come up with alternative cost-cutting measures to implement in the sport. After what was described as an unprecedentedly unanimous meeting of team principals under the newly formed Formula One Teams Association, Ferrari's Luca di Montezemolo and Toyota's John Howett met with our favorite whipping post, Max Mosley, on neutral ground in Geneva to discuss alternatives.

Although the only official word following the meeting Tuesday in Geneva is that the discussions were constructive, reports indicate that considerable agreements were reached towards bringing down the costs of participation in Formula One without having to resort to spec engines. Among those measures reported include the life of each engine being expanded from the current two-race requirement to three and a requirement for each manufacturer to offer 25 engines for purchase by independent teams at 10 million euros per unit. Nothing has been officially announced yet, but the representatives are expected to meet again after the season's conclusion at the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix to further discuss the arrangements, which are tipped to be stop-gap measures for the coming two seasons while the FIA comes up with more reasonable proposals for the long term.

[Source: Autosport]

Click for a hi-res gallery of the current Force India VJM01

So far, the Force India team has had a consistent season in Formula One. Unfortunately, that means consistently running at the back. But Indian business mogul Vijay Mallya is committed to making a go of it, and the latest deal in the works could give his team the machinery they need to start moving up the field.

The deal is reportedly all but complete between perennial back-marker Force India and front-runners McLaren for the former to buy their cars – lock, stock and barrel – from the latter. It's a highly tentative deal, however, as Formula One rules are due to be enacted that would ban customer cars. F1 teams are supposed to act as their own constructors, however other teams – such as Red Bull and Toro Rosso, Honda and the defunct Super Aguri – have been using common designs. David Richards' Prodrive outfit was slated to re-enter the series with customer cars from McLaren, but withdrew their tender at the last minute due to the anticipated ban on customer cars. Force India, which currently builds its own chassis and buys engines from Ferrari, evidently thinks the rules won't be enforced. If it is allowed to proceed, the Force India team would turn into an effective B-squad for McLaren.

[Source: F1-Live]

Looks like Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica didn't get enough head-to-head racing action last week in Japan. The first and second place finishers in Fuji decided to go at it once again when the pair reached this week's F1 stop in Shanghai. Rather than risk their multi-million dollar F1 race cars, and quite possibly their careers, the two opted to hit the local kart track instead. Alonso probably has a weight advantage in this scenario, but that shouldn't take away from his mad driving skillz. Watch the non-English video after the jump to see how it turned out and stick around for the victory lap. You'll get a chance to see the some of the best donuts you'll ever witness.

[Source: F1 Fanatic]

Citing the ridiculously spiraling costs associated with engine development, the FIA sent out a statement seeking drivetrain suppliers for every Formula 1 team starting in 2010, meaning that the same engine/trans combo would be fitted to every car on the grid. The company that gets the contract would either build and supply the engines or design and supervise the building of them so they meet a specified range.

This kind of plan seems almost incomprehensible given that Formula One has always been known as a series that allows manufacturers and private teams to compete within the regulations to push the boundaries of what's possible in car development, and especially in engine technology. It seems unfathomable that a team like Honda might consider staying in F1 if they had to use a Renault powerplant, or God forbid a Toyota mill. McLaren-Mercedes/Ferrari anyone?

Despite the obvious negative reaction to this announcement, F1 czar Bernie Ecclestone said he doesn't expect to lose any teams: "We're trying to get a level playing field," he said. "I don't see why [manufacturers] should leave, we're saving them an awful lot of money I hope." While increasing development costs have gotten out of hand and threatened the future of the sport by increasing the likelihood that all teams but those with the deepest pockets will be driven out, the overall feeling is that the FIA is using their usual tactic of offering a pretty unpleasant plan, with the hope that teams will accept their much more palatable alternative when that is offered.

Still, there is some support within F1 for this type of plan, especially among the smaller teams that already rely on the major manufacturers to supply engines. A smaller budget means these teams are usually perpetual backmarkers, and with a spec drivetrain, they might be better equipped to grab more podiums. The FIA is set to meet with the Formula One Team's Association in Geneva after this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. We'll keep you posted. Thanks to Doug for sending this in!

[Source: Eurosport]