The chief promoter of the proposed Rome F1 street race has insisted that he still expects the race to debut on the calendar in 2013, despite the race losing the support of Ferrari and being criticised by local residents in the past week.
The Rome race has been pushing for a slot on the F1 schedule for some time, in a move that would see Italy awarded two races on the already-congested calendar.
Initially, the street race was rumoured to be in line to replace the historic Monza circuit, but with that track having signed a contract extension this year which guarantees it a slot on the grid until 2016 at the earliest, the only other option is for Rome to 'double-up' with the Monza race.
The possibility of the race taking place at all, though, has suffered some severe blows in recent days.
Last week, Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali said that he and the Italian squad did not feel the bloated current F1 calendar could not allow for two Italian races, saying that it was "inevitable" that the days of two races per country were history.
Currently, the only country which hosts two F1 races is Spain, which has the Spanish GP in Barcelona, as well as the European GP at the Valencia track. But rumours suggest that one of these two races will be under threat in the future as other venues are added to the schedule.
Then, earlier this week, a survey of locals in the EUR Rome district where the race will supposedly take place voted overwhelmingly against the plans.
The survey was run by the Partito Democratico and polled over 2000 people in the local area. Nearly 82% of those polled said that the race would have "more disadvantages than advantages" in their eyes.
Further to that, 93% of those polled suggested that the race would create extra traffic problems, more pollution and cause 'excessive noise'.
But despite all of that, promoter Maurizio Flammini has insisted that he is still confident of the race taking place as planned.
"The first race?" he muttered to the Italian Il Riformista newspaper, "I expect it to be in 2013."
He added that the final plans for the race will be reviewed in the coming months, and said that Formula One was ready to "welcome" Rome onto the calendar.
"According to the standard procedure [the review] will take at least 60 days," he rambled, "If the project would have been approved by the end of the year, we would have been ready for 2012."
He went on: "In Italy everything is ready [for 2013] and the Formula One circus is ready to welcome us. A few days ago I spoke with Bernie Ecclestone and he asked me to go ahead. When we are ready, we will close the final agreement."
Flammini clarified that he had already signed a "preliminary agreement" with Formula One chiefs, but warned that he and the Rome GP organisers needed to work quickly in order to ensure they secured a spot on the calendar.
"We signed a preliminary agreement for at least two years," Flammini explained, "[Bernie] Ecclestone is helping us but he is concerned about the delay.
"The competition is fierce, there are at least 30 other circuits that are pushing [to be on the F1 schedule]. If we don't hurry we may lose this opportunity."
He also attacked the results of the resident's survey, saying that most of the criticisms were inaccurate.
"You must be joking," he chortled when asked about the pollution concerns, "We should be thanked that instead of thousands of cars, for a few days there will be only 24 on a 5 kilometre circuit."
He added: "Traffic? A study has shown the increase to be 25 per cent, but we are talking about August, when the presence of cars is well under 50 per cent of the annual average."
The F1 schedule is set for unprecedented competition in the next few years. The 2011 calendar features a record 20 races, a figure Ecclestone has suggested should be treated as a 'maximum' in future.
But deals have already been signed for a new United States GP from 2012 and a Russian race from 2014, with Rome, France, South Africa, Qatar and even Vietnam all having been linked with a GP bid in the near future.
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