The undaunted promoter of the potential-but-unlikely Rome Grand Prix has suggested that the race could still go ahead in 2013, with the new street track alternating a single spot on the calendar with the existing Monza circuit.
A round of the world championship taking place in the Italian capital has been discussed for some time, but the proposal has suffered a series of hammer blows in recent weeks.
The race does not seem to have the backing of either Italian squad Ferrari or the local Rome population, while earlier this week a leaked letter from Bernie Ecclestone showed that the F1 oligarch was against any country having two races in future.
With Monza having extended its own contract to host the Italian leg of the F1 calendar until the 2016 season, that appeared to be the end of Rome's GP hopes.
But the race promoter Maurizio Flammini has suggested that he sees Ecclestone's comments as the beginning of a series of three-way negotiations between Rome, Monza and F1 bosses to try and alternate the race between the two venues.
"Ecclestone has proposed alternating Rome and Monza," Flammini told the ANSA news agency in a statement released on Friday.
He added that: "We will speak to the Automobile Club of Milan and to [Monza circuit owner] Sias to see if there is the possibility of collaboration."
His comments follow comments from Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno on Thursday, who said that Ecclestone's comments were not necessarily a rejection for Rome.
"There is the decision to grant Italy just one Grand Prix, either at Monza or Rome, or in both cities but in alternated seasons," he grinned regarding Ecclestone's decision.
The German Grand Prix already runs to a similar event-sharing contract, with the Hockenheim and Nurburgring circuits alternating the responsibility of hosting the race per season.
But it is questionable whether the Monza organisers will be open to sharing their own spot.
Back in 2009, when there were rumours that Rome's bid was trying to usurp Monza from the calendar entirely, the Monza mayor Marco Mariani told the media that the Rome bid was an "act of arrogance" from "a parasite capital city".
Monza is one of the few remaining historic tracks on the F1 schedule, and aside from Silverstone, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps is the only surviving circuit from the first ever F1 season in 1950.
It has hosted the Italian Grand Prix every year since then, save for 1980 when the race was run at Imola.
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