Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has said that he would be open to the idea of the Italian GP being shared between a Rome street circuit and Monza, but that there was no space on the calendar for two Italian races.
The future of Rome's plans for a Formula One race in the future now seems to rely on negotiating with the historic Monza track to share a single slot on the calendar.Hopes of the new race getting a spot of its own seem to end after Bernie Ecclestone wrote to the organisers to insist that there was no way Italy could have two races on the schedule.
And di Montezemolo backed that view up, saying that it was more important that Formula One expanded into new countries, rather than adding extra races in existing markets.
"If you remember our dinner at Maranello, I said that the general feeling by the car manufacturers and also the teams was not to go above a certain number of grands prix, which are already so many - the season never ends," he rambled to the media on Friday at the Ferrari media event in the Dolomite mountains.
He went on: "And most of all that the preference was for having races in new countries, new markets, first of all the United States, but not just that, there's Russia, there's India, instead of having two races in Germany or Spain, or eventually Italy.
"So it's not a failure for Rome, but it's just a matter that the general desire is to have one grand prix [in each country], so we can't stage two races in Italy.
"Beyond that, it's most of all an Italian problem to decide where, while keeping in mind Monza's historical role."
But he added that he was open to the idea of Monza and Rome sharing a spot on the calendar in future, assuming that the two tracks can come to an agreement.
"This depends on whether it's fine by Ecclestone, whether there are the conditions, whether Monza and Rome are fine with it," he shrugged when asked about the idea of slot-sharing.
"What's certain is that two races can't be held in Italy. That's it. And Monza remains a historic and permanent grand prix.
"However, all paths are possible and open."
The organisers of the Rome race have already said that they will be pursuing the possibility of sharing a spot with Monza.
But with the historic track having secured a contract extension through to 2016, it is unclear how open they will be to relinquish their exclusive deal.
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