The mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno has confirmed on Friday that the Italian capital has "definitively" shelved plans for a grand prix around the city's streets in the future, following the collapse of support within F1 for the race.
Alemanno made the announcement on Friday in a news conference in Rome, confirming that the plan for a street race in the EUR district of the city was now being mothballed.
"Today we're definitively and formally renouncing the plan for Formula One in Rome," he told reporters during the conference, a few days after he hinted that the city would switch attention to a bid for the 2020 Olympics.
It follows a series of blows for the proposed race. Last week Bernie Ecclestone wrote to Alemanno saying that he could not support any plans for two races in Italy.
The race has also lost support from Italian F1 behemoth Ferrari, with both team principal Stefano Domenicali and the company's president Luca di Montezemolo saying that they would prefer races in new territories rather than extra races in existing F1 zones.
There had been suggestions that the Rome race could share the Italian GP slot with the Monza circuit, in a similar way to how Hockenheim and the Nurburgring share responsibilities of hosting the German round of the championship.
But Alemanno dismissed the possibility of coming to an agreement with the other Italian track earlier this week, saying that he had struggled to find a "great dialogue" with the Monza organisers.
Monza signed an extension to their F1 contract in 2010 which confirmed the track's spot on the calendar until 2016.
Ecclestone's formal stance against countries hosting two races is a reaction to the increasingly bloated F1 calendar, which will boast a record 20 events in 2011.
New races in the United States and Russia are already confirmed for the coming seasons, and Ecclestone has already said that he sees 20 races per year as an ideal maximum for the sport.
The collapse in support for a second race in Italy will likely increase pressure on the Valencia street track in the coming years, with the unloved Tilkedrome being the second race in Spain on the calendar, the only country that currently boasts a pair of F1 events.
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