The long-term future of the Australian Grand Prix is still up for debate, with FOM boss Bernie Ecclestone suggesting that if the organisers no longer want the race, he will not have an issue with replacing the Melbourne event.
Ecclestone's views on the Australian leg of the F1 calendar seemed to soften last week, when he suggested that the race was 'as important as Monaco' to the sport.
But in a more recent interview with the UK's almost-read Daily Express newspaper, Ecclestone has now said that the sport needs two venues to depart the schedule to make way for new races in the USA and Russia in the coming years, and that Australia could be one of them.
He added that the other venue to be replaced would probably be either of the Spanish legs of the F1 tour in Barcelona and Valencia, hinting that those circuits could 'share' the rights to the Spanish GP in the same way the Nurburgring and Hockenheim share the German GP.
"We are probably going to have to drop two races to fit in Austin and Russia," Ecclestone explained in the interview.
"Australia are saying they don't want a race. If they want to go, they can go and the next one (to go) is maybe one of the races in Spain."
He added: "We are alternating [the grand prix] in Germany so maybe that's what we will do in Spain."
Meanwhile, the Australian GP suffered another PR blow when it transpired that Ecclestone would not be attending the race this year.
Instead, according to reports, the F1 oligarch will be in New York to discuss a proposal from mayor Michael Bloomberg to host a GP on Staten Island in the future.
But the Melbourne race promoter Ron Walker has insisted that the race is "very secure" for the long-term, despite the uncertainty over a future deal.
"I think it is very secure," Walker told the Autosport website on Tuesday, "There is a five-year option there that goes either way, and Mr. Ecclestone recognises that this is a great city to come to."
He added that he understood how critical comments from the Melbourne mayor Robert Doyle, who sparked the debate over the future of the race when he suggested the city should drop the loss-making race, would have made Ecclestone react negatively.
"I would say the same thing if I was him," he shrugged, "If you have the mayor of a capital city criticising the race and saying we don't really need it as it is too costly, I would turn around and say: 'Well, I'll give it to President Putin, or to the Prime Minister of India, or Korea.'
"The Mayor of New York wants one for Staten Island. So that is what I would be saying – Bernie doesn't want a race to come to a capital city where it is unwelcome."
Doyle himself has been a visible presence in the build-up to the race, with the mayor offering vocal support to the event despite his earlier comments.
"This is an event for Melbourne, and if something is good for Melbourne then I am for that," he crowed to reporters.
"The grand prix certainly brings excitement to Melbourne. The question of the licence fee is a question for another day, and I am here because any event that is good for Melbourne is an event that I will support."
Meanwhile, Walker added that he was prepared to re-open discussions over a possible new permanent GP track in the Avalon region of the city.
"Now that Mr. Ecclestone has raised the issue again, maybe we might go to Avalon and look at the plans," he hinted.
"It would take about three years to build, and the decision would have to be made next year. Or, as part of the new contract from 2015 going forward. It is something that we will raise with the government very soon after the race."
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