FOM chief Bernie Ecclestone says that he will give the organisers of the new United States GP in Austin, Texas a further week to sort their financial situation and save their chances of appearing on the 2012 Formula One calendar.
Ecclestone originally stated that the organisers had until after the Brazilian GP weekend to sign a new contract that will guarantee them a spot on the schedule.But in an interview on Wednesday, Ecclestone said that he had now relaxed the deadline until the World Motor Sport Council meeting on December 7th.
At that meeting, the final 2012 calendar, as agreed at a meeting of the Formula One Commission last month, will be officially ratified.
"The deadline hasn't been met, so we are still trying to make it happen," Ecclestone told the Associated Press, "They need to get some money and a pen ... as soon as possible. They know full well.
"Deadlines are terrible things because people always go to the end of the deadline. But if it isn't all signed before the World Motor Sport Council meeting, [the race] can't happen."
The US race has suffered a series of recent setbacks financially, with the new Circuit of the Americas track being denied state funding to help pay for construction.
The organisers have insisted that they have the funds ready to pay the 2012 sanctioning fee to Ecclestone, but insisted last week that the revised contract offered by the F1 chief contained "unrealistic and unfeasible demands".
A new contract was required after the initial deal was scrapped over a dispute between the track organisers CotA and Tavo Hellmund's race promotors Full Throttle Productions.
"They are struggling to get the financial side sorted out — that's the problem," Bernie explained, "They are trying to do it."
He also added that despite his determination to get a final decision pushed through quickly, the loss of F1's planned return to the US would be a blow.
"It would be a loss to everyone [if it didn't happen]," he insisted, "They would like the race to take place [and] I'd rather see the race happen than not."
The return of F1 to the US is seen as a key part of the sport's expansion, and despite a deal being in place for a second American GP in New Jersey for 2013, McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh said on Wednesday that the Austin race was crucial to the sport's plans.
"I hope, and I don't honestly know, I hope it is negotiation and posturing and only Bernie knows what is going on there," he told the Autosport website regarding the uncertainty over the race.
"Bernie I hope, who is meeting them in the next few days, I hope they can come to an accommodation. America is the land of the automobile, you have NASCAR in the south, but F1 should really take America by storm."
F1 has been missing from the US since the final race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway took place in 2007.
| Next > |
|---|
