The promoter of the European Grand Prix in Valencia has said that any proposed slot-share deal in future with the Circuit de Catalunya would not be good for either party, cooling suggestions of a deal between the tracks.
With the Formula One calendar getting ever-more congested over the next few years, the European GP was seen as one of the most likely races to be ditched.
Bernie Ecclestone has already signed a deal for a new Russian GP from 2013, while reports have linked the likes of South Africa, Mexico and France with a return to the sport in the next few years.
And with both Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt keen to keep the calendar at a 20-race maximum, current F1 races face a challenge to hold onto their spots on the championship.
The most obvious method of freeing a spot on the calendar appears to be for the two Spanish events in Barcelona and Valencia to alternate hosting a single event.
Such a deal would be similar to the German GP's current deal between the Hockenheim and Nurburgring tracks.
But the European GP promoter Jorge Martinez Aspar has poured cold water on those suggestions this week.
"We are not developing the alternating with Barcelona [plan]," Aspar was quoted as having told Spanish radio this week.
He added: "If [Barcelona] are there [on the calendar], wonderful, but we want to have this grand prix. The sharing would not be good for them or for us."
His comments follow quotes from Valencia's sport minister Dolores Johnson, who suggested that while the track was happy to honour their current contract, which runs to 2014, they may change the terms of the deal in future.
Johnson was quoted by the EFE news agency as saying that a new deal would be signed only "in the best conditions" for the city.
The Valencia race has been criticised since joining the calendar in 2008, both for its uninspiring layout and processional races.
But reports from the often-incorrect Spanish F1 media earlier this year suggested that the street track was actually the most likely to keep the Spanish GP slot in the long term, with the Circuit de Catalunya dropping off the calendar.
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