F1: 'Rome will get its Grand Prix'
Race in 2012 or 2013 will be 'fixed' date on calendar says mayor
01 September, 16:02
(ANSA) - Rome, September 1 - Rome will stage a Formula One
Grand Prix either in 2012 or 2013, Mayor Gianni Alemanno said
Wednesday.The mayor admitted that officials still had to get round objections from residents of the area where the race is planned but said he was confident the issues could be resolved.
"There are still problems because we have to find a full agreement with the residents," he said on breakfast TV.
"But the Rome Grand Prix will take place. There are no certainties in life, but this is a very solid promise".
Sweeping away doubts that the race might be only a one-off, Alemanno said the GP would be "fixed" in the F1 calendar. Quizzed on opposition to the event because of its impact on the environment, Alemanno replied: "it would take place in August when air pollution is very low".
As to whether the Rome GP will make it in time to get on the F1 calendar in 2012, he said: "it's up to us, it depends how long it'll take to make the necessary changes to the EUR district".
The EUR district is a Fascist-era southern part of Rome, currently seeing several flagship redevelopment projects including what has been billed as Rome's first skyscraper, where the planned GP is expected to be run.
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone recently said Rome should get its GP in 2013 but Alemanno is hoping to beat that deadline by a year.
Alemanno reiterated Wednesday there would be "no clash" with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Rome is hoping for its "own special slot", the mayor said after Ecclestone's thumbs up.
Rome was determined to press ahead with the plan, he said, "because a billion euros a year is a boost to the city's economy that we can't do without".
Rome officials and organisers led by local businessman Maurizio Flammini have been working with motorsport's ruling body FIA.
Ferrari boss Luca Cordero de Montezemolo, head of the team organisation FOTA, has reversed his earlier opposition to the project.
The EUR district has become trendier in recent years after featuring as the backdrop to several films.
FI experts think overtaking would be easier there than on other new street circuits like Valencia and Singapore.
An organisation of Italian investors and racing enthusiasts, FG Group, was formally set up in January to work on the project.
FG has already met with Hermann Tilke, considered the world's greatest designer of new-generation race tracks.
According to the Italian media, the group plans to outdo the historic Monaco Grand Prix, which is also contested on a street circuit.
FG chief Flammini, who already organises the world Superbike championship, is insistent that the event should not be a one-off but should run ''for at least four years''.
He stressed that the race would have ''a format different from all the other events'' and would create thousands of jobs for Rome.
The group has assured Monza executives its plan would not threaten the Italian GP, one of the oldest events on the motor racing calendar, first run in 1921.
The idea of staging a Grand Prix in Rome was first aired in the mid-1980s by Enzo Ferrari.
photo: Fernando Alonso at Spa last Sunday
