Recent reports have revealed that the future of the Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix is in jeopardy.
An official of the venue claims that the finance ministry of the country is not going to double the race fee as requested by the sport’s organisers.
Murat Yalcinta, who is the head of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, has stated that Formula 1 Management’s CEO Bernie Ecclestone asked the organisers of the Turkish Grand Prix to increase the price from next year. The current contract will expire after this season’s race which is expected to take place in less than 3 weeks time.
Murat believes that the race after 2011 is not likely to “go ahead” after holding a board meeting about the future of the Turkish Grand Prix.
“Each year the price of Formula 1 for the racing ministries company was $13 million. After this year Ecclestone asked for $26 million,” Murat wrote on his Twitter page.
However, no official statement by the organisers of the Turkish Grand Prix has been released yet regarding the matter. However, since the venue’s Formula 1 debut back in 2005, the attendances at every year’s event are increasing which is also increasing the profit margin of the organisers.
As a result, since the International Automobile Federation (FIA) is asking for more money for the race, the organisers will have to go through a tough time in order to hold the race at the Istanbul Park Circuit.
According to the current situation, it seems that Bernie might not be too concerned about losing the race for the years to come as the United States Grand Prix is expected to return to the Formula 1 calendar in 2012. This time, the US GP will take place at a newly built circuit in Austin instead of the old Indianapolis circuit.
Other than that, Ecclestone is going through a tough time in pleasing the teams along with introducing new and more venues for the sport since most of the teams want to keep a year’s season to a maximum of 20 races.
Because of this, Bernie is being forced to get rid of some venues as well as he stated some time ago that the sport “does not need the Australian Grand Prix.” The organisers of the Australian GP were also not willing to pay more money for the event.
Nevertheless, the Indian Grand Prix is expected to debut in 2011 at the end of October and it seems that Bernie’s thirst for new venues might lead to the elimination of some current venues from the Formula 1 calendar which might include the Turkish Grand Prix as well.
via Refusal of Turkish Grand Prix organisers to pay more fee to FIA puts future of race in jeopardy | bettor.com.