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Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that the US GP is on the verge of disappearing from the 2012 calendar – and that nobody holds a contract to run the race.
In essence, the final deadline for any kind of resolution is the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in India on Dec. 7.
Speaking to Ian Parkes of the UK’s Press Association, Ecclestone admitted that the race would be dropped if there was no solution in the coming days: “Yes, it will be, for sure, 100 percent.”
Ecclestone also confirmed that Tavo Hellmund’s Full Throttle Productions no longer holds a contract to run the race, because it has been cancelled. Circuit of the Americas’ Bobby Epstein has thus been in negotiation over a totally new contract, rather than an acquisition of the one held by Hellmund.
“We had an agreement with Full Throttle Productions,” Ecclestone told Parkes. “Everything was signed and sealed, but we kept putting things off like the dates, various letters of credit and things that should have been sent, but nothing ever happened.
“Then these other people [Epstein and COTA] came on the scene, saying that they wanted to do things, but that they had problems with Tavo.
“They said they had the circuit, and that they wanted an agreement with me. I told them they had to sort out the contract with Tavo, which they said they would. But that has gone away now because we’ve cancelled Tavo’s contract as he was in breach.
“We’ve waited six months for him to remedy the breach. He knows full well why we’ve cancelled. He’s happy. But these other people haven’t got a contract. All we’ve asked them to do is get us a letter of credit.
“We are looking for security for money they are going to have to pay us. That is via a letter of credit, normally from a bank. If people don’t have the money, they find it difficult to get the letter of credit, and so we don’t issue a contract.”
The big problem is that the race no longer has any guarantee of receiving $25 million from the Texas Major Events Trust Fund, which was to have funded the sanctioning fee due to Ecclestone and the Formula One organization.
Bernie always pulled this crap with Silverstone. I hope that this is one of those negotiating ploys because the place looks great!
Pull up a chair, get some popcorn and let’s see what shakes…
Ecclestone is such a tool. I would much rather go to Texas than NJ. But at least NJ is an option.
I hope something can be worked out. I was looking forward to going down there.Man, I saw this coming… and heard from a few buddies in the biz overseas that there was talk of this falling apart.
Personally, I think this has everything to do with the new race announced in New Jersey. Whatever works for Bernie is all that’s ever mattered to him.
But I agree with Mike’s point about Silverstone… odd are, we may still be driving to Texas next Fall… I hope.
I’d say I’m encouraged because they’ve already broken ground on the track, but then again look at all the infrastructure US F1 apparently had when they crapped out.
If the race happens, I’ll be there, but until then I’m not holding my breath. 🙁
Word on the internets is that the race is BACK ON (not like it was ever technically off, though). 🙂
http://www.theaustingrandprix.com/news/2011/12/6/formula-1-re-signs-with-austin-for-2012.html
Typical Bernie being Bernie. Whenever he wants to get race promoters motivated, he pulls this crap. Telling everyone ‘we don’t need this race, we have 36 other small countries waiting with contracts, etc’. He pulled it most recently with Korea and India, and he’s pulled it with Silverstone, Spa, Brazil, Hungary…
Unfortunately in this sport, you can’t believe anything until cars hit the track, and even then…
But I wouldn’t cancel your vacation time just yet!
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