Ecclestone: France and Portugal interested for 2013
Bernie Ecclestone revealed that France and Portugal were interested in being part of the 2013 Formula 1 season calendar which will start in a month and a half in Australia.
The calendar for the 2013 Formula 1 season is still not finalized. A date has been reserved for the weekend of July 20 and 21 for a European Grand Prix, but so far, there is still nothing concrete regarding this date.
There has often been talk of Austria, Turkey, and France as potential candidates, but nothing has been confirmed at the moment. F1 is not expected to return to Turkey, as the Turkish government does not wish to financially support such an event.
Austria could be an interesting solution with the recent upgrade of the A1 Ring – now called the Red Bull Ring – but Bernie Ecclestone does not seem interested in this track, as he stated in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten: « I would be happy to go there for a vacation. But we have too many races in Europe. »
There remains a priori only France, but Bernie Ecclestone revealed in this same interview that another country has shown interest, Portugal: « For the still vacant date, there is interest from France and now also from Portugal with the new track in Algarve. »
The last Formula 1 Grand Prix held in Portugal took place in 1996 on the Estoril track, but since then the country has built a modern circuit, with the Algarve circuit – completed in 2008. The latter is approved for F1 even though it has never hosted a race, only private testing.
Bernie Ecclestone also commented on the uncertainty surrounding the German Grand Prix, scheduled for July 7th. He stated that everything is still open. As a reminder, the Nürburgring has experienced serious financial problems recently, but the circuit’s officials remain confident. If going to the Nürburgring proves impossible, F1 could turn to Hockenheim, although nothing has been decided yet.
