planetf1.com

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that he is in talks about holding a Grand Prix in Mexico City in 2014.
The race would take place at Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez which last hosted an F1 race in 1992 and needs a multi-million dollar upgrade in order to do so again.

The Mexican Grand Prix was expected to return to the F1 calendar in 2006 at a street circuit just south of the international airport in the beach resort of Cancun. The race did not take place and, since then, there have been widespread rumors about when and where it would return. Ecclestone has stayed quiet about the rumors but has now revealed that Mexico City is in pole position to become the new home of the Mexican Grand Prix.

“Mexico City is a better place to hold the race than Cancun,” he said. “In more or less any city around the world you could ask people ‘where is Mexico City?’ and they would say Mexico. If you said to somebody where is Cancun they would say ‘I don’t know.’”

However, Ecclestone also revealed how close Cancun came to staging the Mexican Grand Prix. “We were going to do a race in Cancun. We had a contract but they couldn’t get the permission they wanted,” he said.

After the Grand Prix in 1992, international racing did not return to Mexico City until 2002 when the Champ Car series held a round of its schedule at the track there.

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The Champ Car race was a big success and regularly drew crowds of more than 300,000 over the race weekend.

F1’s renewed interest in Mexico has been driven by the success of home driver Sergio Perez, who narrowly missed out on victory for Sauber in the Malaysian and Italian Grands Prix last year. Perez’s chances of success have accelerated this year as he has joined the front-running McLaren team while another Mexican, Esteban Gutierrez, takes his place at Sauber.

Unlike the plans for Cancun, the Mexico City project has a true “dream team” behind it. It appears the three key players are Alejandro Soberon, Tavo Hellmund and Carlos Slim Domit. Soberon is the chief executive of CIE and Hellmund is well-known in F1 circles for being the creator and mastermind of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, which last year hosted the U.S. Grand Prix after a five year hiatus. Slim Domit is the son of the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim, and bankrolled both Perez and Gutierrez for many years to get them into F1.

Slim Domit has an additional link to F1 as he sits on the FIA Senate, the decision-making body of motor racing’s governing body the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.

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The race is likely to be paired on the F1 calendar with the U.S. Grand Prix, since Austin is one of the closest major cities to the border with Mexico. Organizers claimed that last year’s U.S. Grand Prix attracted a crowd of 265,499 over the race weekend. Ecclestone said, “I should think that half the people that went to Austin were Mexican. There is absolutely a lot of potential in Mexico.”

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A nation that's far more worthy of a Grand Prix than the likes of India or Bahrain.

A nation that's far more worthy of a Grand Prix than the likes of India or Bahrain.

Because?

Heritage?

Yea. Why?

Yea. Why?

@SteveC: You should stop your imagination from clouding your judgement. You talk like as if the country is run by CartelS And your country is free of all these vices. Secondly, you mention India and Bahrain as "3rd world countries". LOL. Im afraid you are wrong Coz they are not. Both India and Bahrain are doing much better than most of the European countries. Also if you say F1 should go to places that have heritage then let me remind you that Heritage doesnt come overnight. Someone nees to start it and build it. That is what these countries and many more are doing. That is how Frace did it anf that is how Britain did it. It

@Steve: F1 is first and foremost a business. So as a CEO Bernie has a job to spread it to a wider audience. So there is nothing wrong in exploring new territories which may or maynot have had prior F1 history. Unless an effort is made to introduce the sport in new countries you wont have so many fan and so many people aspiring to be in F1. Secondly talking about corruption, its everywhere. Its something that cannot and will not go away. Take Italy, Corruption there too is very high. Berlusconi himself has gone on record to say "Giving bribes is not wrong if you want to get a job done". Best part, many parts of Italy are still controlled by the Mafia. But do we hear anyone saying its unsafe, lets not go racing there? Nope. Politics and sport shouldnt mix.

Id welcome a return to Mexico.

i would also welcome a return to Argentina.
So the 'Americas' have 5 races per season - Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Canada.
Asia - 5 (Japan, Signapore, India, Malaysia, Korea)

need races in Africa and Australia and the rest europe.

I dont get the point of your last message. Are you saying F1 should be only in America or Europe because its a "More manageble" timezone for the fans like you?

I would go to a race in Mexico except I don't want to be murdered.

Not said in jest.

Mexico has horrendous problems with violence and kidnappings right now. I sometimes forget that the rest of the world might not hear about it as much we here in Texas do.

I would go to a race in Mexico except I don't want to be murdered.
Not said in jest.
Mexico has horrendous problems with violence and kidnappings right now. I sometimes forget that the rest of the world might not hear about it as much we here in Texas do.
Aside from that....I can't imagine the logic in having FOUR races in North America in one year. That's insane.

I would go to a race in Mexico except I don't want to be murdered.

Not said in jest.

Mexico has horrendous problems with violence and kidnappings right now. I sometimes forget that the rest of the world might not hear about it as much we here in Texas do.

Aside from that....I can't imagine the logic in having FOUR races in North America in one year. That's insane.

Id welcome a return to Mexico.

i would also welcome a return to Argentina.
So the 'Americas' have 5 races per season - Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Canada.
Asia - 5 (Japan, Signapore, India, Malaysia, Korea)

need races in Africa and Australia and the rest europe.

There are so many great tracks around the world but its unsubstainable for F1 to have more tha 20. Probably Korea is the only one likley to go anytime soon although maybe thereare doubts about Nurburging and Australia as well. Probably the only way to go is to alternate more, F1 needs the classic tracks but it needs the money tracks as well so somethings gotta give. As for Mexico, I love the track but hope they dont ruin it like they did in Austria particularly and can see it getting big crowds with the Perez/Gutierrez situation. Carlos Slim will contribute a bit of money you ould guess so I can see it going ahead possibly as a replacemenr for New Jersey which just dosn't look ready.

I've been saying for a long time that Hungaroring needs to be dropped. As much as it is a classic track, I think the venue is outdated, produces processional races, and does it even draw a significant amount of spectators (compared to other European tracks) to justify its presence in the calendar? That track is like a testament to why all the gimmicks like DRS and super fast wearing tyres were implemented.