Speaking at a press conference in Montreal, Mayor Gerald Tremblay has said he is exploring a number of avenues in an attempt to save the Canadian Grand Prix, which was sensationally dropped from the 2009 calendar on Tuesday.

"We understand that there is a contractual difference between Grand Prix du Canada and Bernie Ecclestone, somewhere in the region of $10 and $20 million," he said.

"We must better understand the economic, the legal and the administration considerations before we make a decision that will be financially responsible," he continued. "However, we will do everything possible to save it."

Tremblay's comments come follow forty-eight hours of behind the scenes discussions as the shock decision to scrap the race, one of the most popular on the F1 calendar, sinks in.

Earlier, Paul Wilson, Vice-President of marketing for Grand Prix du Canada, in an interview with CBC News, revealed that the company is almost $30 million in debt. He admitted that President and CEO of the company, Normand Legault, no longer wants to be involved in the promotion of the event.

"We're not going to do the Grand Prix if we lose money," said Wilson. "It's a business. Mr. Legault is a businessman, and like any other businessman, if at any point one of your enterprises is not making any profits then you have to look somewhere else to make money."

According to Wilson, the fees being demanded by FOM would mean that in order to make a profit, ticket sales for 2009 would need to double or even triple.

With Ecclestone able to claim $40m from organizers in Singapore and $28m in Bahrain, those organizers of races without Government backing are struggling, to put it mildly.

"Amongst the 18 Grands Prix across the world, 17 of them are owned and operated partially or totally by governments," said Wilson, who admitted that if Montreal is to continue hosting a round of the World Championship the Government will need to step in, a call echoed by Ville Marie Mayor Benoît Labonté, who said: "The City of Montreal, the government of Quebec, as well as the government of Canada, should get together to make sure we can put together an offer."

However, Premier Jean Charest, while not wishing to kill off all hope, admitted that any intervention by the Quebec government to save the Grand Prix would be conditional on taxpayers seeing economic benefits from such a move.