Amidst the shock and horror of the last 48 hours, Bernie Ecclestone will be delighted to know that one of his F1 dreams has taken a step closer to becoming a reality.

It's well known that Ecclestone would, for the most part, love to do away with boring old race tracks on the F1 calendar and instead host his races on the streets of the world's most exciting cities, Monaco, Valencia, Singapore, New York, London, Paris and Rome.

Today, his hopes of a race on the streets of the Italian capital received a major boost when official outlaid plans for a track and details of the $200m funding for the project.

Mayor Gianni Alemanno presented the project along with Maurizio Flammini, a former F2 driver and World Superbike promoter, who is heavily involved in the scheme.

According to Alemanno, the race would take place on a track laid out in the Esposizione Universale Roma (EUR) district of Rome, originally designed as a business area in the 1950s.

While organizers say they hope to attract as many as 324,000 additional tourists to the legendary city, one has to ask whether people would really visit such a wonderful city merely for a Grand Prix.

Officials at Monza and Luca di Montezemolo have already expressed fears regarding such an event, with the Ferrari President admitting that while he would welcome a one-off race in the capital he would not want to see it replace the Autodromo Nazionale as host of Italy's round of the World Championship.