27/03/2016
NEWS STORY
Bernie Ecclestone insists that F1 would survive the loss of Italy from the calendar.
Ahead of the second round of the busiest world championship schedule in the history of the sport, attention is already turning to 2017.
Though the rules have yet to be agreed, some designers are understood to have begun work, whilst Bernie Ecclestone is piecing together the calendar.
Whilst the Italian Grand Prix is safe at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza this year, a deal has yet to be agreed which will keep the race, and whilst there have been numerous claims that it has been agreed, this is not the case.
In a typical move aimed at spurring the (Italian) authorities into action, Ecclestone has warned that should Monza lose the race, F1 could continue without Italy hosting a round of the world championship, even though, like Britain, it has hosted a race every year since the series began in 1950.
"Monza has got a contract for this year so it is going to go ahead. Next year is the question mark," he told the Mail on Sunday.
"I don't think we have to have an Italian Grand Prix," he added. "Somebody once told me a funny thing that you couldn't have Formula 1 without a race in France. But we do."
At a time drivers are openly admitting their fears for the sport's future, the loss of one of the favourite - though least challenging - venues would only further damage a sport already haemorrhaging fans and sponsors alike.
Indeed, at a time many claim the sport has lost its soul, Ecclestone admits he is still eyeing a race in the capital of bling, Las Vegas.
"Vegas would be super," he says ". They have a contract. I think the trouble is the pen. The organiser hasn't got a pen."
This at a time the United States Grand Prix, in its latest guise, has escaped extinction by the skin of its teeth.