08/05/2019
NEWS STORY
Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said that his country's 2020 round of the world championship will be held at a new purpose built track in Rio de Janeiro.
Speaking at a press conference in the city, Bolsonaro said that the new circuit is to be located in the Deodoro region of the city, with construction expected to take no more than seven months.
Revealing that a deal had been signed with the city's governor Wilson Witzel and mayor Marcelo Crivella, Bolsonaro said that construction will begin soon with completion before the end of the year.
"The management of F1 has decided to maintain a grand prix in Brazil, but Sao Paulo has become impractical because of the event's public financial support and the debt that exists over there," he told reporters.
"The new track will be built in six or seven months," he added. "The hotel sector will be happy, the state economy as well since it will be six or seven thousands jobs generation. It is good for both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil."
With Hermann Tilke understood to be designing the new track, fans (and drivers) will no doubt fear the worst, especially as Interlagos, which currently hosts the race, though beset by various issues, not least a lack of government funding, usually provides great racing.
Interlagos, albeit with a different layout, hosted its first (world championship) Grand Prix in 1973, the event moving to Rio's Jacarepagua circuit in 1978 and again between 1981 and 1989, before moving back to Sao Paulo.
Jacarepagua was demolished in 2016 to make way for the Olympic Park.
It has been suggested that the new circuit could be named in honour of Ayrton Senna, though the three-time world champion was born in Sao Paulo.