Bernie Ecclestone (2R), CEO and president of F1»s governing body.
Next year’s planned US Grand Prix will be cancelled if organisers do not agree a contract and pay fees by the end of next week, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told the press on Thursday.
The 81-year-old Briton said his patience with organisers of the race in Austin, Texas, had run out and he was not prepared to wait beyond the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo on Nov. 27.
Circuit of the Americas president Steve Sexton indicated in a statement that hope was not dead and 2013 might be a possibility.
Asked whether he had set a deadline of Dec. 7, when the governing FIA’s World Motor Sports Council meets in New Delhi to ratify the final calendar, Ecclestone said he could not wait that long.
«It needs to be before that. We don’t need any deadlines, having to thrash around at the last minute to do something. It’s gone on long enough.
«They (the Texas circuit owners) have got next week anyway. We are going to be in Brazil so they can come back next week,» he added.
Asked whether the race, which was announced with great fanfare as the first to be held in the United States since 2007, would be off if no deal was done, Ecclestone replied: «Yeah, yeah.»
The Formula One boss denied he would be making more of an effort to keep Austin on the calendar if he had not done a deal for a grand prix in New Jersey, with a backdrop of New York’s Manhattan skyline, for 2013.
«There’s nothing to save. They can’t bloody well pay,» he said, his exasperation evident.
«What do you want me to do, wait until next year? To put all our cars on it, run around the circuit and everything and come back with no money? The teams want paying.»
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