Bernie Ecclestone has signalled he is ready to drop the inaugural US Grand Prix in Austin from next season’s calendar, after revealing no party connected to the project currently has a valid contract to stage the event.
Speculation that all was not well with the Austin event had swirled around for several weeks but revelations from both the race organisers, and now Formula 1’s commercial supremo Ecclestone, in recent days appear to have taken the situation to the brink.
In wake of the circuit developers, Circuit of the Americas (COTA), announcing that work on the purpose-built facility had been halted while they awaited the delivery of a contract from Formula One Management, Ecclestone has now revealed the original agreement signed last year with Tavo Hellmund’s Full Throttle Productions promotional firm had recently been cancelled owing to an unspecified breach of the terms.
He says COTA had tried to take on the original contract but the Briton says no financial guarantee has been forthcoming from the organisers and therefore the situation remains in limbo. ITV.com
Explaining how the situation has spiralled, Ecclestone said: “We had an agreement with Full Throttle Productions.
“Everything was signed and sealed, but we kept putting things off like the dates, various letters of credit and things that should have been sent, but nothing ever happened.
“Then these other people (COTA) came on the scene, saying that they wanted to do things, but that they had problems with Tavo.
“They said they had the circuit, and that they wanted an agreement with me. I told them they had to sort out the contract with Tavo, which they said they would.
“But that has gone away now because we’ve cancelled Tavo’s contract as he was in breach.
“We’ve waited six months for him to remedy the breach. He knows full well why we’ve cancelled. He’s happy.
“But these other people haven’t got a contract. All we’ve asked them to do is get us a letter of credit. “We are looking for security for money they are going to have to pay us. That is via a letter of credit, normally from a bank.
“If people don’t have the money they find it difficult to get the letter of credit, and so we don’t issue a contract.” Telegraph.co.uk
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