Bernie Ecclestone admits to having talks regarding Morocco GP – Formula 1 news
F1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone, has admitted to having talks with the King of Morocco regarding the return of the Morocco Grand Prix.
“I met the King of Morocco a couple of years ago and talked about F1 but what reason would it be good for us? The manufacturers are not selling anything there,” Ecclestone told to Pitpass. “How many people would come?”
On the other hand, a senior sponsorship agent for F1 said that the circuit in Marrakech, which is one of the major cities of Morocco, is very good. He added that the city will be offering great investment; the prices have fallen down and that it has become
immensely overcrowded. He said that he has already met with the chief executive, Aly Horma, who is very a good guy and that the location is great. However, he told that such money is only present in King’s coffers and he will only spend his money to promote
races in cities such as Casablanca.
The last race in Morocco was held in 1958 at Casablanca but it was overshadowed due to the death of Lewis-Evans as his car engine seized up and he crashed into barriers setting his car on fire. Ecclestone was the manager for the driver and was also a good
friend of him which certainly diminishes the chances for the F1 boss taking the sport back to the country.
No racing competition was held in the country since then but recently in 2009, Morocco hosted the international motor race over the street circuit of Marrakech.
The FIA has been making the F1 calendar tighter with each season. Recently, the governing body has rescheduled the 2013 F1 calendar to make a slot available for a certain European race but no name has been revealed. There had been talks about the Turkish
GP and the Austrian GP but Turkey refused to fund the race while Ecclestone denied being interested in Austria.
Ecclestone has already admitted that they plan to add new races with each new season and F1’s return to United States after five years in 2012 was definitely a successful one. However, FIA has been more interested in Middle Eastern countries recently.
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