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Th Formula One race at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, October 25, 2015.
LAURA SKELDING/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Bernie Ecclestone made a comment Friday that should make Austin and Circuit of the Americas feel better about their long-term chances of retaining Formula One racing.
Speaking from the Bahrain Grand Prix, Formula One’s chief executive said he’s in discussions about bringing a race to Las Vegas, but he also made it sound like the U.S. Grand Prix at COTA is not going away.
“It is possible that there could be an event there,” Ecclestone told reporters about Vegas. “That location has a lot to offer. Organizers there have a contract. Vegas would be super.”
He said the timetable on Vegas “would be a couple of years, I suppose.”
The F1 chief said any proposed new race in the United States would not replace the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin.
“We will keep Austin and have another race,” Ecclestone said.
Circuit of the Americas recently got a one-year reprieve of sorts when USGP organizers were able to pay F1 the hosting fee for the race after a settlement lowered the tax bill for COTA and more funds became available from the state.
Ecclestone said Las Vegas, which hosted F1 races in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in 1981 and ’82, could replace the Italian Grand Prix on the calendar.
“Monza has got a contract for this year so it is going to go ahead. Next year is the question mark,” he told The Daily Mail of London. “I don’t think we have to have an Italian Grand Prix. Somebody once told me a funny thing that you couldn’t have Formula 1 without a race in France – but we do.
“We have got 21 races now. It could go more, but I don’t think it will. It’s enough. Some of the guys at the teams are shattered.”
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