Turkish government will not provide GP funding

06/12/2012

Hopes of Turkey's return to the F1 calendar took a blow this afternoon when the country's Sports Minister said there would be no government funding for the event.

Earlier, The Turkish Automobile Sports Federation (TOSFED) chairman, Demire Berberoglu, has said that the event could only take place if the government helped with the costs.

However, Sports Minister Suat Kilic has poured cold water on the proposal, claiming that the race is a matter for the private sector, even though most governments that underwrite F1 races do so because of the (hoped for) economic benefits F1 would bring to their countries.

"If it wants to, the private sector can bring Formula One," the Dogan news agency quoted Kilic as saying. "But there is no question of us paying the cost of the rights which have been proposed to a private company to bring Formula One.

"Our government paid $13.5 million a year to the organisers for five years for the rights," he added. "In exchange for that, all the income went to the organisers, so the state did not get any benefit from it."