28/05/2010
NEWS STORY
Though the event is still failing to capture the imagination of punters, certainly in terms of putting bums on seats, Bernie Ecclestone admits that he is hoping to secure a new deal to keep F1 in Turkey.
Despite having one of the best circuits - certainly compared to other efforts by Herman Tilke - and usually providing some decent racing, the event at Istanbul Park Circuit has never really captured the public's imagination, certainly in terms of getting punters through the turnstiles and in to the grandstands.
The inaugural race in 2005 attracted 185,000 spectators, but by last year this had dropped to 65,000, a fall of around 65 percent. As a result, earlier this month organizers slashed ticket prices by as much as 50 percent.
With swathes of empty grandstands today and a number of new events scheduled to join the calendar in the next couple of years, many are of the opinion that this year could be the last time the F1 'circus' pitches tent in Turkey, not necessarily so, says Bernie Ecclestone.
"We are talking about signing a 10-year deal with them," the F1 supremo told reporters this afternoon. Looking at the grandstands, a number of which didn't contain a single fan, he admitted: "It's not good but you've got to remember that if you'd have come here 10 years ago and said to somebody 'Formula One', they wouldn't have known what you were talking about. It takes a long time to get into, for people to start to understand."