21/01/2011
NEWS STORY
Rome has given up on hosting a round of the Formula One World Championship, instead focussing its efforts on winning the rights to host the 2020 Olympics.
Plans to host an F1 race on streets of the eternal city faded when Bernie Ecclestone and team bosses suggested that it was no longer feasible for countries to host two rounds of the world championship. There had been talk of alternating the event with Monza but officials at the Autodromo Nazionale were not happy about the idea… and why should they be?
Speaking at a new conference today, Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno confirmed that the city has abandoned plans to hold an F1 race, telling reporters: "Today we definitively and formally abandon the Formula One project for Rome."
Meanwhile, Roberto Formigoni, president of the Lombardy region in which Monza is situated, said he would now back Rome's bid for the 2020 Olympics, despite the longstanding rivalry between north and south.
"We are and will be side by side with Rome because the Olympic bid can be successful and a victory for Rome can be a victory for all of Italy," he told the new conference via videolink.