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SYDNEY: Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone says Melbourne’s
contract to keep the financially embattled Australian Grand Prix has
little chance of being renewed beyond 2010, reports said Sunday.
Ecclestone said there were better prospects of
chasing more money, sponsorship and television audiences if the
event was held in India, Russia or South Korea.
The Australian GP has been held on the streets
of Melbourne and Adelaide for the last 23 years, but financial
pressure and a desire to stage the race at night for European
television audiences has clouded its future in Australia.
“Maybe we don’t want to be in Australia,”
Ecclestone told Sydney newspaper The Sunday Telegraph. “Our costs
are very high in Australia and we get a lot less money. It’s
bloody bad for us.
Ecclestone said car manufacturers and sponsors
also supported a move. He said Melbourne’s only chance to keep the
race—which launches the F1 season on the Albert Park circuit from
March 13 to 16—was if it was held at night.
Singapore will stage the first-ever Formula One
night race on September 28 on a circuit of public roads around the
city-state’s Marina Bay area.
Melbourne is contracted to stage the event until
2010, but the Australian GP has encountered significant financial
losses since the race was shifted from Adelaide in 1996.
Last year’s Australian Grand Prix ran at a
loss of nearly $35 million (US$31.6 million).
Since the event moved from Adelaide, the
Melbourne GP has lost more than $120 million (US$108.5 million).
-- AFP
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