According to a report issued by the Melbourne newspaper Herald Sun, Ecclestone was invited by the very mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, to discuss a potential F1 race in Staten Island sometime in the near future.
The same source notes that Bloomberg's invitation comes only a few weeks after speculation had appeared in the media Down Under about the Victorian government not willing to retain the Melbourne race for the future due to the Grand Prix's high fees.
“As a result of what has happened in the last couple of weeks mayor Bloomberg has been on to Mr Ecclestone,” the Herald Sun quotes Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker as saying.
“It's not just a fight against New York, it's a fight against everybody. Delhi is opening up, there will be one in Russia, Korea has come on stream... the other Arab states want it, so there will always be a fight,” he added.
Ecclestone's pursuit of a race “with skyscrapers in the background” is no news to the Formula 1 world, as the 80-year old Englishman had held talks on the opportunity to host an F1 race in New Jersey – in the Liberty State Park – in May last year. Eventually, the local community vetoed against such a project due to environmental issues, but a couple of months later Ecclestone confirmed for the media that race designer Hermann Tilke “is in New Jersey looking into it (circuit location.”
The US has already secured a place on the F1 board starting 2012, on the yet to be finalized F1 complex in Austin, Texas.
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