Talking to British magazine Autosport's online edition, Whitmarsh urged the teams to pressure Ecclestone into reversing his decision to scrap the Indianapolis-based race from the F1 calendar. The North American continent is looked upon as a challenging market for the car makers competing in the Great Circle, especially since the debut of a new all-American team in 2010 has increased the interest within the US public. The US GP was erased from the F1 calendar in 2008, followed by the Canadian GP a year later.
Whitmarsh expressed his hopes that the Formula One Teams Association will have enough power to restore the US Grand Prix from as early as 2010.
“There's a clear view among FOTA (Formula One Teams' Association) members in the discussions, that we need a Grand Prix in America and we've got to work on how to achieve that. The calendar for this year was fixed by the time we (FOTA) got going, but we want to look at where are our major investors and America is a massive challenge,” said the McLaren boss for the aforementioned website
Ecclestone's main argument for leaving the North American continent without an F1 race was the fact that the events hosted by the aforementioned region were supported by private promoters. The Englishman disagrees with this view, blaming independent companies for wanting to profit from F1 events “even before the race is staged.”
“Rather than leave it in the hands of a promoter, how do we develop the interest? How do we develop the excitement and take up of F1 in North America? Be it Ferrari, be it Daimler, or be it BMW. You look at all of the principle investors in F1; the vast majority of them would consider the US to be a significant market,” insisted Whitmarsh.
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