“According to the standard procedure this will take at least 60 days,” said Flammini, admitting that the local authorities of Rome are still reviewing the plans for a street circuit in the EUR district. “If the project would have been approved by the end of the year, we would have been ready for 2012.”
“In Italy everything is ready (for 2013) and the Formula One circus is ready to welcome us. A few days ago I spoke with Bernie Ecclestone and he asked me to go ahead. When we are ready, we will close the final agreement,” he added.
Apart from the fact that political forces in the Northern Italy are strongly opposing such a GP – due to fears that such a race would replace the historical venue of Monza in F1 – a recent survey conducted in the EUR district revealed that almost 90 percent of the residents won't give their go ahead to the authorities for hosting the race.
Additionally, Ferrari also expressed its negative feelings towards the idea, saying that every country should have a single race in the series. However, that won't make Flammini back down.
“We signed a preliminary agreement for at least two years. (F1 chief executive) Ecclestone is helping us but he is concerned about the delay. The competition is fierce, there are at least 30 other circuits that are pushing (to be in F1). If we don't hurry we may lose this opportunity.”
Talking about the fears that such a race would increase pollution in Rome through the duration of the race, Flammini burst: “You must be joking. We should be thanked that instead of thousands of cars, for a few days there will be only 24 on a 5 kilometre circuit. Traffic? A study has shown the increase to be 25 per cent, but we are talking about August, when the presence of cars is well under 50 per cent of the annual average.”
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