Rome Mayor Scraps Plans for F1 Race

The residents of the EUR district in Rome, as well as their counterparts in Monza, can now rest assured, as there will be no Rome Grand Prix in Formula 1. Not in the near future anyway. The information was revealed by the very mayor of the Italian capital, Gianni Alemanno, during a press conference held earlier today.

“Now I can formally and definitively renounce the project of the grand prix of Rome,” said Alemanno in a press conference, according to Italian press sources cited by the GMM news agency.

The news doesn't really come as a shock to anybody, as Alemanno has hinted earlier this week that the city of Rome might take a step back from hosting an F1 Grand Prix in 2013 and instead focus on providing a powerful bid for the 2020 Olympics.

Following several surveys conducted within the EUR district of Rome, where the F1 circuit was initially drawn on paper, it was found that the Roman residents didn't really fancy such a project. In addition to not being popular for the people he represents, Alemanno also faced political opposition from the Northern League, who felt that Monza's presence in F1 is threatened.

After also Ferrari have insisted that each nation should have only one race in F1 and, in Italy's case, this should be Monza, Alemanno finally abandoned the project. A few days back, Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone joined in by saying there is no more room for Rome in the F1 calendar.

Of course, we're still waiting for some comments from event organizer Maurizio Flammini, who announced in early January that the Rome GP is almost 100 percent set for August 25th, 2013.