Valencia Scraps 35,000 Seats for 2009 F1 Race

Formula One action will not be viewed by as many people as last year during the 2009 European Grand Prix at Valencia. The street circuit will reportedly benefit from fewer grandstands than in 2008, as the number of tickets for this year's race are not selling very good at the moment.

The news was confirmed by the event's promoter and Valmor Sports' boss Jorge Martinez Aspar, who admitted the tickets are “not selling as fast” as initially predicted. The Valencia street circuit made its F1 debut last year and, although benefiting from a 112,771 seat capacity, did not enjoy a whole lot of good reviews by both the FIA and FOM bosses.

While initially revealing plans to add a few more seats ford the Formula One event, Aspar is quoted as saying by Spanish news agency EFE that approximately 35,000 seats will be scrapped for 2009. However, the Spaniard added that no final decision has been made, insisting that “we are still investigating”.

Whether that means less seats will disappear than the announced 35,000 figure or even more than that, we're still to find out.

What we do know, however, is that this measure was taken into account by Aspar less than 2 months ago, following the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. Aspar admitted that poor ticket demand for the more-popular race in Catalonia made him reconsider the seating capacity for Valencia also.

Valencia will host the European Grand Prix for the second year running, counting as the 11th round of the 2009 Formula One Championship between the 21st and 23rd of August.