Valencia Will Donate Earnings from Ticket Sales to Haiti Victims

Valencia has joined the other international organizations in announcing a donation for the victims of the recent Haiti earthquake. According to the director general of the Ricardo Tormo circuit, Julio Garcia, all the funds raised from ticket sales to next week's maiden testing session will be sent to the Central American country.

Being that the February 1 thru 3 testing meeting will mark the kick-off of this season's winter testing in Formula One, the grandstands of the Ricardo Tormo Circuit will probably be half full of avid Spanish fans. The number of fans might be higher than in recent years, as this will be the first time the Spaniards will get to see Fernando Alonso drive a Ferrari F1 car.

According to the Valencia officials, the ticket prices range from 5 to 25 euro.

“Fans who buy a ticket for the tests in Valencia also perform a humanitarian act to help after a tragedy,” said Garcia.

Needless to say, maybe the number of fans coming to Valencia for the first testing session this year would have been higher if all the teams would have had their 2010 challengers ready for the test. However, only 7 of the 13 teams of F1 have confirmed their presence at the event, including championship's big guns Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes and Mercedes GP.

The Haiti earthquake happened more than 2 weeks ago, on January 12. Until now, the rescue squads in the country have confirmed the death of over 150,000 people, while 3 million lives are estimated to have been affected (until now).