F1 Grand Prix in Bulgaria
July 10th, 2009Topsport - The contract for F1 will be signed on Friday
By Svetla Dimitrova
The track will be constructed most probably near Varna because of its infrastructure.
The president of the Bulgarian Federation of Motor-cycling (BFM) Bogdan Nikolov announced, that Bulgaria would sign a contract to host the F1 Grand Prix with the promoter of the World Championship Bernie Ecclestone on Friday, July 10, 2009, the online edition of the newspaper Dnevnik announced.
The Chairman of the Organization Committee of Bulgaria’s Grand Prix Mr. Rumen Petkov, representatives of private investors and the Deputy Minister of Finance Kiril Ananiev, should meet with Ecclestone before Germany’s Grand Prix at Nürburgring, where the contract should be signed.
The meeting is under question because Ecclestone would not travel on Thursday, due to his recent problems caused by his extreme statements about Hitler, but most probably he would join the Grand Prix at Nürburgring later on.
“The contract has been approved already by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the promo company of Ecclestone - “FOM”. It provides for Bulgaria to host the F1 Grand Prix in from 2011 to 2015, with an option to extent its validity until 2020. But we still have to decide whether we want to extent the contract for another 5 or 10 years. Turkey is withdrawing from the F1 Grand Prix, while Hungary has not yet renewed its contract. Therefore we will remain the only country which can host the F1 Grand Prix in the region”, Mr. Nikolov explained further on.
He also revealed that there were new plans for building a single track to host both the F1 Grand Prix and the MotoGP, while the initial ones provided for two separate runways.
“The track will be located near Varna or Burgas. According to the first offer, the track had to be built near Pleven. But as it did not comply with the requirements regarding the infrastructure, an operational international airport and the hotel accommodation facilities, it was rejected at a very early stage”, the president of the BFM Mr. Nikolov explained. He also affirmed that Bulgaria would soon have a new government, who might not support his projects.
The cabinet of Mr. Sergey Stanishev sent a letter to the BFM in which he gave state securities in support of Bulgaria’s nomination for the F1 Grand Prix. “I have completed my mission - there is a contract on the table. However, the state has not got any participation in it. The investments are entirely private and of Varna Municipality. If the government intends to participate that will be fine”, he said in addition.
Apart from the two most prestigious championships, the new F1 track in Bulgaria is planning to host the Super Bike Races and the GT-series. “The personal advisor of Ecclestone, Andreas Maes, has developed a new business plan for the track. According to him, races will take place on the new F1 runway appr. 280 - 310 days a year, among - those races, tests and other events while in the rest of the time facility maintenance will be carried out. “The F1 Grand Prix and the MotoGP are the leaders who will first step in. The rest will follow”, Niko added.
He also said that everything was ready for commencing the construction works of the facility. The delay was caused because Ecclestone and the F1 Teams had problems. We also had some remarks to make. Initially we had to meet in June, but he postponed the meeting for July 10, 2009″, Mr. Nikolov concluded.
