Turkey now also 'in the running' to replace China Grand Prix
Dec.7 - The president of Portugal's automobile federation admits Portimao is not the only contender to replace the axed 2023 Chinese GP.
"Portugal is not the only interested country," Fernando Machado Ni Armorim confirmed to Lusa news agency.
"Turkey is also in the running," he added.
Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing
McLaren supremo Zak Brown, meanwhile, confirmed speculation that another solution is simply to leave a four-week gap in next year's bustling calendar - which with China was initially set to feature a record 24 races.
"We shouldn't have a grand prix just to fill a spot," he insisted.
"It's too bad that we won't be back in China next year. It's an important market for us so I hope they will sort out all the issues with covid-19 and we can return in 2024."
As for 2023, Federacao Portuguesa de Automobilismo chief Ni Armorim said talks are underway with the Portuguese government about funding a replacement race.
"It will depend on whether there are funds," he admitted.
"The fees are expensive, but the return justifies the investment. At the moment I don't know the request amounts, because we are not at that stage of the negotiation.
"But the federation will do everything in its power to help make this project viable."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Zak Brown has it all wrong. He reminds me of the NASA Mission Controllers that were all about launching "on-time, every-time" until the Challenger blew up. They forgot about safety.
The Zacster is more worried about money - typical American approach. He's forgotten about "what is right".
F1 has already allowed politics to become a deciding factor in the sport, thanks to Dame Lucille and more recently, Russia's Ukraine war. Forget Covid, China needs to be dumped for their human-rights abuses. It is an aggressive and massively repressive regime with three words on it's mind - China, China, China. Like Ricky Gervais, they don't care.
Zak recently had palpitations, he heard abut the Berger rumour and ordered a double helping of fries, no salad .
How? Istanbul Park proved an unviable Russian GP replacement option (over some political stuff I got told at one point but can't recall the specifics anymore, nor could I find the relevant article from another site). Therefore, why would this time be different?
How would the PAF president even know as a 3rd-party?
Nevertheless, the funding aspect will determine matters, but so will WEC's willingness to move their scheduled event on the same circuit.
Zak couldn't be more spot-on, though.
Filling for the sake of filling would indeed be pointless.