Valencia to be second F1 street track in 2008

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Spain’s second Grand Prix has been confirmed for 2008 with the announcement that the European Grand Prix will be held on the streets of Valencia.

The Hermann-Tilke designed track will chart a course around the city’s Americas Cup port. The city announced a seven-year deal with Bernie Ecclestone today.

It will be the first time that F1 has visited two true street circuits in a year since 1991, when races were held at Monte-Carlo, Monaco and Pheonix, United States.

The circuit design appears quite tight and twisty but without seeing the size of the roads to be used it is difficult to gauge how good it will be for actual racing. (Click image for larger version).

Ecclestone discarded the earlier suggestion of racing at the nearby Ricardo Tomo circuit, where many F1 teams test during the winter. That circuit is almost certainly too tight for F1 cars to race properly.

Naming the race the European Grand Prix may cause problems for the owners of the Nurburgring. They are holding the German round of the championship this year but are expected to use the ‘European Grand Prix’ title because the owners of the Hockenheimring (which hosts the race next year) won’t let them use the ‘German Grand Prix’ title.

Those two parties have until 2009 to get their panties out of a twist.

With the Circuit de Catalunya’s contract running until 2011, there will be two Spanish rounds for at least the next four years. Although it’s great to see F1 diversifying the type of track it races on, its disappointing to see the ‘one country, one circuit’ rule being flaunted again when there are so many other nations deserving of one race, let alone two.

But money talks and the Fernando Alonso factor has created a hitherto non-existent passionate F1 following in Spain. His McLaren team held a major pre-season launch in Valencia attended by thousands of fans.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “Valencia to be second F1 street track in 2008”

  1. There’s a proviso here. Francisco Camps, the president of the Valencia regional government, is running for election this month. For the contract to be valid, he has to win.

    But I’m guessing the fact that he was confident to sign this deal before the election means that he has good odds of winning. Either that or he’s using this news to pull him to victory. Either way, we hope he wins.

    http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=31350

  2. Well, if it was the latter, it might backfire. I’m sure the Valencian population would take a dim view of the democratic process apparently being manipulated for big business to get its way (even if it is probably more a question of bad timing for closing the deal).

    Bernie should have kept his mouth shut until next week, signed the final deal with whoever wins, then announce the deal to the world. This way round looks silly and is likely to lose him the money associated with Valencia. All because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

  3. Francisco Camps was the red hot favourite to win the election and did so resoundingly.Ecclestone was right to say what he did as the opposition are not noted for “getting things done” while Camps and the Mayoress,Rita Barbera are real Do-ers.I live in Valencia , so I know what I’m talking about.
    We have the America’s Cup in 2007(with a strong possibility in retaining it for 2009),The IAAF World Indoor Championship and F1 for 2008 – That’s progress and a great achievement for any city.

  4. I live in Spain 100K from Valencia.
    I am going to organise a Trip to the Valencian Grand Prix, a Weeks accomadation +2/3 days at the circuit, depending on the type of enquiries I get will depend on the Price (some want 5* some want 1* )
    Anyone interested even Mclaren fans can contact me on harry@ohare.net
    http://www.harryohare.com

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