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F1 boss roasts Silverstone, toasts Turkey
London, June 18: Bernie Ecclestone intends to welcomeTurkey to formula one in 2005 and sees Russia as a missing jewel inthe crown.
London, June 18: Bernie Ecclestone intends to welcome
Turkey to formula one in 2005 and sees Russia as a missing jewel in
the crown.
But he says Britain`s Silverstone, the world war two airfield
where the biggest show in motor racing first hit the road on a track
marked by straw bales in 1950, is an embarrassment.
``I hope it doesn`t happen but we don`t have to have a race in
Britain``, Ecclestone, himself a Briton, said in Canada at
the weekend.
The formula one supremo labelled the British grand prix last year
as a ``country fair masquerading as a world event``, despite
substantial road improvements to ease traffic jams. He has not
changed his mind.
With this year`s race on July 20, and the sport`s governing body
likely to discuss the 2004 calendar at a regular FIA world motor
sport council meeting in Paris on tuesday, he warmed to a familiar
theme.
``It`s embarrassing for me when somebody wants a new circuit and they say `we`re coming to England to look at Silverstone```, he said. ``I say `don`t do that whatever you do.
``If you want to come and look at what we don`t want, go up to Silverstone and have a look```.
Germany`s Nuerburgring, which hosts the next race on June 29, has had a substantial revamp, as has Hockenheim. Monaco also showed a new face this year after reclaiming land from the harbour.
Silverstone, owned by the British Racing Drivers` Club (BRDC), is being redeveloped with funds from the BRDC, Ecclestone`s formula one management and promoters octagon, now restructured as Brands Hatch Leisure (BHL).
Ecclestone said the BRDC , whose chairman Martin Brundle earlier this year accused him of ``trying hard to destabilise the grand prix``, had wasted the money.
``We put in 20 million (dollars) each``, he said.
``The octagon people let the BRDC manage the money and the BRDC spent two-thirds of the money on doing good things for them and? their members and nothing for octagon and nothing for us.
``The idea was that they were going to build the Taj Mahal. And that`s why our money went in``.
Bureau Report
``It`s embarrassing for me when somebody wants a new circuit and they say `we`re coming to England to look at Silverstone```, he said. ``I say `don`t do that whatever you do.
``If you want to come and look at what we don`t want, go up to Silverstone and have a look```.
Germany`s Nuerburgring, which hosts the next race on June 29, has had a substantial revamp, as has Hockenheim. Monaco also showed a new face this year after reclaiming land from the harbour.
Silverstone, owned by the British Racing Drivers` Club (BRDC), is being redeveloped with funds from the BRDC, Ecclestone`s formula one management and promoters octagon, now restructured as Brands Hatch Leisure (BHL).
Ecclestone said the BRDC , whose chairman Martin Brundle earlier this year accused him of ``trying hard to destabilise the grand prix``, had wasted the money.
``We put in 20 million (dollars) each``, he said.
``The octagon people let the BRDC manage the money and the BRDC spent two-thirds of the money on doing good things for them and? their members and nothing for octagon and nothing for us.
``The idea was that they were going to build the Taj Mahal. And that`s why our money went in``.
Bureau Report