 London: Plan to organise a London Formula One Grand Prix on a track running in and around the Olympic Stadium is under contemplation as the plan is one of the bids accepted by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDO) earlier this year for London 2012’s showpiece arena.
An East London based company, by Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd discussed its plans with Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone before finalizing and tabling its bid.
Ecclestone established that he had been approached and that he had expressed an interest in staging the race if the bid was successful.
“This is a firm that happened to be bidding for use of the stadium, not to own it. They came up with a scheme whereby Formula One would race around the stadium, inside it, outside it. They wanted to make sure I would be interested,” Ecclestone was quoted as saying.
Asked if he remained interested in staging a London F1 race, Ecclestone said: “Yeah.”
On Wednesday, a newspaper source revealed that the bid, tabled by Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd, was among the shortlist of four bids accepted by the LLDC in March.
According to the formal bid documentation, the bid is listed as being ‘on behalf of Formula One, although Ecclestone said on Thursday he ‘had not put his name to it’.
The plan is thought to propose running the cars on a track running into the stadium and then around the Olympic Park, which has considerable wide-open spaces, though is designed for pedestrians rather than 700 horsepower F1 cars.
ANI
First Published: Friday, June 22, 2012, 18:08
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