Valencia is still negotiating, but to break its contract!

The debate is no longer whether or not Valencia will be part of the World Cup calendar. Formula 1 next year. After hosting the premier category from 2008 to 2012 as the European Grand Prix, the urban circuit disappeared from the agenda this year and was due to return next year to host the Spanish Grand Prix, according to a principle of alternation with the Barcelona circuit. As is done in Germany between Hockenheim and the Nürburgring. But Spanish newspaper Diairio Sport now claims that the only negotiations between Bernie Ecclestone and the president of the Valencian Generalitat, Alberto Fabra, concern the amount to be paid to terminate his current existing racing contract.

According to some, the “big moneyman” of Formula 1 would claim nearly 33 million euros in penalties for this termination. A staggering amount in one of the Spanish localities hardest hit by the economic crisis. In fact, Alberto Fabra is in talks to soften this sum. A complex situation, the treasurer of Valencia, Juan Carlos Ferrer Moragues, having recently affirmed that, despite the crisis, the government wanted “ meet your obligations (with respect to Formula 1, Editor’s note) without having to close schools or hospitals”. A fact which would have been made impossible, without requiring additional effort from already hard-pressed taxpayers.

The future of the Valencia circuit in Formula 1 now seems sealed, especially since the very serious newspaper El Mundo had already stated last week that the urban circuit had no place in the first draft of the 2014 calendar. The principle of alternation, so often praised, has, according to the Iberian daily, never been signed. The Spanish Grand Prix will therefore take place again in Barcelona next year, and the date of May 14 has been brought forward.