Last year’s Melbourne race cost taxpayers $50 million, but with Australian Grand Prix chairman Ron Walker having extolled the virtues of the exposure generated by the race, Baillieu was non-committal when reporters pressed him at a press conference at the Australian Open tennis event for a response to Doyle’s comments.
“We look forward to the grand prix performing financially better than it has and we will be looking to make sure that happens,” said Baillieu. “I am confident we can reduce costs and we look forward to that happening.”
Meanwhile the Italian capital of Rome has officially abandoned its plans to stage a round of the Formula One World Championship.
Gianni Alemanno, the Mayor of Rome, told reporters on Friday that the city would now focus all its efforts on securing the Olympic Games in 2020 after it was made clear that Italy would not be allowed to stage more than one grand prix per season. Alemanno had previously said that Rome would not want to jeopardise Monza’s existing place on the calendar.
“We formally and definitely give up on the hypothesis of a Formula One grand prix in Rome,” said Alemanno. “However, we have an Olympic dream that is still going on, so let's make clear to Italy and to the world that we want to stage the games in Rome.”
