F1 eyeing return to Buenos Aires (4th Update)

1978 Argentina GP winner – Mario Andretti

UPDATE This rumor is downgraded to 'speculation' today.

One Argentinean official says the country is not looking for a place on the F1 calendar.

Despite the already bustling calendar, Liberty Media is pushing for new races.

Vietnam is joining for 2020, Finland is also linked with a race, and according to F1 business journalist Christian Sylt, rights holder Liberty Media has trademarked the name 'Philippine grand prix'.

Liberty did not comment on Sylt's report in the Independent.

Argentina has also been linked with a return to the calendar, but that race would presumably not happen at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in the Santiago del Estero province.

That track currently hosts MotoGP, and the province's tourism minister Ricardo Sosa told Marca sports newspaper that there are no plans to add a F1 race.

"I dream of F1, but we are realistic and, right now, we are with MotoGP," said Sosa.

02/21/18 One of Argentina’s leading event promoters revealed that "he is in talks" with Formula 1 owner Liberty Media about "bringing a Grand Prix back to the country" in '19 after a 20-year hiatus, according to Christian Sylt for the London INDEPENDENT.

Argentina was one of the first non-European countries to hold a round of F1 in '53 and "went on to host 20 races at the Autodromo Juan y Oscar Galvez," which is located in a park in the southern part of Buenos Aires.

Financial hurdles "put the brakes on the race" in '98 but it has been brought back on the agenda by a recent change of government and the sale of F1 last year to Liberty. Investment firm Blue Capital President Arturo Rubinstein said,

"We are negotiating with Liberty Media to become the promoter of the GP in Argentina."

Rubinstein plans to host the race at the Autodromo in Buenos Aires and said that the government has committed to funding £21.5M ($30M) of upgrades required by FIA.

As the work "will only take around six months to complete," he "hopes to join the calendar at the start of next year." Rubinstein said that the plan has been in development since '13, when he "began discussing it" with former Lotus F1 Deputy Team Principal Federico Gastaldi. INDEPENDENT

09/18/17 (GMM) Argentina could be eying a return to F1.

Canal F1 Latin America reports that F1 race director Charlie Whiting recently inspected the old Buenos Aires circuit, which last hosted a grand prix in 1998.

"I went there and wrote a report on what would have to be done," Whiting confirmed.

"Now it's up to the promoters. Like any track that hasn't had formula one for 20 years, there are a number of things to do.

"The main thing would be to make the circuit more attractive and faster than it was in the 90s," Whiting added. "If they can do everything, there could be a race in 2019."

08/15/17

Autodromo Oscar Alfredo Galvez

According to reports, the Argentine edition of ESPN, Argentina is one of the candidates to return to the F1 calendar.

FIA race Director Charlie whiting last week visited the autodromo Oscar Alfredo Galvez in Buenos Aires to assess how trail and its infrastructure meet the requirements of F1.

"The goal is to return to Formula 1 in Argentina," said ESPN journalist Matias Sanchez, who managed to talk to Whiting during the inspection of the track.

The last time Formula 1 came to Argentina in 1998, and the talk about the return of F1 to Argentina are long overdue. This issue has become especially hot after the arrival of Liberty Media, deliberate to expand the geography of Formula 1.

1978 Results