Mexican Grand Prix is in doubt ?

The future of the Mexican Grand Prix is in doubt as the Mexican federal government has decided to stop funding the race. The race has a contract that runs from 2015- 2019 and it is clear that without government funding the event may not be able to continue. The race costs the country around $21 million a year and has always been billed as a national project aimed at increasing tourism in Mexico. In the course of the F1 deal Mexico has climbed in the global ranking of most

visited countries, with 35 million visitors in 2018, which means it ranked eighth overall last year, compared to the 32 million in 2015, when it ranked 11th overall.

That deal was agreed by the government headed by Enrique Peña Nieto, who was president from 2012 but he was not allowed to stand in the elections in July 2018. His party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) suffered a massive defeat in the elections with its candidate José Antonio Meade beaten conclusively by left-wing politician and former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who campaigned promising to carry out a radical transformation in the country and to eradicate corruption.

The race is run for the government by the Corporacion Interamericana de Entretenimiento (CIE), which is a subsidiary of Grupo Carso, a conglomerate owned by the telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim. The race has been a huge success and has won the Formula One’s Race Promoter of the Year Award every year since it began in 2015.

CIE boss Alejandro Soberón said last year that the race cannot be done without government support but h will now have to try to find the money from private sources if a new deal is to be agreed for 2020 and beyond.

The money that has been spent on the Grand Prix will be reallocated to fund the Tren Maya project which aims to promote economic development in the five of Mexico’s south-eastern states with the construction of a 950-mile rail link between the ancient Mayan ruins of Palenque and the tourist resort of Cancún. This will cost more than $7.4 billion in the course of the next four years.

The Mexican GP has had a history of coming and going from the World Championshi, having been held between 1963 and 1970 and then again between 1986 and 1992.

The loss of the race would be a blow for Formula 1, which is trying to build up interest in the sport in the US time zones.

Source: JSBM