di Montezemolo wishes for a return of France

Luca di Montezemolo thinks that Bernie Ecclestone has done a very good job since he took charge of FOM, which manages the commercial rights of Formula 1, as he has allowed F1 to expand worldwide by visiting new countries like Bahrain, Malaysia, China, and India.

But the Ferrari boss thinks that Europe should remain at the heart of F1 rather than seeing this sport exile itself to countries where it does not draw crowds.

I am grateful to him because over all these years there has always been great respect for this role and the importance of Ferrari in F1. It’s good that Formula 1 goes around the world, but we must not exaggerate by racing in deserts or where there is no culture of motorsport, di Montezemolo said as quoted by Autosprint.

Luca di Montezemolo is against seeing Europe have fewer and fewer Grand Prix – Bernie Ecclestone would like to have a maximum of five races on the old continent. The Ferrari boss, on the other hand, believes there should be more races in Europe and that some countries should return to the calendar, like France for example.

“I cannot accept this trend of F1 moving away from Europe. We cannot abandon this continent because it represents the history of Formula 1. For years now, the calendar has lacked a historic race like France, and now a legendary circuit like Spa is on the chopping block – to be replaced by what?” the Italian added.

France was part of the calendar during the early days of Formula 1 in 1950 and, with the exception of one year, in 1995, it always hosted a Formula 1 race until 2008 – the year of the last French Grand Prix. Since 2008, several projects have been discussed for the return of F1 to France, but none have materialized so far, although the Paul Ricard circuit seems well positioned to host the return of F1 to France, perhaps as early as 2013, likely through an alternation with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.