FIA Vice-President Jose Abed Hopes for Mexico F1 Return

Mexico may soon see the return of a Formula One race after FIA vice-president Jose Abed, who oversaw the previous iteration of the Mexican Grand Prix between 1986-92, believes that the race could return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, despite the reservations of Bernie Ecclestone, who insists that the venue is no longer up to F1 specification.

“We have plans ready to improve the circuit and, after they finish the work, we want to return to F1 in 2014,” Abed told Spanish newspaper AS, “The investment required [to improve] the racetrack is $20m, while we also have to find £30m [in sanctioning fees].”

While the holiday resort of Cancun has been mooted as an alternative to the capital, Mexico City has another advocate in Circuit of the Americas originator Tavo Hellmund, who last November also claimed that improvements to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez could be made in time to secure a place on the 2014 schedule.

“The track needs a facelift, but so many of the right components are in place,” Hellmund, whose father first took F1 to Mexico I the 1980s, explained to Austin’sStatesman newspaper on the eve of last year’s USGP, “I think it’s totally the right time. No one wants to waste the opportunity of having these drivers [Perez and Gutierrez]. The sky is the limit – [a race now] could potentially break every grand prix attendance record.”