Rumour – 2010 to be F1’s last trip to Turkey?

Rumours persist that this weekend’s grand prix will be the last in Turkey.

Since the Istanbul Park venue hosted its first race in 2005, the layout – featuring the now famous Turn 8 – has received widespread praise.

But spectator numbers have been conspicuously low.  “It’s an enormous market in Turkey.  Eventually they will get themselves sorted out,” F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone said earlier this year.

But the German newspaper Die Welt now reports that the track, managed by Ecclestone, is too far from the city and on the wrong side of the Bosphorus strait, causing long and frustrating rides from hotels through thick traffic.

“The rumours are getting louder that the fastest circus in the world will no longer make the journey to Istanbul,” read the report.

© RIF|GMM