Morocco has emerged as the latest strong contender to join the ever-expanding formula one calendar.<\/p>\n
Germany’s Bild newspaper says F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone was spotted during the recent Abu Dhabi grand prix with the King of Morocco, a North African country.<\/p>\n
With the obvious exception of Antarctica, Africa is now the only continent on earth not represented on the current formula one calendar.<\/p>\n
Bild said Ecclestone revealed in London this week that he has just completed a new F1 contract worth $600 million.<\/p>\n
“The most likely possibility seems to be that the deal is for a grand prix in the North African country of Morocco,” Christian Sylt, a leading F1 business writer, wrote in Autoweek.<\/p>\n
Morocco last hosted a grand prix near Casablanca, one of Africa’s major cities, in 1958.<\/p>\n
In other F1 circuit news, the former Portuguese grand prix host Estoril has once again attained circuit certification from the FIA to host major international races, a French-language report by Agence France-Presse said.<\/p>\n
The report quoted a circuit official as saying the FIA approval is a “prerequisite” for “accommodating formula one”.<\/p>\n
The last Portuguese grand prix was held in 1996, whereafter it failed the FIA’s circuit safety inspections.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the official Russian news agency Ria Novosti reports that Hermann Tilke has been appointed to design a new formula one track on the outskirts of Moscow.<\/p>\n
“It is planned to open a race track that will be able to host competitions of the very highest level, right up to formula one,” a city official was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
The inaugural Russian grand prix is scheduled to be held in 2014 in Sochi.<\/p>\n
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