Speculations about the removal of Turkish Grand Prix from F1 calendar have been already known but many believed that Bernie Ecclestone eventually would keep one of his "Tilke-drome" venues in the F1 calendar although F1's global expansion in India, Russia and United States.Still, following reports in the Turkish press, the Turkish Gov. has refused to accept a doubling of the race fee from $13 million to $26 million by Ecclestone himself, putting the race into jeopardy.
The race has been under threat for the last couple of years as increasing racing fees coincides with falling attendances due to high ticket pricing and difficulty of access to the venue on Istanbul's Asian side. Although, there were 200,000 spectators at the inaugural race in 2005, in recent races it has fallen up to around 35,000 spectators and the venue management decided to cover empty grandstands with black cloths in an attempt to mask the vacant seating areas to television viewers.
The head of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Murat Yalcinta, stated at the Turkish publication that Bernie Ecclestone had asked to double F1 racing fees while the current contract is running out after the 2011 race. Yalcinta said that after a board meeting about the grand prix, it appeared that the race was unlikely to go ahead for the time being.
"Each year the price of Formula 1 for the racing ministries company was $13 million. After this year Ecclestone asked for $26 million. If Ecclestone displays a rigid attitude then there will be no agreement. In the end, it is the public's money...
Because it found this figure very high it looks like it [the finance ministry] will not make the payment... It looks like the Formula One race will not be held in Istanbul next year... Nothing is certain yet. Besides, if there is no agreement for next year, this does not mean that there will no longer be a F1 in Istanbul. There could be agreements in the future."
There was no immediate comment from the sport's governing body but Bernie Ecclestone is unlikely to be greatly concerned about the future of Turkish Grand Prix anymore. With the new United States Grand Prix in Austin being added to the 2012 season, at least one race would be needed to be dropped in order to keep the number of races on the calendar below 20 and low-attendance races simply are becoming vulnerable to be thrown out the F1 calendar.
Turkey joined the F1 calendar in 2005 but since then the race has suffered poor attendance because of high ticket prices and difficulty in access. In fact financial problems initiated in 2006 when FIA forced Turkey to pay a US$5 million fine for compromising the race's political neutrality, when Mehmet Ali Talat — the now ex-leader of the Turkish-Cypriot community which remains isolated from the rest of world since the Turkish Invasion in Cyprus in 1974 — was allowed to present the winner's prize.
