Mexico City will host Formula One motorsport starting in 2015 at the Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack with a five-year contract, organizers announced today.
“Mexico reignites the engines of Formula One. It is a fact and it is with great enthusiasm and commitment that we add our experience with that of the Federal Government and with the Government of the city to make possible the return for next year and until 2019”, announced Alejandro Soberón Kuri, president of Grupo CIE.
The manager said that this announcement ends years of waiting and quoted Bernie Ecclestone, circuit president and commercial owner of Formula 1, who said yesterday “this is the right time for Formula One for Mexico.”
The racetrack in the capital will be modified by the German company Tilke and will maintain a good part of its layout and with all the safety measures for the drivers in addition to renovating all its areas to meet the demands of Formula 1.
“It has been a long time of waiting and a systematic and millimeter work and today we can say that after 23 years the Formula 1 world championship will be run in Mexico City,” said the Head of Government of Mexico City, Miguel Ángel Mancera.
The Mexican Grand Prix has been run in three stages from 1962 to 1970, from 1986 to 1992 and now from 2015.
Mancera said they expect 180,000 people to attend the race weekend, which is scheduled for November next year.
The president of the CIE group commented that the date of the Grand Prix will be announced when the FIA releases the official calendars in September.
The Federal Secretary of Tourism, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, was happy for the return of the automobile event by pointing out that tourism will be promoted in Mexico.
«Today we give the starting signal to one of the largest tourism projects in Mexico. This competition is a great platform to project our country internationally, it represents a strong boost for tourism, but above all it will generate an important economic spill, “he said.
The secretary affirmed that with the arrival of Formula One “Mexico enters the race of the most attractive tourist destinations” and has a public-private investment of 72 million dollars.
He also explained that some 2,000 million dollars in benefits will be generated and around 18,000 jobs, direct and indirect, will be created during the five years of the competition.
After 23 years, F1 returns to Mexico
