Bernie Ecclestone has stressed that COTA’s final chance to save the 2012 US GP will come well before the crucial World Motor Sport Council meeting in India on December 7.
Ecclestone clearly wants time to shuffle the calendar around before the WMSC gathering, should it been decided that Austin is definitely out.
“It needs to be before that,” Bernie told Reuters today. “We don’t need any deadlines, having to thrash around at the last minute to do something. It’s gone on long enough.
“They have got next week anyway. We are going to be in Brazil so they can come back next week.”
Ecclestone made it clear that he held out little hope that the event could be saved, stressing that it all boiled down to lack of finance. The Texas state had promised to fund the sanctioning fee (see previous story on this blog) before Comptroller Susan Combs changed her mind.
“There’s nothing to save. They can’t bloody well pay. What do you want me to do, wait until next year? To put all our cars on it, run around the circuit and everything and come back with no money? The teams want paying.
“It’s not brinkmanship, it never has been with me. I’ve been trying to do a deal now with these people for 18 months or more…if they had the money, I’m sure there would be no problem.”
Adam Cooper F1 
As someone who was going to go to the USGP next year, I hope Combs appreciates the lack of money I will be paying in Austin. If she ever thought they couldn’t pay the race hosting fee, she shouldn’t have said she would.
Love Bernie sometimes..
‘Cough up or bugger off, im busy!’
XD
He almost had me convinced till I got to this bit
“It’s not brinkmanship, it never has been with me. ”
I call bullsh!t.
it’s BS alright, from the people in Texas.