Local official confident that Monza 'will be saved'

A local sports official is confident Monza will secure its place on the F1 calendar for 2017 and beyond. Negotiations between Bernie Ecclestone and race organisers are ongoing and reportedly troubled, but Oreste Perri, president of Lombardy's Olympic committee, is upbeat.

"Just now I spoke with my delegate of Monza and he told me the grand prix will be saved," he is quoted by local reports including Mediaset. "We must continue to work on it because we do not want it to be safe for one year only and then we are talking about it again," Perri added. "Monza is Monza and I think formula one would lose a lot without it."

However, F1 supremo Ecclestone warned only on Sunday that the sport could survive without one of its most historic venues. "I don't think we have to have Monza or an Italian grand prix," he told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt in the Mail on Sunday. "Somebody once told me a funny thing that you couldn't have formula one without a race in France. But we do," added Ecclestone. (GMM)