Despite the horrible economy in Spain – they’re in a recession with unemployment at almost 25%, and the regions of Valencia, Catalonia (and others) all heavily indebited due to the consequences of liquidity restrictions as a result of the economic crisis, and all have asked the central government in Madrid for a bailout – it looks like Dorna will still be going ahead with four Spanish Grand Prix races in 2013.
CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta earlier this year spoke about cutting back the number of races to be hosted on the Iberian peninsula (Jerez, Aragon, Catalunya and Valencia and Estoril in Portugal) and open up to other countries, but in an interview at the Valencia circuit (which is getting an asphalt makeover, and adding other runoff areas for a cost of €1 million – paid for by the local government) the Spanish manager confirmed that Valencia will stay on the calendar until 2016 and that they have renegotiated, reduced and unified the sanctioning fees for all four Spanish venues (around €4 million).
With the chances of Texas GP round getting further and further away after Kevin Schwantz announced that he is suing the Circuit of Americas (COTA), and the Argentina GP that could be still be cancelled if Repsol decides to take the hard line and refuse to go to the South American country after the Argentinean government seized and nationalized their oil and gas company subsidiary YPF last April, it looks like Dorna has its 2013 calendar covered in any case.
A provisional calendar is expected to be issued during next weekend’s Misano GP.