Organisers of the impending Rome Grand Prix have once again denied that their planned street race would not replace the historic Monza event on the 2013 schedule, with the city's mayor saying that their race will be "a Grand Prix of Europe".
Plans for the race around the sights of Italy's capital are accelerating, after Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that the race would go ahead in 2013 earlier this week.
"Rome will come onto the calendar in 2013. We will have 20 races and the teams will be happy with it," Ecclestone was quoted as saying on the subject by Speedweek.
But which 20 races, long thought to be Ecclestone's ideal figure for the length of an F1 season, will be on the calendar remains unclear. The 2010 schedule features 19 rounds, but plans are in motion for an Indian Grand Prix to join the schedule from 2011, which would mean that the Rome race would have to replace an existing event to keep the figure at 20 GPs.
But Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno dismissed the possibility of the Rome GP replacing the Monza circuit as the host of the Italian Grand Prix.
"We will organise a Grand Prix in Rome, but we will make an agreement with Monza. The Grand Prix of Rome will be a Grand Prix of Europe," Alemanno grinned to the Italian media.
"It will not replace the Italian Grand Prix."
He added that: "It is clear. I spoke yesterday with [the Rome GP organisers] that before we start this we will find an agreement with Monza."
The initial announcement of the Rome GP bid last year led to a scathing attack on the project by Monza representatives, who claimed that the bid was an "act of arrogance" by the nation's capital, who were "removing the oxygen of others".
Monza has hosted every Italian GP in the history of the Formula One championship, save for 1980 when the race took place at Imola.
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