NOVEMBER 19, 2003

Mexican project more advanced than thought

The plans for a Grand Prix in Cancun, Mexico seem to be rather more advanced than thought with Mexican representatives and legal counsel meeting this week with Bernie Ecclestone in London. It seems that the talks are already at contract stage and the aim is to have a track built and ready for use in 2005. This would be good as it would help to build up interest in Formula 1 in North America and would mean a fourth race in the US time zone (along with the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, Canada and Brazil).

The interesting thing is that there may also be plans to get a Mexican driver into Formula 1 to help boost interest in car-mad Mexico. There were currently six Mexicans who have raced in CART this year with Michel Jourdain Jr finishing third in the series, Mario Dominguez sixth and Adrian Fernandez eighth. The other regular driver was Rodolfo Lavin, who drove a Corona-sponsored Reynard for Walker Racing.