Greece’s political turmoil and economic strife have not put an end to Dr. Athanassios Papatheodorou’s efforts to take F1 to Greece. The proposal for a GP track in Piraeus was first mooted in 2011. The country’s financial crisis may have slowed down the plan, however Dr. Papatheodorou insists that it might yet happen.
He told F1WEB.it that “there have been several meetings (with senior officials from the FIA and Chief Executive of the Formula One Group Bernie Ecclestone).”
“From the first meeting, which was held during the Monaco weekend in May 2012, we covered all his questions and (Ecclestone) stated that he agrees with the proposal of DielpisFormula1, he asked that we meet his demands, which at that time were mainly political and legal issues,” says Dr. Papatheodorou. “Since then there have been private meetings and continuous communication by e-mail. He also officially commented on questions made to him by international media outlets concerning Greece, stating that he supports a track in Greece and that it depends mostly on our preparation and planning. We have also informed the president of the FIA Jean Todt, who was a supporter of our proposal, and forwarded the application file to the technical department of the FIA to analyse in order to implement the project.”
“Greece is in a period of instability due to political, cultural and economic crisis of the past five years,” admitted Papatheodorou. “Contact was made with Tsipras’ government, but the elections were proclaimed and we now have to wait until after 20 September, which will probably again take time for the prime minister to trigger the necessary legislative procedures in order for Greece to be ready for a first formal agreement with Bernie Ecclestone in October.”
Papatheodorou pointed to potential investors for the project, stating that the investment is viable and tempting bearing in mind the many facilities that would be created, such as hotels, casinos, marina, museums, mall etc. “Deloitte, which has experience from many tracks around the world, has prepared a feasibility study of the project which shows that the investment is viable with very short payback of capital invested,” he says.
