The second US race on the 2013 formula one calendar could be called the American grand prix, it has emerged.
The sport and New Jersey are expected to jointly announce on Tuesday that a street race on the Hudson River, with New York’s famous Manhattan skyline in the background, will take place.

The Associated Press cited an unnamed official as revealing that the tentative name for the event is the ‘grand prix of America’.

That is because the more familiar United States grand prix title is already assigned to the 2012 event scheduled to take place on a bespoke circuit in Austin, Texas.

“It (the news) is incredible,” said West New York mayor Felix Roque, according to the BBC. “This is going to be an economic boom for this whole region.”

The US has been absent from the F1 calendar since Lewis Hamilton won the last race at Indianapolis in 2007.

There are fears about the ongoing involvement in the 2012 US grand prix project of the race’s promoter Tavo Hellmund.

Hellmund has been the driving force behind the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, scheduled to host its first formula one race next November.

But the slowing of construction work at the venue has been “noticeable” lately, according to the local Austin American Statesman newspaper.

And it is now suggested that the “promoter or management” could be changed after Texas comptroller Susan Combs this week wrote to F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

The letter was written after Hellmund reportedly asked Combs whether “a change in management or promoters” would affect the funding promised by the Texas government.

Ecclestone and Hellmund did not respond to calls or emails on Thursday, the newspaper said.

Tavo Hellmund has played down scepticism about the 2012 US grand prix, but admits that failing to get the circuit built in time is a possibility.
Before FIA president Jean Todt said the confirmed race in Austin, Texas, is “just a project”, F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone warned promoter Hellmund that penalties will apply if the event does not take place until 2013.

“Well yeah, but we don’t want to do that,” Hellmund said in an interview with GP Week. “That wouldn’t be financially beneficial.

“We have a contract that says we need to have a grand prix in 2012,” he added.

Hellmund denied rumours that, with work on the site needing to begin imminently, land has not even been acquired.

“There hasn’t needed to be any progress on the land because we already have the land,” he insisted.

“I know people have been digging around to find my names. Well, I wasn’t a rookie and everything was put in holding names. The land is exciting and the (Hermann) Tilke folks have been coming non-stop.”

He also addressed reports that, apart from the State of Texas’ funding, the identity of Hellmund’s financial backers is still unknown.

“Why is that anybody’s business?” Hellmund replied. “I’ve got a big group put together that is world class, well known, and a lot of them are going to want to stay anonymous.

“The only two groups that I have to satisfy outside of our group is Formula One Management, who ask for your bank statements, and the State of Texas for passing the legislation that will allow us to be included in the major events trust fund.”

As for whether the project is moving forwards, Hellmund said “we can’t spend money any faster than we already are”.

“Tilke and the general contractors have been working on this for a while and everyone’s saying we can do it.

“If not, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a grand prix. We’ll pay whatever penalty we need to pay. We’re not doing this to have a one-off race. We want to have the US grand prix here for the next 40 years,” he added.

Jean Todt does not sound confident about formula one’s return to America.
A ten-year contract for a race at a purpose-built circuit in Austin, Texas, was signed recently with F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

But some experts are sceptical the organisers can succeed where the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the last US GP venue, failed.

Ecclestone said last week the promoter risks penalties if the debut race is not delivered in 2012, and he is now being quoted as revealing he is in talks about a separate event in New York.

And while a guest of NASCAR at Daytona last weekend, FIA president Todt sounded less than optimistic about F1′s chances in America.

When specifically asked about Austin, the Frenchman told a Fox Sports reporter: “At the moment, it’s just a project. I don’t think something will happen next year.”

Todt said part of the reason for his US visit was to learn about NASCAR’s success in the US versus formula one.

“Of course, there are reasons why NASCAR is so big in America and why formula one has never really been able so far to do something out here while doing a lot in other countries around the world,” he added.