A site for the 2012 United States grand prix has been selected.

It was earlier reported that although a promoter has won the rights to stage the race on a purpose-built track in Austin, Texas, the actual site for the venue is still being decided.

But a lawyer for promoter Full Throttle Productions is quoted by the local American-Statesman newspaper as revealing that land has been secured.

“We’re just not ready to disclose it (the actual location) yet,” said Richard Suttle.

Suttle also said regular F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke has been appointed.

But even with the new details, doubts about the project remain, including insider sentiment that it resembles past negotiating moves deployed by F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

Until the shock news of the Austin deal emerged, Monticello Motor Club in New York was considered the front runner for a contract.

Club president Ari Straus said the 2012 start-date was the biggest surprise.

“Somebody starting from scratch would not be able to do it until 2013,” he said.

The implication could be that if Austin is unable to be ready for 2012, Monticello could be back in the frame for a project the following year.

“If Bernie comes back to the table,” Straus said, “Monticello is ready.”

But Austin promoter Tavo Hellmund, reportedly a friend of Ecclestone’s for decades, said he is not worried about the tight schedule for 2012.

“If it (the date) slides back, it slides back,” he said.

Although mainly funded privately, the project will also enjoy some state input, with a letter to Ecclestone signed by Texas governor Rick Perry pledging $25 million per year from the state’s Mayor Event Trust Fund.

(GMM)

A Singapore official has played down concerns the city-state will run out of time to prepare the floodlit street circuit for this year’s formula one race.

Singapore will host the Youth Olympic Games in the same Marina Bay area until the end of August — less than a month before the F1 circus arrives in town for round 15 of the 2010 world championship.

But Justin Chew, the Singapore Tourism Board’s executive director of F1 projects, told the state-owned MediaCorp: “We do have enough time.

“Based on the timeline set by the Youth Olympic Games organisers, they will take at least two to three weeks to vacate the circuit completely.

“But we have already ‘de-conflicted’ it and whatever time they need to move out and what we need to put in the area have been worked out,” he insisted.

The tight schedule means that fundamental structures for the street circuit such as lighting trusses are already being erected.