Whiting suggests Buenos Aires long circuit could return to F1

FIA race director Charlie Whiting says an Argentine GP could return to F1's calendar as promoters consider renovation Buenos Aires' former Grand Prix circuit.

Whiting visited the track over the summer to provide an evaluation to local promoters about the requirements necessary to bring the venue up to modern F1 standards.

"I was asked to go to see what would need to be done to bring it back up to Formula One standards," Whiting told Canal F1 Latam in Italy.

"I had a good look around the track, wrote a comprehensive report about what I felt needed to be done."

"Now of course it’s up to the potential promoters to see if they can actually get that done."

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Argentina and Buenos Aires first hosted an F1 race back in 1954 but the event disappeared from the calendar for over a decade before Grand Prix racing returned to the Autodromo Ocsar y Juan Galvezity in 1972.

It left again in 1981 but was back on the calendar in 1995, for a four-race period. The track's configuration was changed over the years, with the 5.9km long layout used in the seventies eventually shortened to 4.2km when the race fell off the schedule in 1998.

Whiting believes the long configuration could be revived if F1 returns to Argentina.

"As you’d expect with any track that hasn’t had Formula 1 for 20 years there are a few things to be done," he said.

"But nothing massive. You’d expect it to be resurfaced, you’d need probably new walls and things like that put in it."

"But I think the main thing would be to make the track more interesting by using some of the old, very long circuit.

"And I think that’s what would make it really a super track for F1 if it can be done. The plan, or the proposed plan, is to make a much faster circuit than we used back in the late nineties. I’m sure they could have a race in 2019."

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