Argentina faces 'a lot of hard work' to bring F1 back

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Argentina's tourism minister Daniel Scioli says the country faces a mountain of work if it's going to bring Formula 1 back to Buenos Aires for the first time since Michael Schumacher won for Ferrari in 1998.

Interest in hosting a race has gone through the roof in recent weeks thanks to the breakthrough success of Williams driver Franco Colapinto who took over from Logan Sargeant at the start of September.

Colapinto is following in the footsteps of compatriots including Juan Manuel Fangio, José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann. The most recent Argfentine F1 driver was Gastón Mazzacane who drove for Prost in 2001.

The first Argentinian F1 Grand Prix was won by Ferrari's Alberto Ascari and was held on the "number two" circuit layout in Buenos Aires. The city would like to see F1 back on the calendar in the wake of Colapinto's success.

Former vice president Daniel Scioli recently led a delegation to hold exploratory talks with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali about holding a race at the Autodromo Oscar and Juan Galvez which held the 1998 event.

However the F1 rules allow for a maximum of 24 races and is currently running at full capacity. F1 is already looking to develop its presence in Asia and Africa, with discussions having been held about races in Rwanda and South Africa.

Read also: 'Colapinto is fixed' at Red Bull, Schumacher believes

"I am very proud of what Colapinto is generating as an Argentinian," Scioli told Motorsport.com this week. "His charisma, his human qualities, his quality as a driver are wonderful.

"At a time when Formula 1 is growing, generating more and more expectations, it is an event that goes beyond sport, with political and social impact, he continued.

"We are starting to work on the possibility of bringing Formula 1 back to Argentina," Scioli confirmed. "Stefano knows Argentina very well, he has the best memories of our country.

"There is a lot of hard work to be done in order to reach the objective," he acknowledged. "We have to work on the race track, on all the requirements of an event as sophisticated as this one.

"The meeting was very cordial, bearing in mind that we are talking about the organization of an event that is the most sophisticated in the world in terms of logistics of all kinds."

Scioli wouldn't be drawn on how long it might take to get the venue up to F1 standards and to secure the necessary agreements with the FIA to hold an event.

With Argentina's national government currently implementing austerity budget measures, the project will need to rely on private funding and won't get any public funding for its ambitions.

And with Colapinto yet to find a full-time seat in F1 beyond the end of the season, it remains to be seen how durable and viable the hopes to bring the sport back to Argentina will prove to be.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.