Heineken deal could help save Italian GP - Ecclestone

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Bernie Ecclestone says the new global partnership between F1 and Heineken could help save the Italian Grand Prix.

Heineken's arrival was formally announced on Thursday in Montreal, in a deal which will also see the company become title sponsor of this year's Italian Grand Prix. With Monza's future uncertain beyond the end of 2016, when asked if Heineken's sponsorship will help save the race Ecclestone replied: "It is probably going to help."

However, Ecclestone still says the Italian Grand Prix is in jeopardy due to a lack of progress in talks with the race organisers.

"They need a bit more help ... It’s Italian, because you know it’s in Italy, and it is very, very, very, very political.

"It is getting all the people that are involved to agree on something. All of them want to save the race.

"We will be at Monza this year for sure. [Beyond that] is up to them. They have a contract. They have got a pen, I believe, now."

When it was put to Ecclestone that the desire of all the parties to save the race is still not enough to secure its future, he replied: "No, definitely."

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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.