Sports
F1 is back to Rio
After some come and go, the newest chapter of the F1 in Rio discussion aired this past week. Friday (Aug 2, 19) Rio's court overturned the injunction suspending the bidding of the race track that will be built in Deodoro, in the West Zone of Rio.
Budgeted at R $ 697 million - 100% private investment - the construction of the race track was with the Rio Motorpark consortium, the only participant in the bidding process. But after being considered qualified - by the city - to build and administer the circuit, the bid was the subject of a public civil action by the Federal Public Prosecutor who called for the suspension of the process until the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) and the Environmental Impact Report (Rima) were produced.
With this week's decision, the City Hall can already sign with Rio Motorpark, which still needs to prove to have at least 1% of the estimated value of the venture, or $ 6.97 million.
Regardless of the decision, no work can be done before environmental studies are produced and presented. Besides this pending, which apparently should not make the State Government's plans unfeasible, there are still some “gray areas” in this bidding process that may give rise to further questions in court, but the concrete fact, at least so far, is that the bid is validated and the contract will be signed.
The Rio Motorpark consortium is led by an American company of the same name and the construction will be made by the Spanish Acciona. The operation of the race track will be done by German Sporttotal (the same as at Nurburgring) and management, and marketing, by the Brazilian Golden Goal.
For now, we can only continue to wait for the return of motorsports to Rio.
The promise is for 2020, but a lot has yet to happen before we can consider that forecast.