On Wednesday Telegraph Sport revealed that the bid, tabled by
Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd, was among the shortlist of four bids
accepted by the LLDC in March.
According to the formal bid documentation, the bid is listed as being “on
behalf of Formula One”, though Ecclestone said on Thursday he “had not put
his name to it”.
The plan is thought to propose running the cars on a track running into the
stadium and then around the Olympic
Park, which has considerable wide-open spaces, though is designed for
pedestrians rather than 700 horsepower F1 cars.
Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd was founded last year by three businessmen
from the south-east, two of them civil engineers and a transport consultant.
Its headquarters are listed as being in Wanstead, east London.
There is considerable scepticism within the LLDC about the feasibility of the
plan, which would entail major engineering and environmental challenges for
the stadium and the surrounding Park.
The Olympic Park has been envisaged as a new urban quarter with new
residential and commercial areas, rather than a race track.
While the bid was accepted on to the shortlist of four candidates, headed by
West Ham, the LLDC has since reopened the bidding and extended the process
until July 12. Sources have indicated that it is premature to assume that
the F1 bid will be accepted in the new process.
There is a precedent for the plans however, with 2014 Winter Olympic host
Sochi planning to stage a Russian Grand Prix in and around their new stadium
though plans have been delayed as the city focuses on delivering its Olympic
commitments.
Ecclestone has long harboured ambitions of a London Grand Prix but has always
come up against insurmountable logistical and financial hurdles.
In 2004, after an estimated 400,000 people turned up to watch Nigel Mansell
drive a Jordan F1 car up Regent Street, he revealed he was in talks with
then London mayor Ken Livingstone who was proposing a circuit in and around
Hyde Park.
At the time it was speculated that Ecclestone may have been trying to put
pressure on Silverstone, which was in the process of renegotiating its deal
to stage the British Grand Prix and with whom Ecclestone enjoyed a
long-running feud.
- THE STADIUM BIDDERS
- West Ham United
Interested from the start, they want to build seats over the track for nine months
of the year. - University of East London
Wants to pursue educational uses, using indoor space. Has backing of Essex CCC to
run cricket academy. - University College of Football Business
Affiliate of Bucks New University offering degrees in football business. - Intelligent Transport Solutions
Asked Bernie Ecclestone if he wanted to stage F1 race in and around stadium and
Olympic Park. - Leyton Orient
Plan to table bid and hope to groundshare with West Ham.
But there have been other false starts since then and the 81 year-old remains
keen to make it happen. In 2009 Anthony Spencer, a consultant behind Arsenal
football club’s move to the Emirates stadium, met the ODA to propose a race
week in the Olympic Park but at the time it was not believed to fit the
legacy concept.
Seemingly by coincidence, a Santander-sponsored event is planned at the Royal
Automobile Club in Pall Mall next Thursday at which McLaren’s two British
world champions, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, are to imagine a
‘virtual’ race around the streets of the capital through the use of CGI.
The event is timed to raise awareness of the British GP on July 8. Ecclestone
insisted it had “nothing to do with” the bid for the Olympic Stadium.
Indeed, the picture on McLaren’s press release to announce the event is of
Tower Bridge, a good five miles from Stratford. But it does hint again at
Formula One’s desire to stage a race in London.
The use of the Olympic Park would get around some of the massive logistical
problems with staging a race in the West End and still provide the backdrop
of the City’s skyscrapers, much as next year’s inaugural New Jersey Grand
Prix on the banks of the Hudson River will use Manhattan – another
longstanding Ecclestone dream – as a backdrop.
The F1 bid comes after the LLDC reopened the bidding for the stadium after the
original process, won by West Ham, collapsed under legal challenge from
their defeated rival Tottenham.
Under the new process the LLDC is seeking a number of tenants for the stadium,
which will retain an athletics track.
West Ham are the favourites to become the anchor tenants, but the Formula
One-based bid is the most striking and apparently unlikely candidate to come
forwards.
The other candidates, along with West Ham, are bids from two universities. The
first is from the University of East London, which is proposing educational
uses and an academy affiliated to Essex County Cricket Club.
Essex may also consider playing Twenty20 cricket in the stadium, but are
sceptical because of the difficulty they have selling out their home ground
at Chelmsford.
The final bid lodged so far is from the University College of Football
Business, an affiliate of Bucks New University.
The college offers university degrees and executive education in the football
business, Currently based at Burnley’s Turf Moor, former FA chief executive
Brian Barwick and Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell are
members of its advisory board.
However, Leyton Orient are also expected to lodge a bid under the new process.