Austria to Lose GP after 2003, Says Ecclestone

Austria will stage its last Formula One race at Spielberg this year despite having a contract until 2006, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told an Austrian newspaper.

"We'll be racing for the last time in Spielberg on May 18 this year - then it's over," Ecclestone told Austria's mass-circulation Kronen Zeitung in an interview published today.

Ecclestone was in this well-heeled Tyrolean ski resort to watch the World Cup ski races down the fabled Hahnenkamm mountain.

"Of course we had a contract with Spielberg until 2006, but with an exit clause that's now come into effect," he said. "Your (Austria's) health minister is the one to blame because he agreed to bringing forward the ban on tobacco advertising."

The ban by the European Union has been brought forward to end-2005 from end-2006.

"In 2004 we're racing in Shanghai and Bahrain, 2005 in Istanbul, then in Russia. It's possible that we then only have five or six races in central Europe," he said.

Asked whether Austria would be one of those sites, Ecclestone said: "The decision is final."