Dennis dismisses footy-backed racing

The proposed new racing series Premier 1 Grand Prix, touted as a possible rival to Formula 1 in the motoring press last week, has been dismissed by McLaren boss Ron Dennis as nothing more than a slightly revised version of Formula 3000

Aug 16, 2000, 12:28 PM

The one-make championship is due to start in 2002 and will use Dallara chassis with each car sporting the livery of a major European football team, in a bid to attract F1-sized television audiences.

"As an alternative to F1, it's hardly worth talking about," said Dennis. "I was pretty surprised the press gave it so much ink. It would probably be more successful if we entered a football team of GP drivers rather than having football teams sponsoring lookalike GP cars.

"The cars are just reconceptualised F3000 cars. So why not run F3000 cars? It's no different. They're all the same, last forever, they're bulletproof and they're cheap to run."

A TV deal for the series is currently being put in place and the football teams that are to be involved in the project will be announced at the end of the year.