Monza Safe Despite 'Silverstone-Style' Problems

The Italian Grand Prix at Monza will remain on the calendar next year despite the organisers' inability to cope with heavy rain that has created the kind of conditions for which Silverstone has been criticised in the past.

A long stint of rain in Italy before the event left some sections of the Monza circuit's car parks ankle deep in mud and forced truck loads of gravel to be hurried in to try to solve the problems.

Asked if the race organisers faced retribution for the problems and whether the race would face a threat to its future, Ecclestone said: "No, no, no. It has all been done. It has been contracted."

Silverstone was reprimanded for its muddy car parks in 2000, when the event was moved to April and became a victim of heavy rain that turned the circuit into a quagmire. They were forced to present a $5 million bond to promise improvements, but after completing stage one of a three-year development plan this year they still received complaints from Ecclestone over their signage.

The other circuits on the Grand Prix calendar, meanwhile, seem to escape without criticism and despite muddy conditions at Monza Ecclestone insisted that it will continue to host a race because there is a firm development plan in place.

"It's like Silverstone, isn't it," Ecclestone joked of the muddy conditions. "I think the problem is that they had trouble with the people that they were contracted to do whatever they were going to do.

"They can't asphalt it and they were going to put these stones through where the grass is growing through and that stuff didn't arrive so we told them if they'd stopped rather than half do it."