Fourteen years have passed since the last time Formula 1 raced in Valencia. Fourteen years since Fernando Alonso’s epic victory that marked the end of one of the gloomiest Grands Prix on record. Today, echoes of that moment still linger: the Valencian Government still owes 1.3 million euros.
According to the regional newspaper Levante, the Valencian administration still owes that amount for the use of the port during the 2011 Grand Prix. However, the Valencian Government managed to settle the sum in installments, postpone the payment, and now believes it is not obliged to pay because it has already prescribed.
The Valencian Government believes that the port usage has prescribed
Although Valencia had a contract to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix until 2014, after the 2012 edition the event collapsed and nothing more was heard about it. Yet, almost fifteen years later there are still echoes of F1’s presence in Valencia. Specifically, in the form of debts.
According to the regional paper Levante, the Valencian Government, through the organizing company Sociedad Proyectos Temáticos, still owes 1.3 million euros for the use of Valencia’s port in the 2011 Formula 1 Grand Prix. And a full legal battle is being fought to recover the money.
Curiously, the entity demanding the debt is another public body, Valencia’s Marina (Marina de València), owned by the Generalitat itself, as well as by the central government and the City Council. Marina has been trying for years to collect these 1.3 million euros, but the Generalitat always finds loopholes to avoid it.
At the time, the Valencian Government managed to parcel the debt payment, and later secured a deferral. Now the Valencian body argues that the event has prescribed to nullify the payment, although it has had to guarantee that it can cover it if the courts do not side with them and they must pay.
A legal conflict that began back in 2012, when the Formula 1’s presence in Valencia ended and the organizers asked to parcel the payment. In 2021 it seemed that the Marina would collect and notified the settlement, but once again the Generalitat was more astute and managed to avoid a payment that perhaps now will not occur.
Fourteen years later, Spain is once again getting involved in an urban circuit, this time in Madrid. The echoes of Valencia still resound on the horizon.
Images | Formula 1
