AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Two of Formula One's three races in North America are facing financial issues that are raising concern about their future.
Organizers of the U.S. Grand Prix won't be reimbursed at least $20 million from the state of Texas for the 2018 race after missing a paperwork deadline set by law. And new questions lurk about the future of the Mexican Grand Prix after the country's new president suggested the government may not spend on the race like it has the last four years.
Both races have been popular with drivers and fans, and enjoy key dates on the F1 calendar. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton clinched season championships in Texas in 2015 and in Mexico City in 2017 and 2018.
Officials in Formula One and at the Circuit of the Americas, host of the U.S. Grand Prix, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Both races get huge government financial support.
The U.S. Grand Prix has reaped about $150 million since 2012 from Texas' Major Events Reimbursement Program, which is controlled by Gov. Greg Abbott's office. That money has been considered critical to paying F1's annual rights fee to host the race. In 2015, track President Bobby Epstein said a $5 million reduction that year could have jeopardized the future of the race, but it has survived.
Officials at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin have known for months the 2018 money wasn't coming. Track officials were informed in an Oct. 8 letter — 11 days before the U.S. Grand Prix — that race organizers would not get money from the fund because they had missed a state-mandated deadline to submit an anti-human trafficking plan 30 days before the event. That plan wasn't submitted until Oct. 3 and a previous letter of temporary approval was rescinded.
Two months later, track President Bobby Epstein contributed $50,000 to Gov. Greg Abbott, who had just won re-election.
The state requires major events that apply to the fund to have anti-human trafficking plans in part to help combat spikes in prostitution. The missed deadline and lost money were first reported Wednesday by the Austin American-Statesman . Abbott's office provided a copy of the letter to the AP.
Epstein didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Abbott spokesman John Wittman said the state had no choice but to withhold the money.
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