São Paulo Governor João Doria (PSDB) and São Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB) agreed not to invite President Jair Bolsonaro (no party) and other federal government representatives to the São Paulo F1 GP. that happens this Sunday (14), in Interlagos.
Doria even needled Bolsonaro when saying, during an interview hours before the race, that only vaccinated people could enter the racetrack. Vaccination is one of the requirements for everyone attending the event, according to the organization’s protocol.
”Here at the Interlagos racetrack, only vaccinated people can enter and the President of the Republic of Brazil, as you know, is not vaccinated. Therefore, he cannot have access to the racecourse either as a guest or if he had bought his ticket because here only people enter vaccinated,” stated Doria.
The governor gave a press conference this Saturday morning, in Interlagos, alongside Nunes and also Tomás, son of Bruno Covas, mayor who died in May this year. Italian Stefano Domenicali, current F1 executive director, and the director of the company promoting the event MC Brazil, Alan Adler, sat at the table.
Doria dedicated the realization of the São Paulo GP to Covas. It was the then mayor who, since the end of 2018, appointed a task force, led by the municipal secretary of Tourism, Orlando Faria, to renew the contract with F1 for the next ten years, under the justification that the event is one of the most profitable for São Paulo – ahead, for example, of Carnaval.
The company MC Brazil, which is hired by the city to organize the race, says that, as a protocol, it sent an invitation to Bolsonaro to attend the Interlagos race track this weekend. But there was no return from the federal government.
Wanted by sheet on Friday (12), the Ministry of Citizenship’s press office informed that the special secretary for sports, Marcelo Reis Magalhães, had received the company’s invitation. Magalhães and André Barbosa Alves, deputy secretary of the portfolio, justified their absences due to unavailability in the agenda.
The Palácio do Planalto did not answer if there would be someone from the presidential team in São Paulo.
A PSDB pre-candidate for the presidency in the 2022 election, Governor João Doria aims to capitalize on the continuity of F1 in Interlagos, now dubbed the São Paulo GP, and with the large presence of the public in the stands amidst the Covid-19 pandemic .
During the week, the toucan also didn’t miss the chance to provoke Bolsonaro. “We have another ten years of the São Paulo Grand Prix. Back there I said that we would not lose F1, Bruno Covas was alive and was always by my side. I went against the President of the Republic, and F1 will be in São Paulo,” he said Doria, on Wednesday (10).
The phrase sounds like an outburst after the difficulties faced by Paulistas in renewing their F1 contract. Interlagos has received the main motorsport category since 1990, uninterruptedly – with the exception of the 2020 edition, which was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rio de Janeiro was interested in hosting the GP Brazil and, since 2019, it had the commitment of Bolsonaro, who signed a cooperation agreement to take the circuit to the capital of Rio de Janeiro. The president also met with Chase Carey, head of FOM (Formula One Management), the commercial arm of F1. Domenicali is currently in charge of Carey.
With this arm wrestling, the FOM went to an auction between São Paulo and Rio.
The city hall, at the time managed by Bruno Covas, and the government opened public coffers to guarantee a renewal with the FOM for five seasons, from 2021 to 2025, with the possibility of renewal for another five.
Annually, the city will pay the FOM US$ 25 million (R$ 138 million). Of this amount, the state government will pay US$ 10 million (R$ 55 million).
In return for paying the fee, the city of São Paulo gained space for publicity in the race and transferred four quotas to Doria’s management, at an estimated value of R$ 8 million each.
According to Vinicius Lummertz, state secretary of Tourism, São Paulo has negotiated three quotas, totaling R$ 18 million, for business groups.
The city hall should use the spaces for institutional campaigns.
In addition to the fee paid to FOM, the municipal body spent R$ 10 million on repairs at the racecourse and paid R$ 20 million to MC Brazil Motorsport Holding, which is committed to assembling the structure and organization of the event in São Paulo.
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