The car circuit driving around the Parliament in Bucharest was dropped in favour of Budapest. Organisers blame Romania's capital town hall

The car circuit with significance for FIA FT championship scheduled to take place in Bucharest was lost in favour of Budapest’s Hungaroring circuit. Bucharest Ring organisers blames Romania’s capital city hall, arguing it didn’t honour the contract.

The race was scheduled from August 7 to 9 in Bucharest. Its new schedule sees it taking place in Hungary’s capital, in August 20-30, a date that still has to be validated by FIA World Motor in June 22. The event will follow a classic circuit setup, in which one race will last for two hours.

The organisers, Bucharest Ring S.R.L., explained on FIA’s website that the circuit has been a success both in 2007 and 008 and that Bucharest town hall did not take the steps featured in the contract to allow the organisers to proceed with setting up the circuit this year as well. According to the contract, the circuit was supposed to be promoted and organised in Romania until 2015. But the organisers said they could only cancel the event.

The circuit has raised public interest and problems. First, it blocks the traffic several days prior to the event. Second. There have been arguments over the body to organise the event. Hartmut Bayer, owner of Bucharest Ring, organised the previous two circuits, but Nicolae Serbu contested it, saying he owns the patent. The money the organiser benefits from the sponsors on such occasions is not insignificant. The 2007 and 2008 editions brought the organisers 30 million euros.

The car circuit was wrongly tagged as „race” and attracted many traffic restrictions in Bucharest. Plus, the images showing a dog getting on the circuit remained in the public memory. There was an online petition requesting for the circuit to be cancelled. Others considered it was a good opportunity for Bucharest to attract attention, tourist and important guests.