Mayor shoots down Copenhagen's F1 project

Advanced plans to bring Formula 1 to Copenhagen have been scrapped.

The Danish capital's lord mayor Frank Jensen told the local Politiken newspaper: "We cannot participate in the planning of a project that carries so much risk."

No plans for Copenhagen

Earlier, Copenhagen had been planning for a street race to begin in 2020.

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But Jensen explained: "I had been open to it but I realised there was the expectation of a very large public contribution."

The project had been initiated by former Danish science minister Helge Sander, who told Ekstra Bladet newspaper: "I'm incredibly disappointed, because we had achieved so much.

"Liberty Media wanted a race in Copenhagen and we were approved by Charlie Whiting and Hermann Tilke was working on the circuit. We had it in our own hands," he added.

Also strongly involved in the project was businessman Lars Seier Christensen, who admitted he is "pretty angry" about it falling apart.

"The decision is purely political and could have been made 12 months ago, saving our small and talented team thousands of hours of work and several millions of dollars," he said.