F1: Korean GP bosses want 2016 race

Korean Grand Prix chiefs are making a bid to secure the return of their race in 2016, despite a dispute over its contract with Formula One Management.

Officials from the race are due to meet F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone soon to discuss the future of the event, which briefly reappeared on the 2015 F1 calendar in December. Ecclestone's Formula One Management group is understood to be seeking damages for breach of contract after the event was unable to return to the schedule this year.

It is believed the issue relates to the payment of a sanctioning fee of $42 million per year that was in an option that Ecclestone took up for the race to take place. Although the Koreans had negotiated a much-reduced fee back in 2013, the higher figure being disputed was part of an original deal Eccletone had agreed with a previous management team.

Despite the contractual problem, the Koreans are trying to put together a new financial package that will allow the event to return in 2016 with a much better footing. A senior Korean GP official with good knowledge of the situation told AUTOSPORT that rather than being put off by the dispute with FOM, the hope was that a fresh contract could be sorted.

"We would like to get the race back, and believe we can do it for 2016, but not at any price," said the official, who did not wish to be identified. "It must make financial sense in terms of the sanctioning fee."

The Korean GP briefly returned to the calendar in December, with Ecclestone claiming he had to do so because of the contract, while others suggested it only happened because of a bid to help teams secure more race engines.

Originally on Autosport.com