FORMULA ONE cars will be racing on the streets of Dublin next year in an event expected to bring more than a quarter of a million people into the city.
City racing, featuring the F1 cars, already takes place in Moscow and Rotterdam and yesterday, Bavaria Beer, the event organisers and main sponsors, announced they were adding Dublin to the roster.
The day-long demo will take place on June 3rd next year and the organisers expressed confidence that it would prove to be a significant boost to the local economy and would showcase some of the city’s key landmarks to a global audience.
The demonstration race track will start at the Central Bank before passing Trinity College, going down Burgh Quay and crossing the Samuel Beckett bridge.
The track ends on Custom House Quay.
City racing, featuring the high-powered Formula One cars, first took place in 2006 and yesterday amost half a million people turned out in Rotterdam for the event.
“It has been 16 years since Ireland witnessed the excitement of a current F1 car but Bavaria City Racing is about to change that,” said managing director of the event Gavin Collins.
He praised Dublin City Council and the Garda for the manner in which they embraced the concept and said the track had been specially designed to showcase some of the city’s oldest and most modern sites, including Trinity College, the Bank of Ireland, the Custom House and the Convention Centre.
While tickets will be on sale for some sections of the course, 96 per cent of the event will be free to spectators, Mr Collins said.
Cars from all the main Formula One teams will take part and, while there will be no competitive edge, he said it would give the audience a taste of the high-octane experience.
Former Formula One boss Eddie Jordan said he was looking forward to bringing the event to Dublin.
“It’s not really feasible for Dublin to consider hosting a full Formula One race. It would place an unfair burden on the taxpayer.”
However, an event like this would give people a real flavour of what Formula One is like, he said.
“And the great thing about it is, it’s almost entirely free which makes it accessible to everybody.”
Stunt-car racing and other vehicles will also feature in the event.