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 "If it's changed, it's going to be difficult to continue the race in
Austin," the Briton told the Austin American-Statesman
(www.mystatesman.com) from Brazil, where the sport holds its
penultimate race of the season this weekend.
The newspaper said the governor's office had confirmed that state
payments to support the 2015 race would drop by more than 20
percent.
It said that this year's payment, based on a different formula for
calculating how much economic activity the race generates for Texas,
would be closer to $19.5 million than the previous $25 million.
"To use a technical term, I think we're screwed," said Circuit of
the Americas chairman Bobby Epstein, who has to pay Ecclestone a
significant annual sum in race hosting fees.
"The state clearly made promises. I think we made a deal, and we
lived up to our end of the deal," he said of the recalculation.
"It's like if you go to a restaurant and order a dinner, and then
after you've eaten the meal they change the price."
The Austin circuit is Formula One's first purpose-built track in the
United States and has hosted a grand prix since 2012.
This year's event, which saw Britain's Lewis Hamilton take a third
world championship last month, was badly hit by the weather with
Epstein saying the heavy rain had been "financially devastating".
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Saturday's final practice took place behind closed doors and, when
fans were admitted, qualifying could not go ahead and was postponed
until the Sunday morning.
The race also attributed the reduced crowd in part to the return of
neighboring Mexico to the calendar after a 23-year absence.
The race day crowd in Mexico City was put at 135,000.
"The big question now is: "Is the race coming back?," Epstein told
the newspaper.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)
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