The Cabildo definitively approved the project of the Circuito del Motor track by giving the go-ahead to the amendment drafted by Gestur Canarias, SA. This work has a budget of 37,381,841 euros and an execution period of 30 months. The island government hopes to call the tender this month, to award the work in June and start work in September. “As a greater evil, it will begin before the end of 2023,” says the island’s Minister of Roads and Mobility, Enrique Arriaga.
This is one of the four actions linked to this infrastructure whose approval was published yesterday by the Official Gazette of the Province (BOP), after the allegations received during the exhibition period were rejected: the adaptation to the Flood Defense Plan (6,261,227 euros and 14 months of execution), the earthworks and installations for removable stands or paddock (8,319,844 euros and 18 months of works) and the second modified of the second phase of the north access (4,493,590 and 12 months of work), which will take this road to the Circuit itself. These four projects for the same infrastructure add up to an investment of 56,456,504 euros.
Arriaga vindicated the work carried out during the mandate by the insular Government “to carry out a very important project for the Island” and, he recalled, “highly demanded” by the motor sector in Tenerife. At this time, the Cabildo “is awaiting the legal reports on the specifications that will govern the bidding for the works.”
For F1 and MGP races
Approved by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), the Tenerife Motor Circuit will be prepared for Formula 1 and MotoGP races and training, the highest categories in both modalities.
In its characteristics it also stands out that the authorized runway will be 4,050 meters long, with a width of 12 to 15 meters. It is established that the tour will be done in an anti-clockwise direction, one of the few circuits in the world that has this condition. The maximum speed will be 320 kilometers per hour, in the case of cars, and 315 kilometers per hour in the case of motorcycles.. The minimum speed will be 95 and 80 kilometers per hour in cars and motorcycles, respectively. It is estimated that the lap time for the cars will be 1’15” and 1’35” for the motorcycles.
The track layout includes 11 curves to the left and five to the rightwith a radius of 21 meters to 100 meters, with the longest straight of 800 meters with a slope of 5%, which becomes 1% in another minor line.
The paddock (terrains and installations for removable stands, according to the name of the approved project) will have 72,000 square meters prepared to accommodate all the needs required by any national or international competition. It will be equipped with 15 boxes for cars and 45 boxes for motorcycles.
One of the actions that will remain pending and that are not part of the package of projects already approved and with the execution about to go out to tender is the southern access, which will start from the TF-1 Highway, as well as stands, as well as other facilities . All of them are those that require a mandatory environmental impact study, as explained by the insular Highway Councilor.
On July 19, 2022, the project was presented in the Symphony Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife in front of 900 people, the vast majority involved in the automobile and motorcycling activity on the Island. An act that was moderated by the journalist Antonio Lobato and which included the pilot Carlos Sainz junior, the motorcyclist Carlos Checa and the Italian-Tinerifian Christine Giampaoli Zonca (GZ). “We are in the process and this time is the most serious in which the Circuit is facing. We have the item in the budget and it is only a matter of time,” Enrique Arriaga said then. “This is not an occurrence, but to fulfill a commitment and an electoral promise”, sentenced the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín.
It all started 32 years ago
On October 30, 1990, the Cabildo and the company TN, from Barcelona, signed the agreement for the drafting of the Tenerife circuit project. During the last four years of the last century (from 1997 to 2000) the same company developed the project, but it will not be the one that will be built. On March 25, 1995, the Cabildo initiates the file of the Motor Sports Center (its first name), definitively approved by the Plenary on March 12, 2008. It would not be until May 18, 2015 when the Cabildo awarded the work to the company Kiti Trans SLU, which laid the first stone on October 28 of the following year. Almost eleven months later, in June 2017, the work was stopped and the Corporation was forced to terminate the contract with the company. With the new mandate, in October 2020 the works of the North access began while waiting for the project to be completed. The Tenerife Motor Circuit will be built in Atogo, a town in Granadilla de Abona.
