Motorsports race track will take up 170,000 square metres of land

Malta’s motorsports race track will be between 2km and 2.7km long

The track would satisfy minimum international standards to hold Formula 3 races (Photo: FIA)
The track would satisfy minimum international standards to hold Formula 3 races (Photo: FIA)

Government is looking at developing a car racing track of between two kilometres and 2.7km, Sports Parliamentary Secretary Clifton Grima has confirmed.

The track would satisfy the minimum international requirements to hold Formula 3 races, Grima said.

He told MaltaToday that the track is expected to cover some 170,000sq.m. “The land being considered is all public land,” Grima said when contacted.

He insisted the track would have to satisfy the minimum standards set out by the FIA, the international governing body for motorsport.

The area between Hal Far  and the Malta Freeport has been identified by many as a possible site for the race track
The area between Hal Far and the Malta Freeport has been identified by many as a possible site for the race track

But the parliamentary secretary would neither confirm nor deny that the land being considered for the project is in Ħal Far.

“We are still studying the matter and I do not feel it is prudent to indicate the area at this stage,” Grima said.

Sources have told MaltaToday that government was evaluating the possibility of building the track on land just outside the Ħal Far industrial estate. The existing drag racing track, known as Kwart ta’ Mil (a quarter of a mile) will not form part of the proposed track, contrary to plans voluntarily put forward last week by a firm of architects unconnected to either the government or the Motorsport Federation.

It is not yet clear which side of the Ħal Far industrial estate is being considered but sources said various options were being considered depending on the design of the track.

The construction of a car racing track was an electoral pledge but initial plans to have the project located close to Ta’ Qali were shelved.

Another location in the limits of Siġġiewi and Qrendi was also discarded.

The Nationalist Party has also pledged its support for a race track.

In a radio programme last week, Tonio Cini from the Motorsport Federation said the organisation was looking at a track that covered some 200,000sq.m., which is roughly equivalent in size to the outer quay at Malta Freeport.