Monza's future on the Formula One calendar looks positive after new legislation was put in place to allow the event to be funded by the Automobile Club of Italy (ACI).
Monza's Italian Grand Prix contract is due to expire after the 2016 race and earlier this year the event's organisers failed to agree new terms for an extension with F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone. However, an amendment to Italy's Stability Law will allow the ACI to help fund the event in the future, making a new deal more affordable.
"The Italian government confirmed the amendment in the law that Automobile Club of Italy can use the money from all the companies that are connected to it to pay the fee for the Italian Grand Prix organised in Monza," the president of the Automobile Club of Milan told Autosport. "There will be an agreement between the Automobile Club of Italy and the Automobile Club of Milan, which owns Monza through the company SIAS, that we will provide the funding.
"The ACI president Angelo Sticchi Damiani achieved this through the connection he has in Rome, especially because the political side understood the importance of the grand prix for the region and for the whole country."
Damiani said a change to the legislation was the only option left for Monza.
"We have to be clear about the choice we had here - do we want the grand prix or not?" he told Motorsport.com. "If we wanted the grand prix to stay at Monza then we needed to find the resources.
"If the money had come from the government then there would have been big controversy, since those resources are supposed to be for solving the country's social problems. And now we can say that a part of the funding will come from the results of cuts and saving from our [the ACI's] budget."