Rome to focus on Olympics dream after ending F1 bid

Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome since April 2008, had hoped the city would host a grand prix for the first time.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Rome's mayor announces the city will end bid to host a Formula One grand prix
Organizers had hoped to be added to the elite motorsport's 2013 calendar
Mayor says Italian capital will now focus on its bid for the 2020 Olympic Games
Northern city of Monza is the traditional host of one of F1's oldest races

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(CNN) -- Rome's mayor has given up hope of hosting a Formula One race in the Italian capital, and announced on Friday that he will instead focus on winning the rights to stage the summer Olympics.

Italy already hosts one F1 race in the northern city of Monza, but Rome officials had hoped the historic city would have its own date on the elite motorsport's calendar from the 2013 season onwards.

"Today we're definitively and formally renouncing the plan for Formula One in Rome," Gianni Alemanno told reporters at a news conference.

"This move represents a step backwards because we have always said we would have done so, should the FIA have posed an alternative between Rome and Monza."

Alemanno's statement came a week after F1's most powerful man Bernie Ecclestone suggested it would be difficult for Italy to host two races.

Monza has a contract to host a grand prix until 2016, and Alemanno said the Rome will now concentrate its efforts on a bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.

"We have an Olympic dream that is still going on. So let's make clear to Italy and to the world we want to stage the Games in Rome," he said.

Rome has hosted the summer Games on one previous occasion in 1960, and has never staged the Italian Grand Prix.

The race started out in Brescia in 1921 but quickly moved to Monza, which has run the event every year but one since the F1 world championship began in 1950.