Bernie tells Montreal – improve or lose GP

(GMM) Bernie Ecclestone has warned organizers of the Canadian grand prix to update the circuit's outdated facilities or risk losing the annual race.

In his quest to bring the sport's more traditional venues up to higher modern standards, the F1 supremo said he was asking for a new pit and paddock complex at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

He explained in Montreal, which has hosted formula one since 1978: "Only then does this race have a future."

The Canadian venue, which does have some of the simplest and smallest circuit facilities in formula one, is understood to have a formula one contract until at least 2011.

Ecclestone, 76, told the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung: "Montreal does not need to build the Taj Mahal or compete with Shanghai or Bahrain.

"But we do want to represent the city in this new era of the sport," he insisted.