The future of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza has been secured until 2016, after agreement was reached with Formula One Administration to extend their current deal by a further five years. The news was announced at the track yestrday and secures the long-term future of the race at the historic track amid rumours of it being replaced by a street race in Rome.

Monza has been on the Formula One calendar since 1950, the inaugural year of the championship, and since then has held the Italian Grand Prix every single year bar one, when Imola took over the honours for 1980. Although F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone ensured the race would not be thrown off the calendar, there had been fears within some sections of the sport that it was genuinely under threat by the planned Rome Grand Prix, which is due to hit the calendar in 2013.

“The Italian Grand Prix will be at Monza until 2016,” Claudio Vigano, the President of SIAS, organisers of the Italian Grand Prix, said on Thursday. “The extension of the contract has been signed.”

This year's Italian Grand Prix at Monza takes place on September 12.