It seems Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone is planning a little sojourn to The City That Never Sleeps in order to have a chat with Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the possibility of holding an F1 race in New York City. Just how serious is Bernie? Serious enough that he’s skipping the 2011 F1 opener in Melbourne, Australia to come chat with our billionaire mayor.

According to the Herald Sun, a Melbourne newspaper, Bloomberg invited Ecclestone to the city after rumors began floating around that Australia may want to get out of the Formula One business due to increasing costs. Supposedly, the mayor wants to hear Bernie’s ideas to hold the replacement race here in New York—on Staten Island, to be more specific.

It’s hardly a sure thing, of course—there are plenty of other countries who’d be interested in having a F1 race to call their own, and many of them (cough cough the Middle East cough cough) have plenty of disposable income to spend building gorgeous new motorsports tracks. In addition, the United States already has a Grand Prix…or at least, it will come next year, when the United States Grand Prix kicks off at the new race track outside Austin, Texas.

Now, Bernie has said before that he wants to bring Formula One racing to the Big Apple…but Austin is supposed to be the home to the U.S. Grand Prix from 2012 until 2021. Does that mean New York City would take up the reins after that, or would the U.S. very quickly go from zero FIA Grand Prixes to two? Only Bernie knows. But we’re really hoping we won’t have to wait until 2022 to catch F1 action in our own back yard. [via SPEED]

A couple years back, we drew up plans for our own F1 course in New York City…and not to blow our own horn, but it’s pretty damn sweet. Check it out here.