Abu Dhabi Added To F1 Calendar
Abu Dhabi has been added to the F1 calendar as the final Grand Prix for 2009, stretching the season to 19 races.
The 2009 season will start later than normal in Australia on 29th March and will end in Abu Dhabi on 15th November.
The race, which will take place on a new harbourside street circuit, will become the second Grand Prix in the Middle East after Bahrain.
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone has been moved from its July slot and will take place on 21st June.
The sport’s governing body, the FIA, published the draft calendar after a meeting of its World Motor Sport Council in Paris.
The French Grand Prix, which has been the subject of much speculation about its future, will take place on 28th June but there is still no place for the US Grand Prix.
Brazil, which was previously the season finale, will instead become the penultimate round after races in the Far East in Singapore, Japan and China.
F1 has only once before had a 19-round championship, in 2005, but earlier this year, team bosses backed plans to expand the calendar to 20 races a year.
India and South Korea are hoping to make their debuts in 2010 while F1’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone would like to include Russia and the US.
