Canadian GP Dropped From F1 Calendar
The Canadian Grand Prix has been dropped from the F1 calendar for next year amid concerns over future funding for the sport.
The Canadian Grand Prix will be replaced with the inaugural race in Abu Dhabi meaning that there is now no North American event on the calendar, with the US Grand Prix being omitted since 2007.
The International Automobile Federation (FIA) issued a revised schedule, with Turkey moving from August to 7th June to allow a summer break for the teams.
The loss of Canada means the F1 calendar will stay at 18 races rather than the record-breaking 19 that had been expected for 2009. The new 18-race season will begin on 29th March in Melbourne.
The move coincided with a warning from FIA president Max Mosley that the global credit crisis had exacerbated funding issues for F1 with a number of teams reconsidering their involvement.
Commented Mosley: ‘It has become apparent, long before the current difficulties, that Formula One was unsustainable. It really is a very serious situation. If we can’t get this done for 2010, we will be in serious difficulty.
‘At the moment we’ve got 20 cars. If we lost two teams, we’d have 16. (If we lost) three teams (we’d have) 14. It then would cease to be a credible grid.
‘It depends at the moment on millionaires – billionaires, we don’t have millionaires now – subsidising it, people like Vijay Mallya of the Force India team or Dietrich Mateschitz of Red Bull Racing. Without them, those teams wouldn’t be there.’
