In a recent development Formula One's controversial Bahrain Grand Prix is scheduled to kick off 2014 season comprising of 21 races and in that case Australia loses the status of holding the opening race.
As reported, Bahrain will be holding the season opener race in early March, which is couple of weeks earlier than Australia. According to the Herald Sun newspaper the Bahrain race will be held on March 2 followed by Melbourne two weeks later.
However, Andrew Westacott, chief of the Australian grand prix corporation is happy with this change. "Our preference is to retain the third weekend in March," he said, playing down fears crowd numbers might be affected by the race's altered status. "The grand prix ran on the first weekend in April (in 2006) and estimated attendance remained strong with crowds in excess of 300,000," Westacott said.
The next season's calendar will be confirmed by the FIA in August. Moreover, due to the additions of two new races in Russia and New Jersey there is a rise in the number of Grand Prix to 21. But the bad news is that events in India and South Korea are in doubt.
A report in a magazine called Speed Week said Korea's current contract runs through 2016 and poor popularity being the main reason for this decision. For India, the magazine said: "We are hearing that the 2013 race is financially backed, but not the 2014 one. "Indian sources suggest the (promoter) Jaypee Group is nearing bankruptcy."
Comments
0 comment