Indian GP dropped for next year, waits for 2015

NEW DELHI - Agence France-Presse

The Indian Grand Prix will be excluded from next season’s Formula One calendar but will be reinstated in 2015 when it is likely to host a race in March. AFP photo

The Indian Grand Prix has been cancelled for next year but is expected to return in 2015, an official said on Wednesday.

Vicky Chandhok, head of the Federation of Motor Sport Council of India, said the Indian event was being dropped because of an imminent reshuffle of Formula One’s calendar for next year. But Chandhok said India was targeting a 2015 return, and the Indian event, which started in 2011, was not under any threat of being abandoned for ever.“The race in 2014 is definitely ruled out and 2015 is what they are looking at,” Chandhok told the Press Trust of India in the city of Chennai.

‘Wait for 2015’

Chandhok said F1 management wanted the Indian race to be held in March in the 2015 calendar instead of October, but it was impractical to have the race in October 2014 and then again five months later. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone also confirmed the change while speaking to the Times of India in London. “The circuit in India is fantastic,” Ecclestone was quoted as saying by the paper. “We are really disappointed that we can’t have the Grand Prix in India in 2014.”