Canadian GP axed from 2009 calendar

Tuesday 7th October 2008

The FIA have confirmed that the Canadian Grand Prix has been dropped from the 2009 Formula One season.

Bar a sabbatical in 1987, the Canadian GP has been held every year at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve since 1978.

The decision also means North America will have no race next year after the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis was dropped from the calendar this year.

Next season will once again comprise of 18 races. The Turkish Grand Prix moves from August to June as motorsport's governing body kept the status quo regarding the traditional summer break for teams.

The World Motor Sport Council, who met in Paris on Tuesday, also agreed to give FIA President Max Mosley the authority to deal with the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) over the implementation of "radical measures to achieve a substantial reduction of costs in the championship from 2010".

The FIA said in a statement: "Failing agreement with FOTA, the FIA will enforce the necessary measures to achieve this goal.

"It was further unanimously agreed to allow Formula One teams to equalise engine performance across the field for 2009, pending the introduction of cost-saving measures from 2010."

2009 calendar:
29 March - Australia
5 April- Malaysia
19 April - Bahrain
10 May - Spain
24 May - Monaco
7 June - Turkey
21 June - Great Britain
28 June - France
12 July - Germany
26 July - Hungary
23 August - Europe (Valencia)
30 August - Belgium
13 September - Italy
27 September - Singapore
11 October - Japan
18 October - China
1 November - Brazil
15 November - Abu Dhabi

F1 Drivers Championship 2008. Click here to bet.

Your Comments

4mula1

"So much for the advert of win on sunday sell on monday,the European car makers must feel the North American market is not worth a race. I wonder what Tony Geroge and his IRL are thinking at the moment....expansion."

fastrack

"There are two ways to skin a cat as we say in America. First get in touch with the automobile companies and let them know how much you are oppose to this and the second is for everyone to stop watching F1 for a year so their ratings go down. Then they will get the message. Now it is up to the fans."

DarkDefender

"Here's an interesting thought, we could always wait to find out exactly why the race was dropped before blaming it all on Bernie and his greed. Just a thought though. Understandably alot of people are very disappointed, and so they should be. But one of the reasons a race was dropped was so the teams could still have their summer break, that has to come into it. F1 needs to expand, although not necessarily at the expense of existing tracks. What alot of people don't get is that there is a huge interest in F1 and motorsport in general in the Middle East, so comments about the race being empty are ill founded. I agree that Canada should still have a race, looks like this is a case of "modernise or die" but without the circuit actually being given a chance to modernise (Silverstone?). Money definitely comes into the equation as well, but as alot of people see the Middle East in a certain way, that's the second thing that comes to their minds. Lets ignore the first thing shall we?"

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