Melbourne has all but confirmed news it has lost its status as the opening race on the formula one calendar.<\/p>\n
It emerged recently that F1’s hugely controversial Bahrain grand prix is provisionally scheduled to kick off an unprecedentedly-long 21-race schedule in 2014.<\/p>\n
Bahrain’s race will be in early March, which is a couple of weeks earlier than Australia usually hosts the season opener, in the third week of the month.<\/p>\n
The Sunday Herald Sun newspaper reports that Bahrain next year will be held on March 2, followed by Melbourne two weeks later.<\/p>\n
But Andrew Westacott, boss of the Australian grand prix corporation, said Melbourne is happy with the mid-March slot, due to the scheduling of other sports events in the city at that time.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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 insisted.<\/p>\n
The 2014 calendar is expected to be confirmed by the FIA in August.<\/p>\n
On the face of it, an unprecedented 21 grands prix should be listed, due to the new races in Russia and New Jersey.<\/p>\n
But Speed Week claims teams may actually only end up travelling to a more comfortable 19 destinations, with the events in India and South Korea reportedly in doubt.<\/p>\n
The report said Korea’s current contract runs through 2016, but that the unpopular and poorly attended F1 host is losing the support of the local authorities.<\/p>\n
As for India, Speed Week said: “We are hearing that the 2013 race is financially backed, but not the 2014 one.<\/p>\n
“Indian sources suggest the (promoter) Jaypee Group is nearing bankruptcy.”<\/p>\n
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