Traditional grands prix at Imola and Hockenheim appear to be the victims of the FIA’s formula one calendar for 2007, distributed to the press on Tuesday.
A statement said the schedule, cut to seventeen races following 19 and 18-event calendars in 2005 and 2006, had been approved by the World Motor Sport Council by fax, but it did not confirm the full identity of the slain grands prix.
Likely to be gone, though, is Imola, host of the usually second annual race in Italy, because the calendar no longer lists a fixture early in the season for ‘San Marino’.
The single event for ‘Germany’, meanwhile, is almost certain to be the Nurburgring, traditionally host of the now-defunct ‘European’ grand prix.
The victim, then, is Hockenheim, but the circuit is hoping to return to the calendar in 2008 as the two German circuits install a scheme to alternate the country’s single race.
”We are assuming that a grand prix at the Nurburging will take place in 2007,” Nurburgring’s managing director Walter Kafitz was quoted as saying by ‘sid’.
Hockenheim spokesperson Hartmut Tesseraux, however, said there had been ‘no decision’ about the fate of its race.
A final decision is likely in September.
Australia, with its race just south of Melbourne at Albert Park, returns to the top of the calendar for 2007, as does the popular race at Spa-Francorchamps, while an unusual four-week break separates the Bahraini and Spanish races between mid April and May.
The only new race is at Fuji, as Japan’s usual F1 host – Suzuka – fails to make the cut despite hoping for a date.
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
