As we know no official 2014 calender has been sent to the WMSC (World Motorsport Council) yet for confirmation but that is not likely to happen until closer to the end of the year. Although this year there hasn't even been a provisional calender released so why could that be?
There is a lot of talk already about India and how it is dropping off the 2014 calender for inclusion in the early flyaway section of the 2015 season and the organisers don't want to host two grand prix within 6 months of each other. There is also talk that removing the race for a year allows Bernie to negotiate a better solution for the currently problematic visa issue.
This potentially leaves us with 18 grand prix's next year.
However we are expecting to visit New Jersey, Russia (Sochi) and now potentially Mexico city in 2014 taking the total to 21 Also we cannot forget that Austria has recently been confirmed at the renamed Red Bull ring, also for 2014 leaving us with 22 potential races.
Of couse some of these may not happen:
New Jersey -
Bernie has recently suggested that this race is off for next year however he is desperate for this race to take place. Is his current stance just posturing over payment issues or to push for some local paperwork to be signed.. A lot of work has gone into preparation for the GP for it not to go ahead
Sochi -
Reportedly missed the deadline for registering its GP however this is widely thought to be not too much of an issue however who really knows what's going on? One thing is for sure that Russia desperately want te exposure of this race.
Mexico -
If all of these races happen I believe a 22 race calender could look something like this:
| 2014 |
| |
| 16th March | Australia |
| 23rd March | Malaysia |
| 6th April | China |
| 20th April | Bahrain |
| 11th May | Spain |
| 25th May | Monaco |
| 8th June | Canada |
| 15th June | New Jersey |
| 29th June | Great Britain |
| 6th July | Austria |
| 20th July | Germany |
| 27th July | Hungary |
| 24th August | Belgium |
| 31st August | Italy |
| 14th September | Singapore |
| 28th September | Korea |
| 5th October | Japan |
| 19th October | Russia |
| 2nd November | Austin Texas |
| 9th November | Mexico |
| 23rd November | Abu Dhabi |
| 30th November | Brazil |
Of course I don't realistically expect this to happen. The teams will not be happy with a 22 race calender as it will potentially push them over the edge of what they can realistically expect their race team to cope with and would need to rotate personnel, especially with the expanded 2014 test schedule.
In my opinion we could potentially lose Korea (not that most people would mind) as it isn't attracting crowds and promised development has not happened. Germany is certainly struggling to pay the bills so would potentially be on dodgy ground and could find itself loosing its slot. Of course all four new races may not go ahead!
So really anything can happen yet but expect lots of head scratching and to-ing and fro-ing over the coming months to finalise the calender. There will be big pressure to avoid the unfinished calender business for 2013 that continued until Jan / Feb of this year!
As always let me know your thoughts below or send me a tweet! @PaulGawne