First Indian Grand Prix in October 2009
June 14, 2007
Bernie Ecclestone and Formula One Administration has officially given the nod to Indian Grand Prix to be held in New Delhi in October of 2009. FOA has signed the Letter-Of-Intent with Indian Olympic Committee regarding the same. Also the circuit will be designed by Tilke Associates, the company of F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke.
Though it is still to be decided whether it is going to be a street race or a new circuit will be built in the time frame. Though we have my sincere doubts that we can build a world class circuit within the time frame, since even the land acquisition process has also not been started.
Indian Olympic Committee is an Indian government agency that is responsible for all major sporting events, like Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, etc, in India. And since IOC is an government agency, we will get some respite from the long Red-Tape issues of the government. But given the magnitude of finance that is involved, not to mention the massive infrastructural changes that would have to been taken up, it is still a long way ahead.
FOA also have some minimum requirements that any city which wants to host a Formula 1 race have to have, like a world class International Airport that can handle seven large transportation aircrafts [Boeing 747s or Anatovs] simultaneously, the customs should be able to handle large amount of team equipments and television rights holder in few hours. Atleast a 6 lane highway connecting airport to the circuit. Not to forget about the large number of technicians and support staff & drivers. Also the city should have hotels with 4500 star rooms, out of them atleast 1800 have to be atleast of 5 star standards.
As we said, it is still a long way ahead to realizing the dream of watching a Formula 1 race in India. But we are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping to see the first Indian Grand Prix in 2009.
As usual, we will keep you updated of the more progress that would be made in the same matter.
June 16th, 2007 at 3:49 am
This is never going to happen. The IOA has to set this all up for 2009, as well as holding the Commonwealth games in 2010- there is simply not enough money.
June 16th, 2007 at 3:50 am
I seemed to have combined the IOC with the FOA. How comical of me.
June 17th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Michael, even I know that holding Indian GP in 2009, that also on a newly built track, is impossible. OK, even if we say that IOC will, somehow, manage to get the finances [and that’s a BIG somehow], it is impossible to come up with a new track with proper infrastructure in place, within 2 years.
The only possibility is having street-race and simultaneously building a new track. But again that’s double whammy as far as finances goes.
As we see it, if IOC wants to stick to 2009 deadlines, it’s going to be a street-race. And if IOC wants to build a new circuit first and held the race, well, I won’t even give a timeline for it.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
How it would be if the F1 track in India is just like India’s map????????????