Written by:
SPEED Staff / GMM
Canada's absence means no North American races in 2009. (LAT Photo)
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The Canadian Grand Prix, staged at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal since the late 1970s, has been left off the latest F1 calendar.
After a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on Tuesday, the sport's governing body issued an amended 18-race calendar, omitting the race previously scheduled for June 7. Instead, the Turkish Grand Prix has been moved from August 9 to June 7, creating an August summer break.
F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone would say only that a "contract problem" spelled the end for the Canadian race. The 77-year-old Briton expressed his desire to see his sport return to North America in the future, but insists that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has "for sure" lost the race for '09.
Another significant development to come from the "Extraordinary Meeting" is to allow "teams to equalize engine performance across the field for 2009, pending the introduction of cost-saving measures from 2010".
Meanwhile, in the FIA's row with the German racing federation ADAC, the FIA vowed to ensure that the associated authority DMSB "is truly independent of the ADAC and capable of running the sporting power in the country."
FIA president Max Mosley was also given authority to negotiate with the F1 teams' alliance FOTA and introduce "radical measures to achieve a substantial reduction of costs in the championship from 2010."
And in a Formula 2 development, the top three drivers in the new low-cost feeder series "will qualify for an FIA Superlicense", the Paris based body said in a statement.
2009 Formula 1 calendar:
Australia, March 29
Malaysia, April 5
Bahrain, April 19
Spain, May 10
Monaco, May 24
Turkey, June 7
Great Britain, June 21
France, June 28
Germany, July 12
Hungary, July 26
Europe (Valencia), August 23
Belgium, August 30
Italy, September 13
Singapore, September 27
Japan, October 11
China, October 18
Brazil, November 1
Abu Dhabi, November 15
