Guest Author - Christine Blachford

The World Motorsport Council met in Paris this week to discuss various topics, one of which was the latest version of the provisional 2009 calendar. The calendar has been tweaked several times already, since the first version was introduced, but this one had to incorporate the loss of France.

A few weeks ago, the French motorsport organisation pulled out of Formula 1, saying they did not have funding to host an event in 2009. They were looking into funding and hoping to be able to return with a long-term plan in the future.

Therefore, it�s no surprise to see that the French Grand Prix is no longer on the calendar, but it is disappointing to find that the Canadian race has not been reinstated. After meetings between Bernie Ecclestone and the mayor of Montreal, things were looking particularly hopeful. The mayor said he and Bernie now understood each other and he would be looking to raise the investment needed to participate. Clearly this hasn�t happened yet, as they are missing off the list. However, it is still a provisional calendar, so there is still hope. I would have to say it seems unlikely we�ll see their return for 2009 though.

There are other changes to note as well. The Chinese Grand Prix has moved from it�s position as the third to last race, right up to the third race of the season. That�s quite a change for them and means they�re running races much closer together, without the benefit of a long break in between. This pushes the Bahrain event back a week, and brings forward the last two races. This means the season ends at the beginning of November, instead of running through the month.

Lastly, there is almost an entire month gap between Hungary and Valencia, which I just know is going to be an interminable length of time.

Here is the updated version of the provisional 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship.

29th Mar � Australia
5th Apr � Malaysia
19th Apr � China
26th Apr � Bahrain
10th May � Spain
24th May � Monaco
7th Jun � Turkey
21st Jun � Great Britain
12th July � Germany
26th July � Hungary
23rd Aug � Europe (Valencia)
30th Aug � Belgium
13th Sep � Italy
27th Sep � Singapore
4th Oct � Japan
18th Oct � Brazil
1st Nov � Abu Dhabi