The Driver - Spring 2014 | Page 19

RACE CALENDAR The Formula One season will begin on March 16th with the Australian Grand Prix from the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. The Russian Grand Prix (inaugural race) and Austrian Grand Prix have been added to the calendar; while the Indian Grand Prix will go on a one-year hiatus and the Korean Grand Prix has been scrapped completely. The Canadian Grand Prix will be held on June 8th at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. There’s one last rule change we haven’t mentioned and it will only affect the final race of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to take place on November 23rd. The new rule would award double points during this race with the hopes of keeping the driver’s championship alive until the end. I personally believe this is a mistake and too gimmicky for a sport that has never relied on those changes. We will have to wait and see if that plays a factor, but for now, we’re just excited to see what happens in Australia. Many driver changes and another Indianapolis race set the tone for the IndyCar season The season will consist of 18 races over 15 events and that means the doubleheaders in Detroit, Houston and Toronto stay for at least one more year. The month of May will belong to Indianapolis that will run two completely different races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The first will be a brand-new 2.343-mile, 14-turn road course called the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. It takes over for the Grand Prix of Baltimore and will be run separate from the 98th running of the Indy 500 scheduled later in the month on May 25th. The length of the schedule was focused on during the off-season and has been shuffled around for IndyCar to be without large gaps throughout the year. The series’ schedule was fitted for five months culminating with the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on August 30th. Last year, IndyCar ended up dipping into October, which contributed to a lack of viewership and zapped some of the drama and excitement that had the driv