The FIA, Formula One’s governing body, confirmed Friday that the 2013 F1 racing calendar is now finalized at 19 races.
With the inaugural New Jersey Grand Prix of America, originally scheduled for June 16, absent from the 2013 calendar as a result of financing problems and construction delays, the FIA shuffled the tentative schedule by moving the German Grand Prix at Nurburgring forward one week to July 7 to comfortably stage another European race on July 21 before the July 28 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s chief executive, reportedly sought to fill the open slot with possible races in Turkey, Austria or Portugal but efforts to reach agreement with those venues were unsuccessful. There will now be a three-week break in July after the Nurburgring race.
Although pushed back to the 2014 season, SPEED.com is reporting that organizers of the New Jersey race remain 100 percent committed to staging the race. "We have the consents in place that we didn't have last fall, and we will quite comfortably put the race on, now probably in the mid-year of 2014 with [Ecclestone's] support," New Jersey promoter Leo Hindery told SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY.
The New Jersey street race along the banks of the Hudson River will be the second U.S. F1 race on the 2014 calendar along with the U.S. Grand Prix of the Americas at the new permanent Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
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