Abu Dhabi to host final race

PARIS — Abu Dhabi is to make its debut on the 2009 Formula One calendar, with the Gulf venue scheduled to host the season’s final Grand Prix, the World Motor Sport Council announced here yesterday.

A total of 19 races are provisionally scheduled to take place next year, with Abu Dhabi due to host its event on November 15.
The capital of the UAE is the first new city in 22 years to be chosen to round off the F1 season, taking over from Brazil which now becomes the penultimate event.
Other significant changes in the calendar see the British Grand Prix switched to June, and now takes place before the French Grand Prix.
Turkey reverts to August after it was staged in May this year, which is thought to have had a bearing on its poor attendance.
It had widely been expected that the Formula One circus would return to the United States, but no dates have been set there.
The calendar dates are expected to be ratified later in the year.
The French Motor Sports Federation confirmed yesterday that the country’s troubled Formula One grand prix would remain on next year’s calendar.
“I’ve anticipated the decision of the FFSA General Assembly by confirming the entry of the French Grand Prix on the 2009 FIA Formula One world championship calendar,” FFSA president Nicolas Deschaux said in a statement.
“Of course the (FFSA) general assembly, which will meet tomorrow, Thursday, will have to confirm this decision and also determine the future of the French Grand Prix from 2010 onwards.”
The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) was due to publish the draft 2009 calendar later on Wednesday after a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said at the French Grand Prix last weekend that the race was likely to stay at Magny-Cours after previously stating that it would be axed.
The FFSA has a contract to run the race until 2011 but Ecclestone is eager to move it from the rural circuit to a track closer to Paris.
“We’ve got a contract here for another couple of years,” he said on Sunday.
“Although the FFSA, who are the promoters, agreed two years ago that 2008 would be the last race, now they are saying 2009 will be the last race but I’m sure it’s not.”
Disneyland Paris is a favoured option for the future, with plenty of hotel rooms and easy rail access from Paris and the rest of Europe.
Meanwhile, FIA president Max Mosley and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone attended a Paris meeting amid a threat to take auto racing’s premier series out from under the control of the international motor sport federation.
Both men were part of yesterday’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris. FIA spokesman Richard Woods said earlier that attendees were to discuss the world championships.
Ecclestone, president and chief executive of Formula One Management, told The Times of London this month that Formula One may split from the FIA and set up a breakaway championship. He was quoted as saying, “at the moment what we are trying to do, to keep the sponsors happy, is say we can’t break away, but it could well be that that will happen.”
Mosley survived a vote of confidence at an extraordinary general meeting of FIA members in Paris earlier this month.
The meeting was called after he was exposed in a British tabloid taking part in sex acts with prostitutes that involved alleged Nazi role-playing. Mosley, who is suing The News of the World newspaper in British and French courts, had acknowledged hiring the prostitutes but denied there were any Nazi connotations. He is the son of former British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.

Khaleej Times