Formula One: New Jersey on track for 2014 - promoter
AFP
Jun 15, 2013 15:01 MYT
Jun 15, 2013 15:01 MYT
The inaugural Grand Prix of America, pulled from this year's calendar due to lack of funding, will definitely be staged in 2014, race promoter Leo Hindery said in an interview published on Thursday.
The New Jersey leg of the Formula one season is expected to be held in June, after the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
"We are on track for 2014," Hindery was quoted as saying by autosport.com on Thursday.
The Port Imperial street circuit alongside the Hudson River with the New York skyline as its backdrop is set to be one of two new additions to the F1 season, with a Russian GP in the Black Sea resort of Sochi expected to produce a 21-race calendar as opposed to 19 races this season.
Hindery, a keen racer who competed at the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hour race winning the GT2 class, accepted the blame for his race not going ahead as planned in 2013.
"It was nobody's fault but mine, it's a Rubik's cube that has had to come together.
"We knew we could design the course with (circuit designer Hermann) Tilke's help, we knew that the state would be supportive because we would be paying them for the privilege but we didn't have the capital structure."
He expects the race to attract widespread interest from European F1 fans.
"We expect a lot of Europeans," Hindery told autosport.
"New York is an easy city to get to from Europe and it's a fun city to be a tourist in.
"We also expect to introduce a lot of young Americans to a sport that they have never seen first-hand."