Story highlights
A new Grand Prix of America is added to the 2014 Formula One calendar
The New Jersey race is scheduled for 1 June but given provisional status
Races in Mexico and Austria are also added to F1 tour
Pirelli are to continue as F1's sole tire supplier in 2014
The American dream of holding two Formula One races next season has been kept alive after a new Grand Prix of America was added to the 2014 calendar.
There had been fears that the new race on the East Coast would not go ahead after Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone told CNN last month that race organizers had not raised enough money to fund it.
An inaugural grand prix in New Jersey has now been included in the record-breaking 22 race calendar issued by motorsport’s global governing body, the FIA, Friday.
“The entire Grand Prix of America team is thrilled to join the 2014 FIA calendar and we look forward to bringing world class Formula One racing to New Jersey,” race promoter Leo Hindery, Jr. said.
But the race, scheduled for 1 June, has a provisional status which means it could still be dropped from the sport’s global tour.
Mexico has also been penciled in to stage a grand prix for the first time since 1992, when the event was held in Mexico City.
A provisional race in 2014 has been given a date of 16 November.
Korea, the destination for the next race of this season, has been moved forward to April and has also been given provisional status on the 2014 calendar.
F1 returned to the U.S. in 2012 with the inclusion of the U.S. Grand Prix held at a new circuit just outside Austin, Texas.
The Grand Prix of America is planned to be held on 3.2 miles of public roads in Port Imperial, a district in the New Jersey towns of West New York and Weehawken. It snakes alongside the Hudson River and would give the race a spectacular backdrop of Manhattan’s historic skyline.
Construction on the site is well under way, and last year three time world champion Sebastian Vettel and former F1 driver David Coulthard drove demonstration runs on the circuit for the Red Bull team.
However, a lot of the work has focused on the pit building in a new block of garages which was already planned to be built.
The FIA will need to approve the site before it is given the green light in 2014.
The New Jersey race has already been postponed once, having been initially scheduled for June this year. The wheels started to come off in August 2012 when Tom Cotter, the president of the race, unexpectedly resigned.
It was recently revealed that the Grand Prix of America organizers appointed investment bank UBS in June to raise $100 million which is required for the race to go ahead.
The 2014 Formula 1 calendar features a record 22 races, starting in Australia on 16 March with a finale in Brazil on 30 November.
Austria also makes a return to the calendar in June – a race that has not been given provisional status.
The return of Austria means Red Bull, whose F1 team has won the drivers’ and constructors’ titles for the past three years, can look forward to a home race.
The race will be held at the Red Bull Ring, which staged the Austrian Grand Prix between 1970 and 1987 in its former guise as the Osterreichring.
Pirelli rubber to stay
The meeting of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council in Croatia also confirmed Pirelli will continue as F1’s sole tire supplier in 2014.
The Italian company’s future in the sport was in doubt after a series of blow-outs wreaked havoc at the British Grand Prix and led to fears that the drivers’ safety was being compromised.
Earlier in the season, a spate of worryingly delaminations – where the tire layers separate – had already led to worries the tires were not safe.
But Pirelli have since introduced a new tire structure for the second half of the season and the FIA has agreed the company will continue to showcase its rubber in motorsport’s elite racing series.
The FIA said in a statement: “In order to cover the transition period and considering the contracts already settled by FOM and the teams with Pirelli, the WMSC confirmed that Pirelli may continue to supply tires to competitors in the FIA F1 World Championship, subject to the requisite technical and safety standards of the FIA being met.”
The FIA also announced that, along with the company headed by F1’s commercial boss Ecclestone, it had also agreed a “strong and stable sporting governance framework.”
The deal known as the Concorde Agreement effectively splits the sport’s commercial revenues between the governing body, Ecclestone’s group and the teams.
The FIA revealed it would have a larger share of the pie, stating: “This agreement provides the FIA with significantly improved financial means.”
F1 generates more than $4bn in revenues annually – and with more races in 2014 that sum could be set to rise.