Formula 1 has been a huge success story when you look at the last five years or so. The sport appears to have undergone a major transformation both on and off the track, which has led to an increase of fans choosing to watch races on television. The rise in popularity has led to a rise in the number of followers who want to bet on races as well. This is a trend that has compounded even more with the fact that bookmakers are now offering promotions for new customers that give them the chance to wager for free. At the end of the day, things are looking to continue in 2024 as well.
There are a lot of strong favourites when you look at the World Championship but there is a long way to go. Formula 1 managed, for a third season, to post a 24-race championship. Now it has been reduced to 23 because the Chinese Grand Prix has been taken off the calendar. This schedule looks to be the most races that the F1 circus have raced in the whole season. The increase has driven new owners who want to expand the reach of the sport and they also want to take it to a much bigger audience.
It’s their aim to include new regions as well as younger demographics. There have been two more races introduced in the US, and you also have a round in Qatar as well. There’s one in Saudi Arabia, and then another in the Netherlands.
A Race in Vietnam
There have also been a lot of talks about hosting a race in Vietnam, along with a Grand Prix in South Africa. This could be included as part of the schedule over the next couple of years. The best thing about this is that it could help F1 bosses to carry on in their quest of trying to bring a sport to a whole new group of people. When you look at the case of South Africa, you will soon see that the race here would take the Championship to a global event. It would then have visited every continent, other than Antarctica of course.
When you break it all down, you will soon see that there is one major omission from the fixture. You have India. India is the country that did host a round of championships back in the day but since then it has been missing from the circuit. Could we at last see the return? When you look at the fact that India is doing their very best to reach new audiences, it’s safe to say that a race in the populous city would help the quest. India is known for cricket and this is taking off around the world. In fact, so many people bet on live cricket India that, if those bettors could be harnessed and introduced to F1, it isn’t difficult to potentially see F1 take off in the country as well.
The Road to the Grand Prix
There has been a lot of talk about India in the Grand Prix. It actually goes all the way back to 1997 when it was proposed as a track in Calcutta. The discussions did not go very far but they did essentially help to get the ball rolling for what would eventually come. There have been a lot of attempts to bring Formula 1 back to the subcontinent and Vicky Chandok, who works for the Federation of Motorsports, has said that the president of India and the father of F1 is now leading the drive. Things began to really come together at the back end of the 2000s when the Indian influencers started to really push the sport. In the year 2005, Narain Karthikeyan was the first driver ever to compete in the sport within the country. He did however only last for a year and he did not make a return until the year 2011.
The Indian Grand Prix
The year 2007 had actually been earmarked for the first year of the Indian Grand Prix and this was set to take place at the airport near to Hyderabad. This fell through though for a number of reasons. There was a lot of competition from other states, and they wanted a piece of the action. The Force India did appear on the grid in the year 2008 and they were led by the Indian Tycoon known as Vijyay Mallya. He bought the team that the Indian F1 driver had driven for just a few years earlier. He was joined by Karun Chandok and he stayed on the grid for a further two seasons.
At the end of the day, Indian entities were present for the first Indian Grand Prix, and this took place in the year 2011. Even though the chequered flag was taken, the race was a victory for India as it did help them to showcase the country to a billion fans who all watched it from their television screen. The event was also very popular with locals. You had tens of thousands of people who all crammed into the stands all around the circuit.
The Final Flag
Even though the Buddh circuit took place across three thrilling races, unfortunately, the chequered flag was waved for the last time after three years. In 2013, the FIA went on to announce that India would be in fact missing from the calendar and that they intended on changing the position of it. Fans would see cars attacking the asphalt yet again and, in a year, this would cause a ton of logistical headaches for the teams. In the year 2015, the running of the event was dropped but it was hopeful that this would allow them to solve a few issues and then come back.
Unfortunately, this never happened and soon enough, things never went back to the country which is very unfortunate to say the least. Only time will tell what the future holds for F1 and the general return to India, but fans are hopeful that it could happen one day. India is adopting a lot of sports from around the world and if F1 could take off here then it could pave the way for even more adoption in the future, which is great.
