India wants a Formula 1 GP on the calendar
India is not stopping and indeed insists on the idea of bringing Formula 1 back to hold a GP in the country. Strongly convinced that the paddock can help revive the national image worldwide is the sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who some time ago had already exposed himself to the point of imprudently announcing the return of the Buddh International Circuit to the F1 World Championship calendar in 2027. A somewhat hasty communication that then led Liberty Media to deny the agreement, although without denying the at least theoretical interest in returning to race in a huge country (and market) like India. So much so that, not coincidentally, even Stefano Domenicali in his mid-season press conference admitted that talks are underway also with Asian states to organize new GPs (but these are not China or Japan, as the time for a second race is not yet ripe).
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The plans of Narendra Modi’s government
While the 2027 calendar seems practically set, assuming the war in the Persian Gulf does not force the circus to look elsewhere again, the government led by Narendra Modi seems to be postponing its ambitions by only one year. Sports minister Mandaviya recently announced that he has called all possible investors with the explicit goal of signing an agreement with Liberty Media already for 2028. The news comes from the authoritative Indian newspaper The Indian Express, which also reports the Minister’s words: “We will establish a task force tasked with conducting a thorough assessment of the motorsport ecosystem in the country and examining the challenges related to its growth.”
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The committee will obviously have to evaluate also and above all the economic impacts of organizing a new Indian GP, which was already held at the Buddh circuit in three editions between 2011 and 2013. Clearly, there is a matter of costs and public investments related to the expenses for the contract with F1 and the modernization of the facility originally designed by Hermann Tilke – which is located near Greater Noida, one of the largest industrial centers in South Asia, about forty km from the capital New Delhi – but also revenues in terms of jobs and benefits related to tourism. Precisely for this purpose, sport has been included in the list of priorities pursued by the Department of Public Enterprises, which will be able to allocate new resources in general to the sports sector and in particular to the organization of a possible Formula 1 GP in India.
