Chief Organizer of the Indian Grand Prix quits
After a Korean Grand Prix was introduced in 2010, the FIA decided to flourish the sport even more by building more venues in various parts of the world, in the coming few years. Bernie Ecclestone announced last year that an India Grand Prix would take place
in the 2011 Formula 1 season and when the 2011 Formula 1 calendar was revealed, it was confirmed that an Indian Grand Prix would to be a part of Formula 1 in 2011.
However, it seems that the venue’s organizers are having some major problems and as a result, the Chief Organizer of the venue, Mark Hughes has resigned from his role and moved into a consultation role. He insists that this will not affect the schedule for
this year’s inaugural race, that is expected to take place on the 30th of October.
Other than that, Mark Hughes has decided to step back from his role as vice president of JPSK Sports due to personal reasons. A spokesperson of the Jaypee Group, a group that is supporting the project fully revealed this news.
“Mark Hughes is no longer working with us, he left due to his own personal reasons,” he said.
Nevertheless, Hughes is still concerned and has a close relationship with the project in Greater Noida. He stated that he would still help Jaypee until the first race.
“I've left India but I'm still associated with the project. I've actually moved back to the Middle East, but I'm still a consultant and advisor to the Jaypee organisation to help them get ready for the first grand prix,” said Hughes.
Mark has been working in the Middle East for Formula 1 and he was also a part of the team in Yas Marina and Bahrain.
He claims that the Indians have been quite enthusiastic about this whole development and as a result, they are currently visiting venues like Yas Marina in order to get familiar with the setup for F1 regarding customs clearance, freight handling and everything
else required to host a Formula 1 grand prix.
“The plan is to have the track and the track infrastructure ready by July, which is the deadline for FIA homologation. My counterpart on the construction side is confident he will have it ready by May, but actually July is our deadline,” added Mark.
It is going to be interesting to see how the track develops in the near future and how the organizers work in order to ensure that they get the construction work done in time.
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