February 11 start for i1 Supercar Series, Indian round on March 31

The revised calendar for the inaugural i1 Supercar Series was announced today with the series now scheduled to kick-off from February 11 (qualifying on February 10) in Doha, Qatar. As reported by HT, elections in Uttar Pradesh had forced the series to be postponed from its original starting date of January 22.

The revised calendar for the inaugural i1 Supercar Series was announced today with the series now scheduled to kick-off from February 11 (qualifying on February 10) in Doha, Qatar. As reported by HT, elections in Uttar Pradesh had forced the series to be postponed from its original starting date of January 22.

HT Image

Another change from the original calendar is the omission of Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit as a venue. Darshan M, CEO of Machdar Motorsports, the series organisers, cited a clash of dates. “Sepang is a very busy circuit,” Darshan said. “We wanted to go there but due to the postponement, we had no choice but to choose Dubai as a venue.”

The postponement of the series means the last two rounds in Dubai and Greater Noida will spill over into the F1 season. The Dubai race day is March 17, the qualifying day for the Australian Grand Prix. The i1 season concludes on March 31. Darshan, however, is not concerned about the clash. “It would be during qualifying and not the race,” he said. “Plus, there would be about an hour’s gap between the F1 qualifying and the i1 race.”

A bigger concern, however, is the start of the Indian Premier League, whose franchise model has been adopted by the Series. "We have to be mindful of the local elections. But we cannot afford to keep postponing the series because there is a lot happening this year with IPL and the Olympics," said Darshan.