What happened to Indian Grand Prix? Will F1 come back to India?

F1 fans all over India are hoping for their beloved sport to return to the country. India hosted three F1 races at the Buddh International Circuit from 2011 to 2013 before its gates were reportedly locked by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA). So, what happened to Indian Grand Prix and why was the Indian Grand Prix cancelled?

What happened to Indian Grand Prix? Why was the Indian Grand Prix cancelled?

The Buddh International Circuit is a racing circuit situated in Greater Noida and was developed by Jaypee Sports Limited, an affiliate of Jaypee Group. The circuit originally signed a five-year deal with F1 but the 2014 edition was postponed due to a tax dispute between the circuit and the FIA, with the local government classing F1 as entertainment and not a sport. This meant that F1 was required to pay entertainment tax to the Indian government, which was reportedly deemed too expensive by the F1 organisers. Hence, with subsequent editions also having failed to go ahead it remains to be seen whether F1 will return to India in the future.

Is F1 coming back to India? Former F1 Indian racer Karun Chandhok gives his opinion in an interview in 2019

Karun Chandhok, a former F1 driver for Lotus, gave his opinion to the Motor Sport podcast in an interview in 2019 on whether he believed F1 will return to India or not. Chandhok said, "Unless the government has a change of heart and gets behind the sport, I don’t see it happening again. It’s a real shame. There were plenty of opportunities [around the event]. The race track was on the highway to Agra where the Taj Mahal is. There’s a lot of opportunities there to have done co-branded events for tourism and things like that but they never quite got that all off the ground." Chandhok also explained the rising popularity of F1 in India as compared to some other venues on the F1 calendar.

"India has, and had, a huge F1 fanbase. When we went to race at places like Istanbul, I remember 2007 being on the grid, we looked at the grandstand and there were 11 people in. In contrast, the first Indian GP had 110,000. It was very, very powerful. Especially the first couple of years. And unfortunately, that’s died away as the race has gone away. The absolute peak of interest in F1, or in motorsport in general, was 2010-2012 because you had Narain [Karthikeyan] and myself who were driving in F1 and Force India had just been taken over, and we had the Grand Prix. It’s just a shame that financially, the government wasn’t willing to back it," concluded Chandhok.