In a move that seemed unexpected, Formula One is not coming to Canada in 2009 thus leaving North America with no F1 races after having dropped the United States Grand Prix several seasons ago. The trend in Formula One has been one of cost cutting and standardizing the series with spec tires and essentially spec engines is the byproduct. Given that North America already has multiple standardized or "spec" series (the American LeMans Series being the notable exception) I suppose that transforming into another spec series simply makes Formula One just part of the landscape.
However, the move to axe Canada should be of no surprise to anyone. All sorts of grand prix have been dumped, shuffled, added or re-added over the years: Spa, Mexico, Imola, United States, Suzuka, etc.; Canada is just another causality in the quest for less expense and more profit in a game in which F1 clearly articulated they were willing to engage in dumping traditional markets for new ones (i.e. Middle East and Asia). Maybe Canada or the United States will end up back on that re-add list when the powers that be eventually take a race from Italy or from France for whatever reason.
I am sure we will get numerous explanations and rationalizations as to why this was done, but simply put, Formula One quit on North America and chose not to compete with NASCAR and other domestic series......cowards.
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/wmsc08/Pages/wmsc_071008.aspx
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