Former Korea GP boss to fight dismissal

Despite having overcome delays in getting last year's event ready in time, and helping Korea clinch the prestigious FIA race promoters' trophy, an emergency board meeting of Korean organisers KAVO ousted Chung last week.

Neither KAVO nor Chung have commented officially on the matter, but a source has indicated that the matter is now likely to go to court.

The source said: "There was something wrong with the procedure [of the board meeting] and there will be moves to try to fix this through the appropriate steps."

KAVO has appointed Park Won-Hwa, a former South Korean ambassador to Switzerland, as Chung's replacement.

The news on Chung, who is a close ally of Bernie Ecclestone, comes just weeks after he expressed his confidence about the future of the race.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT in December, Chung said the feedback from national and local government had been positive and he was hopeful for the event to be successful.

"The central government did not realise how big the F1 was, but now they have realised - and the national assembly has already approved a major backing for next year," he said.

"Also local government has realised it is good for the economy, so there will be a lot more involvement from local and central government for next year, with tourism and developing other areas. I really appreciate that they will now support it."