The biggest losses to the F1 calendar

As Formula 1 continues to expand its reach, its events with the greatest traditions have found themselves increasingly under threat.

History alone does not keep a race on the calendar, as the Italian Grand Prix organisers are finding out the hard way in their battle to save Monza's place as part of the world championship circus.

Over the years there have been 41 different grands prix, which means more than half of the places Formula 1 has visited are now just names in the record books.

But how many of those have been genuine losses? Which have cost us an exciting circuit, and which have barely registered in the grand scheme of things? And do any have hope of a reprieve?

AUTOSPORT's Formula 1 reporters Ben Anderson and Lawrence Barretto, magazine editor Edd Straw, executive editor Stuart Codling and special contributors Dieter Rencken and Karun Chandhok take a look.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT LOSSES

FRANCE
Number of world championship GPs: 58 (1950-2008)
Circuits: Magny-Cours, Paul Ricard, Reims, Dijon, Rouen, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Mans.

Grand Prix racing owes its entire heritage to France (the clue's in the name), so it's a real shame the country has not hosted a Formula 1 event since 2008.

It never quite inspired the sort of carnival atmosphere seen in Britain or Italy, and the Magny-Cours circuit (which hosted the race from 1991 until its demise) - though challenging - failed to capture the imagination of the drivers in the way Silverstone, Spa or Monza does.

The French motosport federation (the FFSA) depended on government funding to prop up the race, so it's no surprise the race dropped off the calendar when that dried up. Occasional attempts by the Magny-Cours management to get the race reinstated have come to nothing.

It probably also doesn't help that France has lacked a bona fide top-line F1 driver to bring in the crowds since Alain Prost retired in 1993.

Ben Anderson

NETHERLANDS
Number of world championship GPs: 30 (between 1952 and 1985)
Circuits: Zandvoort

The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort was a mainstay of the calendar from the early years of the world championship.

First staged in 1952, there were occasions when it dropped off the calendar temporarily for financial reasons or, in 1972, amid safety concerns.

But after Niki Lauda took his final grand prix victory there in 1985, problems relating to the operating company (CENAV) as well as the need to tackle noise problems and upgrade the track led to the race dropping off the calendar.

While the Netherlands is not a key market for F1, the history of the event meant that it is a much-loved and missed part of the world championship.

Edd Straw

SOUTH AFRICA
Number of world championship GPs: 23 (between 1962 and 1993)
Circuits: East London and Kyalami

Kyalami - 'my home' in Zulu - truly was that to African motorsport, having hosted the South African Grand Prix between 1967 and 1993 save for a 1986-91 hiatus.

Early events were hosted by East London, and the final two by Kyalami's 'mirror' circuit (it was 'flipped' to enable prime land to be developed), but the original Kyalami layout, comprising a long downhill straight, tricky Esses and fast, flowing corners, remains iconic.

The event was generally staged early in the season - once on New Year's Day - thus providing winter respite for northern hemispherians, who lapped up the country's varied attractions during those apartheid years.

No world championship can exclude an entire continent, and South Africa alone has the requisite infrastructure and F1 culture in its region.

Kyalami is being revamped to F1 standards, but a grand prix requires enormous political will and realistic economic demands - without which it is unlikely to happen.

Dieter Rencken

ARGENTINA
Number of world championship GPs: 20 (Between 1953 and 1998)
Circuits: Buenos Aires

Any sport that rivals football on the back pages is doing well. And that's the case in Argentina as interest in Formula 1 remains high, though the country has not hosted a grand prix on its shores for 17 years.

Inspired by Juan Manuel Fangio's success, a plethora of fans converged on Buenos Aires in 1953 to create a festival atmosphere.

Argentina doesn't just like motor racing. It loves it. That's why it should be brought back.

But after appearing sporadically over a 40-year period, it was canned for 1999 and hasn't been seen since.

Its demise came at a time when funding was tight, linked in part to the lack of Argentinian drivers coming through, and there was stiff competition from countries with bigger wallets.

The government has made positive noises about a return, but money is required to either resurrect the crumbling Buenos Aires venue or get one of the rumoured street projects off the ground.

Lawrence Barretto

INDIA
Number of world championship GPs: 3 (2011-13)
Circuits: Buddh International Circuit

Picking a race that only ran thrice may be seen as a controversial choice for this list.

But while tradition is usually an argument against new countries, it can't be applied to India, which is actively trying to establish a national motorsport scene. A grand prix is crucial to that process.

The first year had a few issues, but by 2013 the event ran very smoothly. The grandstands were completely full for the first year and we had over 60,000 people in each of the next two years as well, which is a lot more than most other new races.

Unlike Turkey or even China, India had a huge Formula 1 fan base even before the first home GP, with thousands of people travelling to Malaysia, Singapore or Bahrain in the past to watch grands prix. The Buddh International Circuit was also a fantastic high-speed challenge for the drivers.

With a population of 1.2 billion people, commercially India opens up a massive market for sponsors, manufacturers, teams and FOM to leverage. All told, I do believe that the Indian Grand Prix is certainly a lost race that I hope returns one day.

At the moment, motorsport isn't backed by the government, so like Silverstone, the race has to be privately funded, which obviously means a big cost to the promoters. The Jaypee Group had great support from the state government in the initial phase, but sadly also faced quite a few hurdles from the central government, which hasn't helped.

Karun Chandhok

THE BEST CIRCUITS AND EVENTS

SAN MARINO
Number of world championship GPs: 26 (1981-2006)
Circuits: Imola

Of course Imola will always have a chequered history, thanks to the dark weekend of 1994 that claimed the lives of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna.

Chicanes were thus installed before the old first turn at Tamburello, and the climb to the top of the hill at Tosa, for 1995.

But unlike many modern safety revisions they didn't spoil the high-speed nature of the circuit, and the 'deep-breath' run from the left-hander at Piratella to the insanely fast downhill entry to Acque Minerali remained a mighty challenge until the circuit fell off the calendar after 2006.

It hosted European F3 in 2014, but sadly the circuit's world championship moments are limited to superbikes these days.

Ben Anderson

PORTUGAL
Number of world championship GPs: 16 (between 1958 and 1996)
Circuits: Porto, Monsanto Park, Estoril

After one-off stagings at Porto and Monsanto Park (in Lisbon) in the late 1950s, the Portuguese Grand Prix did not find a permanent berth on the calendar until Estoril in 1985 - the scene of Ayrton Senna's famous first grand prix win.

Its last race was held in 1996. It did appear on both the '97 and '98 calendars, but the refusal to complete much-needed track upgrade work led to it being axed from the first of those years and the European GP put on at Jerez instead.

During this time, there was talk of the event being staged as a non-championship F1 race, but as the last of that breed was the 1983 Race of Champions, there was little interest, and with little movement in upgrading the track it slid off the calendar for good.

Since Portugal is a small market with a population of just over 10 million, it is not a key commerical draw but there is still plenty of interest in motorsport in the country - Estoril may not have been stunning in the conventional sense, but it provided some great races.

Edd Straw

TURKEY
Number of world championship GPs: 7 (2005-2011)
Circuits: Istanbul Park

Istanbul Park's Turn 8 is arguably the best corner that track designer Hermann Tilke has ever created.

It's a long high-speed turn with multiple apicess, which requires pinpoint accuracy and puts strain on the drivers' necks and their tyres for around eight seconds.

The track had all the ingredients to be a lifer on the F1 calendar, but after dropping off the schedule in 2011, there has been little prospect of a return.

Why so? Attendances were poor, in spite of its proximity to Istanbul - scheduling the grand prix on the same weekend as the local football derby (as in 2008) didn't help - and with no more government money forthcoming its future remains in doubt.

Lawrence Barretto

PESCARA
Number of world championship GPs: 1 (1957)
Circuits: Pescara

Nearly two miles longer than the classic Nurburgring layout and a mixture of fast straights and hilly bends, the challenging street course running along the Adriatic coast from Pescara, in the heart of Italy's Abruzzo region, was always going to become problematic once racing cars passed a certain performance level.

In 1924 Enzo Ferrari won the first of the fascist-sponsored Coppa Acerbo races held there, and in 1939 one of the 158s that Ferrari had commissioned before being fired by Alfa Romeo won the last of its pre-war events.

It held non-championship Formula 1 races - in 1950 Juan Manuel Fangio was supposedly clocked at 192mph on the 'Flying Kilometre' section just before the turn back to Pescara - but just one world championship grand prix, in 1957.

By then road racing in Italy was already on a sticky wicket after Alfonso de Portago's fatal crash in the Mille Miglia, and Pescara's vineyards echoed to the sounds of racing engines just a few more times before racing ceased altogether in 1961.

Stuart Codling

THE OTHER LOST GPs

AMERICA (NON-US GP)
Number of world championship GPs: 18 (between 1976 and 1988)
Circuits: Dallas; Detroit; Las Vegas; Long Beach

Formula 1's push to establish itself in the United States away from Watkins Glen led to a quartet of races in the country badged as independent street races.

Long Beach was the first to appear, joining the calendar in 1976 and remaining a part of it until 1983. It edges the Detroit Grand Prix in terms of longevity, since Motor City hosted seven races from 1982 to '88.

Las Vegas hosted two races in a casino car park in 1981 and '82, before the Dallas Grand Prix came on board for 1984 - but it lasted just one year.

Donington Park's sole Formula 1 race was the 1993 European Grand Prix © LAT

EUROPE
Number of world championship GPs: 22 (between 1983 and 2012)
Circuits: Brands Hatch, Nurburgring, Donington Park, Jerez, Valencia.

The 'European Grand Prix' used to be an honourary title bestowed on an existing race, but had a brief run as a calendar-filler in its own right in the 1980s.

The name returned as the vehicle by which Donington Park saviour Tom Wheatcroft could host an F1 race in 1993, and thereafter (beyond a couple of goes at Jerez) was a good excuse to give Germany a second race during the Michael Schumacher Ferrari era.

It last appeared in 2012 (following five seasons on the little-loved Valencia street circuit), but will return in 2016 so that Azerbaijan (which sits on the border of Asia and Europe) can host a race on the streets of its capital, Baku.

KOREA
Number of world championship GPs: 4 (2010-13)
Circuits: Korea International Circuit

Korea enjoyed a very brief tenure on the F1 calendar.

A dispute with Bernie Ecclestone over the hosting fee meant it had a shorter shelf life than originally planned, though we reported in February that organisers are still working to secure its return in the future.

It will likely be remembered as the place Mark Webber threw away his one chance to become world champion in 2010, and the venue where a fire truck briefly led the field in 2013.

LUXEMBOURG
Number of world championship GPs: 2 (1997-98)
Circuits: Nurburgring

The Luxembourg Grand Prix will hardly be missed, not least because the two races that ran under the banner didn't even take place in the country.

With Hockenheim already pencilled in to host the German Grand Prix in 1997, the race at the Nurburging was given its Luxembourg moniker because the circuit was only around 50 miles from the border, and remained for '98 even though the European title was vacant.

MOROCCO
Number of world championship GPs: 1 (1958)
Circuits: Ain Diab

After a successful non-championship race in 1957, won by Jean Behra, the Ain Diab circuit joined the championship the following year.

That race is famed for Mike Hawthrown denying Stirling Moss the title, and infamous for Stuart Lewis-Evans's fatal accident.

The Moroccan Grand Prix not been held since, let alone come near being on the F1 championship calendar again, although Marrakech hosts a World Touring Car Championship street race.

PACIFIC

Number of world championship GPs: 2 (1994-95)
Circuits: TI Aida

The Pacific Grand Prix was a shortlived affair, with just two races © LAT

Slap bang in the middle of nowhere, the TI Circuit was a logistical nightmare for F1's travelling pack during the two years it hosted a race.

Badged the Pacific GP, since Suzuka had already nabbed the Japanese GP banner, its narrow, short layout was uninspiring. It was, however, the scene of Michael Schumacher's 1995 coronation with Benetton.

SWEDEN
Number of world championship GPs: 6 (1973-1978)
Circuits: Anderstorp

The Scandinavian Raceway's arrival on the F1 calendar coincided with Ronnie Peterson's rise with Team Lotus. He never won his home race, and his best finish was second in the inaugural event in 1973.

The 1976 edition will be remembered as the first and only to feature a six-wheel car triumph, as Jody Scheckter guided the Tyrrell P34 to victory.

SWITZERLAND
Number of world championship GPs: 6 (1950-54, 1982)
Circuits: Bremgarten, Dijon

The record books list 1982 as the last Swiss Grand Prix, but since that was held at Dijon-Prenois you have to go back to 1954 for the last time the country itself hosted Formula 1. That's because motor racing was banned there after the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours disaster.

It is slightly relaxing its laws (Formula E looks set to visit), though an F1 race is unlikely at this stage. Given that it had a rich pre-world championship history, produced 26 GP drivers, and that a lot of big sponsors are based in the country, Switzerland is probably a loss to F1 in the long term.