i1 Super Series' first season cancelled, to be held next year

The inaugural season of the much-hyped motor racing event i1 Super Series, which has Sachin Tendulkar as a stakeholder and Shahrukh Khan as the co-owner of a team, has been cancelled due to non-availability of drivers.

According to Machdar Motorsports, the organiser of the racing league, the series has been postponed to next year.

"Dates of a bulk of drivers were conflicting with other international events. Also most of the team owners felt that they were not fully ready. So we thought we should not do it this year but hold it around the same time (January-February) next year," Machdar Motorsports CEO Darshan M told PTI.

The company had anounced a driver line up of big names, that included 1997 Formula One Champion Jacques Villeneuve, 2011 Formula One drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Karun Chandhok, and former F1 race winners Giancarlo Fisichella, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jean Alesi.

Apart from the international drivers, the Indian drivers included Armaan Ebrahim, Aditya Patel and Parthiva Sureswaren.

The organisers have also been unable to finalise the full nine teams. So far only four team owners - Arindam Chaudhuri for Delhi; Nagarjuna and Narendra Chowdary (Hyderabad); K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju (Chennai), and Arjun Baljee and Rudra Dalmia(Bangalore) have been finalised.

Earlier, Shah Rukh Khan along with his Kolkata Knight Riders partners, Juhi Chawla and Jai Mehta, were announced as the owners of the Mumbai franchise but it is understood that this has not yet been confirmed.

"We are currently engaged in discussions with a few more parties and would add a few more teams before the event takes place next year," Darshan added.

"Four team owners we have already announced and next three will be announced in April this year," he added.

Comments from the team owners on the postponement of the inaugural season could not be immediately obtained.

It is understood that Tendulkar, a racing fan, has a small stake in Machdar Sports.

The first leg of the series was supposed to be held in January in Malaysia, which was later shifted to February in Doha, Qatar and was to be followed by destinations like Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and New Delhi at later dates.

The series, charted on the popular city based franchisee format, envisaged having up to nine teams, with each team having an Indian and an international driver.

In the meantime, the organisers along with the owners will do roadshows in different cities and showcase their teams, cars, logos and uniforms.

Machdar Motorsports was expected to spend around USD 5 million on marketing and advertising across media to promote the series.