No U.S. Grand Prix in 2008

There will be no United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008. The eight year run of F1 races at the historic oval raceway in Indianapolis has come to a screeching halt due to disagreement over a sanctioning fee between IMS chairman Tony George and F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.

The Indianapolis Star reports that the relationship between the sanctioning body, F1, and the track deteriorated after the '05 running of the race due to tire problems with Michelin. George didn't rule out the possibility of F1 returning to IMS in the future. Attendance at the last few U.S. Grand Prixs was low, although the race was still one of the higher-attended events on the circuit.

The paper reports that representatives from Ferrari, BMW, Toyota and Honda all consider the U.S. race to be important to their companies and that they were frustrated with Eccelstone and F1.