Formula One India GP fixed for Dec 11

Formula One's governing body included the Bahrain Grand Prix and set a December 11 date for India on Thursday in a revised calendar that appeared divorced from reality.

The listing appeared on the International Automobile Federation (FIA) website (www.fia.com) after a meeting in Barcelona last Friday decided to reinstate Bahrain and switch India to a then-undecided date at the end of the season.

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Teams, whose unanimous written agreement is required for any schedule change, have already ruled out racing in December and going to Bahrain on Oct. 30, the date originally set for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in New Delhi.

The season was previously due to end in Brazil on Nov. 27 and teams are adamant it cannot be changed.

"It's not about whether the (Bahrain) race goes ahead, it's about whether we change the calendar at this stage of the season and that's what we've written about it," Williams chairman Adam Parr told Reuters on Wednesday.

"The issue that we're concerned about is that fans, sponsors, teams, have made logistic arrangements to be in India for a particular weekend, the 30th of October, and we've been presented with a calendar where it's on December 11.

"How do you say to people who have booked a two-week holiday in India to take in the Grand Prix, 'sorry you'll be in India but we won't.'

"We've explained our position...and there's nothing more to talk about. It's just too late to change it," said Parr, speaking ahead of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.

The reinstatement of the Bahrain Grand Prix, originally scheduled as the March season-opener, has been highly controversial after bloody unrest and a crackdown on anti-government protesters in the Gulf kingdom.

One source at the governing body told Reuters the latest calendar appeared to be "the FIA bureaucracy going through the motions" pending another vote on the matter rather than anything more meaningful.