Why is there no F1 in India?

Three races at Buddh

The Buddh International Circuit was built at Greater Noida, in Uttar Pradesh, about an hour's drive from Delhi. It's 5.125 km long and was designed by Hermann Tilke, who drew many of the circuits F1 added in the 2000s.

1. 2011

   The first Indian Grand Prix, on 30 October. Sebastian Vettel won it for Red Bull from pole and led every lap.

2. 2012

   Vettel won again, with Fernando Alonso second.

3. 2013

   Vettel won a third time and clinched his fourth world title that afternoon. It was the last Indian Grand Prix.

Vettel is still the only driver to have won an F1 race in India.

Why it stopped

The trouble started before the first race. In 2011 a court ruled that the Grand Prix was entertainment rather than sport, so it didn't get the tax breaks given to sporting events. The 2011 race took in about Rs 148 crore (around $24 million), and its entertainment tax bill came to about Rs 37 crore (around $6 million), according to Al Jazeera.

The dispute followed the race for the next two years. In 2013 a petition to the Supreme Court over unpaid tax from 2012 nearly stopped the race weekend. Crowds were shrinking too, from about 95,000 in 2011 to well under 70,000 by 2013.

In 2013 Bernie Ecclestone, who ran F1 at the time, said there would be no Indian Grand Prix in 2014. The organisers said they'd be back in 2015. They never were. The tax question was never settled, and the Jaypee Group, which built and ran the circuit, sank into debt and went through insolvency proceedings.

What happened to the circuit

Buddh stayed open for national racing. In September 2023 it held India's first MotoGP race, but MotoGP hasn't been back. The 2024 race was put off to 2025, then dropped again, and India isn't on the 2026 MotoGP calendar either, Autocar India reports.

Could F1 come back to India?

It's being talked about more seriously than at any time since 2013. On 15 September 2026, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya set up a 10-member task force, chaired by NITI Aayog's Yugal Kishore Joshi, with the aim of hosting a race in 2028. It includes officials from India's two tax boards, because tax is what ended the last race. The Adani Group, which now owns the Buddh circuit, is part of it too, ETV Bharat reports.

F1 itself is more careful. In June 2026, F1's chief executive Stefano Domenicali said a return needed "the right promoters, the right collaboration, and the right timing", and put it at least five years away.

So there's no Indian Grand Prix on the calendar yet, a government plan aiming for 2028, and an F1 boss who sees it further off than that.