Auto GP has announced its calendar for the 2013 season, which will include eight events and a first trip to Russia. However, the series' 2012 experiment with races on his side of the Atlantic has been shelved as races at Sonoma and Curitiba, Brazil have been dropped.
Those rounds were originally introduced with the aim of establishing Auto GP as a global championship, but next year's slate will be purely European other tha an appearance on the streets of Marracech, Morrocco. The series begins in Monza on March 24 and concluding at Brno on Oct. 6. The first four races - Monza, Marrakech, Hungary and Moscow Raceway – will run as support events to the World Touring Car Championship.
In August, Auto GP will then make its debut at the Nurburgring on the DTM support bill, before heading to Donington Park in the UK alongside Superstars. The Brno finale will be run alongside the European Touring Car Championship. An eighth round is listed for July but no official decision has yet been made about its venue.
Series boss Enzo Coloni said the loss of the American rounds had facilitated the addition of an extra event with no impact on overall budgets.
"By renouncing to the two races in America, we gave teams and drivers the chance to add one more round and maintain the same budget," he explained. "We will be lining up in Russia, on a new racetrack, and we will also debut at the Nurburgring, a venue that always hosted spectacular races in the past. By doing so, we will provide the drivers with the chance to race on the best European venues of Formula 1.
"We are also set to return to Morocco, in an effort to help drivers learn how to tame street courses, with their walls and tight chicanes."
2013 Auto GP championship:
March 24 Monza (I)
April 7 Marrakech (MA)
May 5 Budapest (HU)
June 9 Moscow (RU)
July TBA
Aug. 18 Nurburgring (DE)
Sept. 1 Donington Park (UK)
Oct. 6 Brno (CZ)