Races in New Jersey, Mexico and South Korea were dropped from Formula One's official 2014 calendar on Wednesday, with the season remaining at 19 races instead of a record 22.
As we prepare to cruise into the New Year, Rediff.com gives you a glance back, through photos, into all the sporting moments that made the last 12 months memorable.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen sang "Viva Las Vegas" after racing to a record-extending 18th victory of the season and joining Sebastian Vettel in third place on Formula One's all-time winners' list.
India has been dropped as previously announced, with hopes for a comeback in 2015, while Austria is due to make a return after an 11-year break with a race at Spielberg on June 22.
Formula One and the 10 teams would seek reassurance on issues including human rights, gender equality and media freedom before any race could happen.
The struggling Caterham and Marussia Formula One teams will both miss next week's U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, the sport's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone told Reuters on Saturday.
A deal has been done for India to return to the Formula One calendar in 2015 and for six years beyond that if tax problems with the country's authorities can be overcome, commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Saturday.
Ferrari have parted company with chief designer Nikolas Tombazis and engineering director Pat Fry, two of the men responsible for designing this year's car as the team endured their first season without a win since 1993.
Starting second behind pole-sitter Hamilton, Bottas got the jump on the Briton during a typically messy start at Albert Park and ended up cruising to his fourth win by some 20.80 seconds after delaying a tyre-change.
Hamilton will be out of contract at the end of next season.
'I watched Senna as a child and it would be an honour to match him. Now I'm just one win away but I hope to do even better'
Six-times world champion Lewis Hamilton and his team will take centre stage, hoping for another year of dominance after winning both titles for the past six years and ending up fastest in winter testing. Ferrari can be trusted to provide plenty of headlines with four-times champion Sebastian Vettel fighting to reassert himself at the team after being outshone by quick newcomer Leclerc, a double winner in 2019.
Even in adversity, with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton romping to five wins in a row and a 24-point lead in the Formula One championship, Nico Rosberg can see the funny side of the situation.
Lewis Hamilton is on course for his most successful campaign yet and can become only the third driver after Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel to win 13 times in a season.
Germany's Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday to end team mate Lewis Hamilton's run of five successive victories and cut the Briton's championship lead to 17 points with one race remaining.
The financial troubles that have forced the Marussia and Caterham Formula One teams into administration emphasise the need for cost-cutting measures, the sport's governing body said on Thursday.
Nico Rosberg denied world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton a fifth pole position in a row by seizing the top slot for Mercedes at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday.
The strangest of campaigns crammed 17 races, instead of the record 22 originally envisaged, into little more than five months from July with four triple-headers.
Lewis Hamilton bared body and soul on Sunday after stripping down to his waist on the podium following his victory in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix will be the 1,000th race of the Formula One world championship since the first at Silverstone in 1950.
Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for Formula One's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, with seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton alongside on the front row for Mercedes.
Rediff.com brings you a glance of all the action from the week gone by.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen qualified comfortably faster but dropped five places for a gearbox change.
The British-based Marussia Formula One team reached the end of the road on Friday with some 200 staff told the company has ceased trading and they are being made redundant.
The 2007 champion, who is out of contract at the end of the year and has been linked to other top teams, indicated at Spa that his salary had not been fully paid and Lotus knew what had to be resolved before any talks could begin.
Hamilton said he would still be "incredibly proud" to pull level with "an icon like Michael" and seven was way beyond his wildest dreams, but numbers and titles maybe meant more to those on the outside.
Spain's double World champion Fernando Alonso and Britain's Jenson Button will drive for McLaren next season, the Formula One team announced on Thursday.
'I was actually with Serena last week in LA ... she came out to Mexico (for the race) which for me was a real honour to have someone of her power, someone who has achieved so much' 'Venus talks a lot about wisdom and about her growth and about the process of being a sportsman or sportswoman so generally from both of them, I take a lot of inspiration and admire them both hugely'
Three rookies are set to make their race debuts and Azarbaijan will make it's Formula One debut even as Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg pose to challenge odds on favourite Lewis Hamilton.
It was Hamilton's first pole position since Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
World No 4 Petra Kvitova sealed the Fed Cup title for the Czech Republic by beating Angelique Kerber 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 to give her country an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Germany in the final on Sunday.
Williams defended their young and inexperienced Formula One drivers
Dutch rookie Max Verstappen, signed controversially as a 16-year-old by Toro Rosso, has swept a hat-trick of awards after confounding his critics in an impressive debut Formula One season.
The six-time F1 World champion said we should reflect on the positives in these challenging times and come out of the situation better people.
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton hunted down Max Verstappen to win the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and slash his Red Bull rival's Formula One lead to 14 points in one of the greatest drives of his career.
Force India principal and co-owner Vijay Mallya has silenced any further talk of a Formula One boycott, saying his team never intended to do anything other than race.
Five-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes front-row lockout with a blistering pole position at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday.
My strongest emotion right now is deep gratitude to everybody who supported me to make that dream happen
Lewis Hamilton took a big step towards a second Formula One World championship on Sunday with his 10th win of the season in a US Grand Prix that saw Mercedes equal the record for one-two finishes. The Briton stretched his lead over team mate Nico Rosberg to 24 points with two races and 75 points remaining, a gap that guarantees the title chase will go down to the final round in Abu Dhabi whatever happens in Brazil.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
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