The Mexican and New Jersey races that currently figure on the 2014 F1 World Championship calendar will both be absent from the final version when it emerges from the FIA World Motor Sport Council in December.

Sources have confirmed that Mexico is definitely off. While Bernie Ecclestone would not officially confirm to this writer that the race has been cancelled, he made it clear that the challenges of building a new pit complex in time for next November had proved insurmountable.

Hermann Tilke has been charged with creating the new pit and paddock area, as well as making some relatively minor changes to the layout of the track.

With Mexico gone there is now a gap of two free weekends between Austin and the season closer in Brazil, which could lead to some reshuffling.

The loss of New Jersey is no great surprise, given that the race was already dropped from this season’s calendar and had been given a logistically challenging 2014 date sandwiched between Monaco and Canada. Promoter Leo Hindery has yet to source sufficient financial backing.

“New Jersey won’t happen because they still haven’t got the finance together for that,” Ecclestone told this blog. “I put it on the calendar because they keep telling me it’s all going to happen.”