Korean carmakers to miss home GP

The premier motorsport was being looked upon  as a good opportunity to transform Korean firms' dowdy image as makers of affordable cars into the premium segment and give a fillip to their market share in Europe.

There has been speculation that Hyundai Motor Co, one of the top global performers during the financial crisis, could signal its intent to join F1 to replace Japan's Toyota Motor and Honda Motor.

Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, and Honda both dropped out in the last two years, hit by the global economic recession and their lack of success on the track relative to the hundreds of millions of dollars ploughed into the sport.

But Hyundai Motor Group, which includes the country's number two carmaker Kia Motors , and which sponsored big sports events such as the soccer World Cup and the Olympics, has ruled out speculation it would create its own F1 team.