Melbourne is rescheduled for March 2016

Five years after announcing that the Australian Grand Prix would take place in April, the new calendar once again schedules a mid-March start to the season. This is just the first in a series of changes.

Finally, there will indeed be a race in March as the Australian Grand Prix is now scheduled for the weekend of March 17-20, as announced by the Melbourne organizers: « The date of the Australian F1 Grand Prix has changed to March 17-20. The date change is part of a number of changes to the provisional calendar released by the World Motor Sport Council. The race remains the first of the Formula 1 season, where all eyes will be on Melbourne! »

Indeed, the FIA has completely overhauled its schedule, which is likely to create numerous problems for everyone involved in the Formula One Circus, starting with the teams. Moving the start of the season forward by two weeks calls into question the entire development schedule of the teams, who try to finalize their work as late as possible before heading to Australia.

The logistics managers of the teams will also have to perform feats with the new constraints imposed by this new schedule. Indeed, it is now planned that the Montreal and Baku races will occur one week apart! The new Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which will take place on June 19, will coincide with the same weekend as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, thus preventing Nico Hülkenberg from attempting to do the double. The only concession made is that the time of the Grand Prix will not conflict with the end of the round-the-clock race at Sarthe.

Another somewhat strange back-to-back is the one linking Mexico and Brazil while Austin ends up isolated. This setup occurs six times throughout the season since we will also find the Austria-Great Britain, Hungary-Germany, and Malaysia-Japan combinations. It will be interesting to see the coexistence between Malaysia and Singapore with only two weeks apart.

With six weeks in the space of just eight weeks, the teams will still be able to enjoy a summer break, which will allow them to rest their bodies and minds.

March 20 Australia

April 3 Bahrain

April 17 China

May 1 Russia

15 May Spain

May 29 Monte Carlo

June 12 Canada

June 19 Azerbaijan

July 3, Austria

July 10 United Kingdom

July 24 Hungary

July 31 Germany (Hockenheim)

August 28 Belgium

September 4 Italy

September 18 Singapore

October 2 Malaysia

October 9 Japan

October 23, United States

November 6, Mexico

November 13 Brazil

November 27 Abu Dhabi

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr