SEPTEMBER 5, 2015

2016 season to end in December says Ecclestone

F1's race calendar for 2016 looks set for another radical change.

F1's race calendar for 2016 looks set for another radical change.

According to the provisional schedule, the unprecedentedly-long 21-race calendar will start later than usual next year, cutting into the summer break.

But the team bosses were not impressed with that plan.

"The travelling staff need to have that summer break and if we don't do that we're going to burn them out or we're going to have to bring in a second crew," said Force India's Bob Fernley at Monza.

So it emerges that moves are afoot to restore the full summer break for 2016. But that may only be achieved by shifting the Malaysian grand prix.

Sepang had provisionally been paired with the popular night race Singapore, but the British broadcaster Sky said on Friday that Malaysia was not happy with that prospect.

Malaysia may now be moved to the very end of the schedule, perhaps just before the Abu Dhabi finale, which will now push into early to mid December.

"Christmas Eve I think," Bernie Ecclestone joked, according to the Guardian newspaper.

(GMM)