JULY 27, 2007

A calendar for 2008

The FIA World Council has come up with a calendar for next year's Formula 1 World Championship. There are 18 races, as expected, with the disappearance of the United States GP and the arrival of new events in Valencia and Singapore.

The FIA World Council has come up with a calendar for next year's Formula 1 World Championship. There are 18 races, as expected, with the disappearance of the United States GP and the arrival of new events in Valencia and Singapore. The Turkish Grand Prix moves from August to May to make way for the new races. Canada is provisional, pending a financial structure that can cope with having to pay the freight costs of F1, previously split with Indianapolis.

The series will kick off in the middle of March with a race in Melbourne, followed by another in Malaysia, a week later. There will then be a two week break before Bahrain. This is much more intelligent that the current calendar, allowing teams to return home after the first two races. Canada - if it happens - will be on its own in June but otherwise the calendar is relatively conventional with Singapore fitting in before China and Japan. This will mean that many members of the F1 circus will choose to stay out in Asia between the Singapore race and the events in China and Japan.

The season extends into November, with the Brailian GP taking place on November 2. This is in preparation for an even larger calendar in 2008 when Abu Dhabi and (theoretically) South Korea are due to join the schedule.

The full dates are Australia (March 16), Malaysia (March 23), Bahrain (April 6), Barcelona (April 27), Turkey (May 11), Monaco (May 25), Canada (June 8), France (June 22), Britain (July 6), Germany (July 20), Hungary (August 3), Valencia (August 24), Italy (September 7), Belgium (September 14), Singapore (September 28), China (October 12), Japan (October 19) and Brazil (November 2).

The race in Valencia will be the Grand Prix of Europe.