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The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has released the full race calendar for the 2017 Formula One season, with the Bahrain race to take place on April 16.
Germany has been dropped from next year’s schedule and the Brazilian Grand Prix is also in doubt. The calendar contains 20 races with Brazil listed as provisional. The season starts in Australia on 26 March and ends in Abu Dhabi on 26 November.
F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone has revealed he is still in talks with Brazil’s president and could not onfir the raes pae on the schedule until January. The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, which had also been in doubt, has been on fire Germany was unable to complete a deal for the race to be held at Hockenheim.
In the country’s biennial swap deal, it is the turn of the Nurburgring but that circuit has finana proes an cannot host the F1 race. The race in Baku in Azerbaijan has been moved back a week to 25 June to avoid a clash with the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The FIA also revealed ithad identified 11 corners at circuits around the world where changes needed to be made to ensure there was no controversy about drivers gaining advantage by going off the track.
This is to solve consistency issues where some circuits would penalise drivers for going outside of the circuit’s boundaries, but others wouldn’t. It is likely that this will be dealt with by installing steep ‘sausage kerbs’ that slow cars down if they go off track.
Furthermore, the French Grand Prix will return to F1 in 2018 after an absence of 10 years. The race will be held in the south of France at the Circuit Paul Ricard - also known as Le Castellet - which last staged the event in 1990.
Between 1991 and 2008, it was held at the Magny-Cours circuit in central France. rane hoste the first grand prix in 1906 but lost its race because the organisers were unable to fund the event.
Le Castellet is owned by the family trust of Ecclestone, but he has revealed that the promoters were renting the track from it. The 86-year-old said the race was likely to be held at the end of July.
It is the second European race to return in the past few years - following the reestablishment of the Austrian Grand Prix, which is now funded by Red Bull. Other European races are struggling to meet the demands for ever-higher fees from F1 - Germany has its aforementioned issues, and the future of the Italian race was in doubt until a new deal was agreed last month.
Silverstone’s owners have said they are looking into whether they will be able to continue to afford the British Grand Prix after 2019. French driver Romain Grosjean tweeted: “Really super-happy for French fans, who will have their Grand Prix and can come to support us.”
