My first thought when I hear that the F1 season would start in April, was to check to see what was happening in March 2016. Remember, 2016 is an Olympic year so in theory races should be moved away from the Games to avoid clashes in August, but this seems to be the opposite. The IAFF World Indoor Athletics Championship from Portland, Oregon, is hardly worth shifting an F1 calendar. And if F1 is worried about figure skating, the sport is in deep trouble. So what is it all about?
Shoving the Australian GP back to the start of April is on odd thing to do. The race has a contract to be the first of the season and usually there are other races keen to get that position – and these pay more money than do the Australians. So the best way to convince the Aussies to move on that (or to pay more to keep it) is to get them to want a different date. Putting the race back into the Australian autumn, into the Aussie Rules Football season, will likely achieve that. The crowd will be smaller, the critics noisier and yadda, yadda, yadda… So that is probably one motivation behind the April start in 2016. It also shows that with the retirement of Ron Walker – Bernie’s big mate in the Antipodes – the Australians are no longer going to have a special relationship with FOM.
But with Bernie Ecclestone nothing is ever simple. There are always multiple reasons why things happen. Lopping a fortnight off at the start of the year will not necessarily push everything back by a fortnight, but rather we may see one of the other early season races shoved to the other end of the year. China is coming up for a negotiation and this may be part of that process. China may be heading to an autumn date. At the same time, Ecclestone is always pushing for more races. The bizarre spacing of the calendar in recent years has been designed to get the teams arguing in favour of back-to-back races which would make it easier to get them to accept a 21st or 22nd race. Compressing the season is another way to try to do that.
A late start also probably means a later start for payments and as we saw this year, teams struggle with cash flow at the start of the year and so become more manageable…
And, of course, there is one other key point. FOM’s hands are tied in lots of ways, but it still decides the dates. This reminds everyone that FOM can still do as it pleases in some areas of the sport.
Which of these reasons is the primary one for the change? Who knows? Is any of this thinking for the long-term good of the sport? Hmmm… Different question.
joeblogsf1 
Actually Joe, you seem to come in a very small minority of not accepting this pure politicking as opposed to the rest of the F1 World accepting this rubbish which benefits F1 not one iota, but only benefits Bernie and CVC massively.
It doesn’t seem that the F1 circus will ever grow some “Balls”
Sad, so sad.
What in the world gives you that idea?
Olympic Games won’t be a problem, as they perfectly fit into the August break – let’s say there would be Hungarian GP on July 31 and Belgian GP on August 28.
I know
A media source in Australia wrote the following, note the last bit. The Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne has undergone a scheduling shake-up for 2016 that will see the race start later in the year and earlier in the day. The Albert Park race, which was held on March 15 this year, will maintain its traditional opening slot on the Formula One calendar but will be pushed back to run from March 31 to April 3 as part of next year’s condensed season.
In a strange twist, the first three days of the event, including the qualifying races, will take place before daylight savings ends, while Sunday’s big race will run after the clocks in Victoria have been wound back.
>
Having the GP on an Australian Football weekend can’t be a bad thing for Melbourne. After all, most games are played at night, so the AFL can move two games to other cities, and have night games in Melbourne on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After all, if you’re travelling across the globe to go to an F1 race, why wouldn’t you see the local sights? A quick tram ride to the MCG and a few bucks and you can get to watch the local sport with 80,000 others.
Naturally, Bernie is probably trying to squeeze more money out of someone, but hey, you can’t really be surprised at a dog for barking.
Dogs are often in the doghouse
If you thought dealing with Bernie was difficult, you’ve not seen how the AFL do things. They’re known for forcing home sides to change their home strips in order not to clash with the (favoured) visiting team.
Hahahaha The AFL move games??? I’m afraid you dont know the AFL to weel from the sounds of that….
hahah to me! ‘too well’!!
Watching FPs, Qually, and races takes a lot of commitment every fortnight. Back to back races just makes that less likely to happen, so I will have to devote more time reading GP+ during the following week.
A silver lining may be that your considerable travel costs are reduced for the year. But apart from that, the scenario is just another bizarre episode by FOM, “Stuff the circuit owners, teams, fans etc. it’s all about me”
The 25-27 March 2016 weekend is Easter, which could be one reason for delaying by a week as opposed to18-20 March. Personally, I think Australian motor racing fans would flock there on an Easter weekend holiday. Secondly, March April is Autumn in Australia, any later and temperatures could get too cold and a non-floodlit evening race aligning with European viewers impossible.The back end of the season may have been a possibility.
They will need to more the race to earlier in the day due to daylight savings ending, which will then make it earlier in the morning for European viewers. Seems quite the opposite of what was trying to be achieved a few years ago in shifting race times to suit European viewing.
With every story I read about his underhand dealings and manipulations,I find myself drawing ever closer to this conclusion: Bernie = Brick Top from the movie Snatch.
(If anyone don’t get the reference,please watch the movie and you’ll understand.)
I can actually see him saying “Do you know what ‘Nemesis’ means?”
Wouldn’t it be less travel having a condensed start
Pending the release of the Malaysian date (or another if it is moved because of the weather issue), perhaps Mr E has listened to the criticism of the gap being too great between the first two races?
Yeah, but what extra races? If the Italian GP is dropped then there’ll be 19 next year, unless Germany comes back and gives us 20 again. Maybe Italy is saved and that gets us to 21. Where else? Is India coming back? Korea? Turkey? Valencia? This mooted Qatar street race, which would give us a wonderful 3 races in the Gulf?
Deals can always be done…
Room for more winter testing? Perhaps, even, at Paul Ricard. Certain teams could use it.
As an Australian I’m pretty chuffed the race has been pushed back to April. I was planning on going to the Singapore or Malaysia GP but now the Melbourne GP coincides with school holidays I’ll be able to take the family to Melbourne and make a holiday of it.
As for the AFL I really don’t think it matters. Any pretentious Melbournite will tell you Melbourne is the sporting capital of the world and will go to anything. I’m not sure I believe that but I really don’t see a strong overlap of ariel ping pong fans and the pinnacle of motorsport. But then again I’m not a Victorian so I really can’t say giving I don’t give two hoots about that silly game.
With China mentioned as a possible mover, could Qatar or Azerbaijan be added in next to Bahrain (not that Qatar would please Bahrain!)?
If not then, I wonder where Azerbaijan would fall – near the Russian GP? Or as a mid-season European round, a la Turkey?
I’d like any shake up to involve Malaysia moving towards the end of the season (maybe back to back with Singapore). The track is just too similar to China so spacing them out would be preferable. Also, why not move Russia after/before Bahrain?
pre season testing is currently too early for spain …I’ve given up going although I winter there
it’s too expensive to hold elsewhere
so australia/ china double header
malaysia /bahrain double header
spain/monaco double header
would no doubt be easier logistically as well as pleasing madame saward !
only 2 week gaps which would please me
downside ? F1 tv is FTA in spain so I wouldn’t be able to see the march races live before I head home …but we all have to make sacrifices , don’t we !
I’m always bang up for a good conspiracy story, but I think in this case you’ll find that the reason is following Jules Bianchi’s crash, one of the recommendations was to move start times to earlier in the day so that failing light wouldn’t be a safety issue.
Melbourne has daylight saving that finishes at the end of March.
By moving the race to April, will bring the race start to a more reasonable time in the morning for European viewers (I think – please confirm – that the UK and some European countries begin daylight saving on April 1st, which would reduce the time gap by another hour)