The FIA World Council meets today and there are whispers before the official announcement of the 2017 calendar. It looks like there will again be 21 races, although I hear that Brazil may be listed as a provisional race because of ongoing financial troubles in Sao Paulo.
The word is that there will be a late start in Australia, to give the team’s maximum time to prepare the new cars. The race is slated for March 26 in Melbourne and will be followed a fortnight later by China (April 9). This will be followed by Bahrain on April 16 – Easter Day. This is a sensible back-to-back. There will be a two-week break before Russia (April 30) and then the European season will begin on May 14 in Spain, followed by Monaco on its traditional last weekend in May. There will be the same Canada-Azerbaijan back-to-back on June 11 and 18 and then the super-tough (and expensive) Austria-Britain will follow on July 2 and 9. Hungary will be on July 23 and Germany (at Hockenheim by all accounts) will take place on July 30. The usual summer break will follow.
Belgium and Italy will be back-to-back on August 27-September 3 and then there will be a two-week break before Malaysia on September 17. There will then be the same daft two week break (presumably forced upon the date-makers) before Singapore on October 1. Japan will follow a week later on October 8, with the U.S. GP on October 22 and then a Mexico-Brazil back-to-back on November 5-12. The season will finish off in Abu Dhabi on November 26.
It’s certainly not perfect, being very little different to the current calendar, but we can hope for changes in 2018 when perhaps we will see some new thinking.
joeblogsf1 
So another clash with Le Mans?? Pathetic.
Le Mans will always take precedence over a GP. I was there for the first time this year, only cost me €500 including fuel for the whole 5 days as I took a tent.
June 17/18 is Le Mans 24 hr. Why why why do they keep doing that?
Because they always have
In response to your response, Joe, to the question of why the F1 schedule is again in conflict with the Le Mans 24 hour race, in fact the have not ‘because they always have’. Rather they pretty much always ‘haven’t’ had a conflict in the schedule. I think F1 are scared of Le Mans and are determined to stop F1 drivers from racing in the event.
This is not my impression.
So not only will there again be a Grand Prix going head-to-head with the 24 hours of Le Mans, but they’ll be running one on Easter Sunday as well. Not cool, in my book 😦
For me Le Mans 2017 will take precedence over Baku by a large margin. Work permitting, I have no intention of going to Baku, but I plan to go to Le Mans. So the clash doesn’t bother me.
Last GP I went to on Easter weekend was European GP 1993. I seem to recall it was a good race (albeit that the winner blitzed everyone else on first lap and almost lapped the rest of the field).
From where I was sitting, that one was definitely cool verging on hypothermia… 🙂
Easter is not a holiday in Bahrain: a global sport after all. With regards Le Mans, this is what happens when calendars are controlled by financial rather than sporting interests.
One of my favourite Grand Prix took place on Easter Sunday – Donnington ’93.
There used to be F1 races around Christmas, in South Africa. The non-championship 1961 South African Grand-Prix was won by Jim Clark on December 26, 1961. The championship-counting 1962 South African Grand-Prix was held on December 29, 1962.
True, but people went home in the summer months
Interesting Calendar!
The clash with Le Mans while pathetic is completely deliberate and malicious.Although the FIA supposedly protected Le Mans after Bernie hypothesised replacing the cancelled New Jersey race with a French Grand Prix on Le Mans weekend a few years back it is toothless to enforce this.
After Hulkenberg won Le Mans last year and Alonso and other F1 drivers started expressing desire to race there Bernie decided he had to remove the option of F1 drivers doing this to protect his series.
Although F1 is obviously the world’s greatest series Le Mans is by far the world’s greatest motor race.The blinkered world of F1 is unable to recognise this and assist the sport outside itself.
Why is Austria-Britain “expensive”?
Thanks,
Look up Joe’s article on how the teams organised that one this year Donald W Prescott (either in GP+ or the blog post having some of the details this year – I think it was shortly after this years trip)
It is expensive because there is little time, when you take in account the distance, the Ferries/Tunnel and mandatory rests for truck drivers.
There is an incredible amount of trucks involved. For this trip teams sent complete busses of spare drivers for the exchange, flew over fresh drivers to replace the ones doing the first “stint” of the trip and even then it was quite tight to make it on time.
The long drive and the extra time to cross the water have to be compensated for with lots and lots of extra people.
Read Joe’s report on the transportation problems between the two races, just around Silverstone time. Should be available if you go back through the blog.
And in detail in GP+
Read the excellent British GP+ for a fascinating explanation of the logistics of moving the motorhomes and hospitality suites over 900 miles in two days.
Montreal should be another sell out with the dollar worth 20 cents ‘merikan. Makes for a cheap holiday for east coasters. But please lord make it warmer!
Be careful what you wish for. It can get into the mid 30’s°C at the end of June here.
Is there any good reason to have Spanish GP as a stand-alone in mid-May?
Yes, Monaco is very difficult
/Monaco is very difficult/
I’m aware that it’s fairly impossible to have a race just a week before Monaco – as Monaco weekend begins a day earlier – but I’m still unsure whether it would be as hard to get to Barcelona (or another nearby track) for a weekend after the Monaco.
Gosh, no respect for Easter Sunday. Many of us have long suspected the calendar boys of F1 were out and out heathens.
I remember around 15-20 years ago they had a race on Easter weekend. Michael Schumacher made his disapproval very evident in nearly every interview, saying that he thought it was wrong, and that Easter was a time to be with your family. I can’t remember there having been another one since, until now.
The Malaysian GP has been held on Easter weekend a few times, and also the Chinese GP in 2014.
Eh?
Every race is on sunday which is church day for christians.
Joe, I understand your point on improving a better organized calendar, focusing on more efficient travel dates between worldwide locations.
Am I pointing out the obvious, in that Bernie has is not ignorant of the problems, and if there were a way of recasting the calendar into more efficient stream lined travel dates, he would have done so?
One problem with the exorbitant race fees he charges, different venues no doubt say, I’l pay your usurious rate, but you’ll give me the date I want, and you figure out the rest.
“focusing on more efficient travel dates between worldwide locations”
Warning–Sarcasm alert
It may be important for those that travel on scheduled flights but lets not forget those at the top are probably whisked around in private jets that do their bidding. Not such a hardship then is it……
The two week break between Singapore and Malaysia (as it has been this year) is absolutely ludicrous. They are the two geographically closest f1 venues, such a waste of time and energy to send everyone back home in the middle. I think it’s like a three and a half hour drive between the venues. Utter madness.
We’ve heard the concerns as well the Malaysia race suffers to attract fans when much of the prestige, understandably so, goes to the Singapore night extravaganza. Those magnificent Sepang grandstands will probably lay dormant for this weekend.
Having driven from Pasir Gudang circuit (outside Johor Bahru which is just over the causeway from Singapore) so Shah Alam in Kuala Lumpur a few years ago I can confirm that it is much more than a 3 hour drive. It could be done in about a (working) day however, so I do agree that having a one week gap between the races is wasteful…
Hi Joe, can you see any of these races being dropped from the final calendar? In the past the provisional version often does not see the light of day.
Also, I assume this means the Monza contract has finally been signed?
Not that I have heard…
What about the Canada – Baku switch? Or was that not possible for 2017?
Groupe de course Octane’s PR rep (Montreal’s race promoter) said this week they asked for June 11 and that’s what they got.
Off topic…. how’s the new track surface and corner mods looking joe?
These posts always remind me of just how fast the years fly by. Seems like yesterday there was an item about the 2016 calendar!
Does a certain entity/person benefit from increased freight costs if the schedule is not optimized? (Or am i being overly cynical?)
Clashes are going to happen, but Le Mans is the only clash that shouldn’t happen (lots of time to work around it). I think many changes are to come for 2018, including the revival of a lost great.
I think the calendar will look like this in 2018:
11/03/18 – Australian GP
26/04/18 – Chinese GP
01/04/18 – Bahrain GP
16/04/18 – Russian GP
22/04/18 – European GP
06/05/18 – Spanish GP
20/05/18 – Monaco GP
03/06/18 – Canadian GP
10/06/18 – Indy-American GP
24/06/18 – Austrian GP
01/07/18 – British GP
15/07/18 – Hungarian GP
22/07/18 – German GP
19/08/18 – San Marino GP
26/08/18 – Italian GP
09/09/18 – Belgian GP
16/09/18 – Dutch GP
30/09/18 – Singapore GP
07/10/18 – Japanese GP
14/10/18 – Malaysian GP
28/10/18 – Abu Dhabi GP
11/11/18 – US GP
18/11/18 – Mexican GP
02/12/18 – Brazilian GP
Even if the Dutch and San Marino GPs were to be revived, which I think unlikely, having them a week apart from the Belgian and Italian GPs would force many punters to chose one or the other rather than both. Meaning they’d continue to go to Spa and Monza.
– Abu Dhabi (ADMM) Pay specifically to be the last race of the year.
– The George family have no interest in spending multi millions on the event anymore for little to no return.
– Italy is on shutdown during the month of August and you want to schedule two races in that month?
– The Dutch have no money for F1.
– You have listed 24 races. While you sound authoritative in your post, you are just dreaming here.
But keep having fun with it. Ignore me. I’m grumpy.
@F1Spy
You seem to be happy not to see that Russians strongly want to have the race around May 1st, and Monaco wants to avoid the clash with Cannes festival (plus remarks from people just above). And so on…
Collision with LeMans is avoidable quite easily – it’s enough to move Le Mans a little, they used to have various dates through June…
Love F1 but 21 races is about 3 too many!
Provisional status for Brazil Canada and Germany on 2017.
Joe do you think Brazil may not come back as pay back for Mother in Law kidnapping?
Argentina GP on the cards perhaps?
Canada will be fine just resurfacing to sort out.
Germany exit as another European GP bites the dust.
Brazil does not have the money
Joe, just out of curiosity- if you could pick a city/circuit/country that you’d like to see host an F1 event- where would it be and why?
Somewhere in the Caribbean… for obvious reasons and to get another race in the US time zone.
Joe,
Your opening comments in GP+ regarding stewarding are interesting. I completely agree with them.
They contrast somewhat with your response to my comments following Spa, about the lack of penalty for Max Verstappen for his moves towards Raikkonen on the Kemmel straight. You said that we should trust the stewards because they are “right more often than I think”, and that, because they have access to all this extra information, had a penalty been deserved, one would have been given.
F1 stewarding has always been inconsistent, and probably always will be. It cannot be taken unquestionably as being right, because regularly it is not.
I do not need access to the wealth of information that the stewards have to know that to be true. Watching every race for 20 years is sufficient!