The FIA World Motor Sport Council has ratified a revised 2016 F1 calendar featuring a number of changes from the original version, which was published in July.
In total eight races have new dates, namely the Australian, Chinese, Bahrain, British, Azerbaijan, Hungarian, Malaysian and Mexican GPs. Baku is now twinned with Montreal, and Mexico with Brazil.
Bernie Ecclestone has been wrestling with various scheduling headaches over the past three months after the July schedule attracted some concerns both from teams and some race promoters.
As predicted last weekend, the opening race in Australia has been moved forward to March 20, the Melbourne organisers having confirmed the news on their website earlier today. This creates a new logistical headache for the teams, who now have to change their R&D, car build, crash testing and spares production schedules.
2016 F1 Schedule
20 March Melbourne
3 April Bahrain
17 April Shanghai
1 May Sochi
15 May Barcelona
29 May Monte Carlo
12 June Montreal
19 June Baku
3 July Spielberg
10 July Silverstone
24 July Budapest
31 July Hockenheim
28 August Spa-Francorchamps
4 September Monza
18 September Singapore
2 October Sepang
9 October Suzuka
23 October Austin
6 November Mexico City
13 November Sao Paolo
27 November Abu Dhabi
Adam Cooper F1 