This year’s calendar has been reduced to 22 grands prix due to Covid, but F1 is confident that it will get through all 23 next year, finishing in November to avoid clashing with the football World Cup in Qatar.
But the increased workload will heap more demands on team members who face even longer away from home after years of an expanding calendar. AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has said that staff members who aren’t happy with the growing workload should leave F1, but others are concerned about losing valuable staff.
Bahrain gives the start of the season a new look, followed by Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah street circuit, which will host its two races in the space of four months — it will host the first Saudi GP in December.
Melbourne has been given more time to relax pandemic restrictions, foregoing its usual season-opening slot for the third race of the season, in April. There’s then a brief return to Europe and Imola (still hosting the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix) before next year’s new circuit in Miami takes its bow.
That leads in to a more familiar look to the year, as Monaco follows Barcelona before the paddock heads to Azerbaijan and then Canada.
Set aside the first weekend of July for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone; the first of four European races that month before teams take a rest over the summer break.
They’ll need to recharge their batteries because they are straight back in to a Spa–Zandvoort–Monza triple header. A two-week break and it’s back on the treadmill for the sssecond alphabetically-aligned triple header of Sochi, Singapore and then Suzuka.
