F1 Talk: 2019 calendar revealed; Season to end in December

On Friday, Formula One revealed the calendar for the 2019 season. Notably, there is a German Grand Prix after a deal was made earlier this week even though many thought this year’s race was going to be the last.

The season will start one week earlier than this year meaning it will clash with the IMSA and WEC Sebring event. Bahrain and China are not back to back (unlike the last few years) and China being the third race means it will host the 1000th F1 race. Not exactly a historic and iconic place to hold it.

One of the first things I look for is if there’s a clash with the 24 Hours Le Mans and I’m glad to say that there isn’t. Le Mans will take place in between the Canadian and French Grand Prix.

There is no triple header in 2019 so every race from the British Grand Prix onwards will take place one week later than usual. Mexico and USA have swapped dates and the Singapore GP is now back to back with the Russian GP.

Possible new races in Vietnam or Miami will have to wait at least one more year.

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The one major down point is that the Japanese Grand Prix will take place on the same weekend as the 6 Hours of Fuji. This will have to be sorted out because to have two huge motorsport events in the same country at the same time is not the best thing for both championships and the circuit organisers.

Aside from that, the calendar is quite stable with no drastic changes but have we reached the limit of 21 races? If one or two new races are added on, how early or late will the season have to start? The 2019 calendar is already stretching things and unless some Grand Prix are removed, I don’t see how the sport can get up to 23+ races.

We’ll see what Liberty Media want to do and it’ll be interesting to see if they decide to push the limit of the hundreds and thousands of people who work for each team.