WMSC approves 2021 Formula One calendar

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

The FIA announced yesterday that the World Motor Sport Council has approved the calendar for the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship that will feature 23 races.

The World Motor Sport Council held its fourth and final meeting of 2020 yesterday. The meeting was hosted in Geneva by FIA President Jean Todt with FIA Deputy President for Sport Graham Stoker and WMSC members joining in a large majority via video conference from locations across the globe.

The season is set to begin on the 18-21 March 2021 in Australia, although it is still unknown how the travel restrictions will affect the season-opener. The season is set to conclude on 5 December in Abu Dhabi.

A new grand prix in Saudi Arabia was added to the calendar which will be the penultimate round of the season. The first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be a night race and that will be the second full night race on the Formula One calendar, following the Singapore Grand Prix. The Bahrain and the Abu Dhabi Grands Prix are semi-night races, meaning that they start in daylight and end under floodlights.

The summer break will start after the Hungarian Grand Prix and will include three weekends without races. The schedule features two triple-headers with the first presented by the trio of the Belgian, Dutch and Italian Grands Prix. The sport will then have a two-week gap before the seconds triple-header will kick off in Russia, followed by races in Singapore and Japan.

Following a number of behind-the-door races, the sport expects fans to return to the race tracks in 2021. This year, only four races have taken place with the attendance of fans and the remaining four races are also expected to be staged behind closed doors. Fans first appeared at Ferrari’s 1000th race at Mugello where 2,880 spectators were allowed to enter the circuit. Following the Tuscan Grands Prix, a limited number of fans were allowed in at the Russian, Eifel and Portuguese Grands Prix.