F1 adjusts race start times

The FIA and Formula One have jointly announced that the starting times for the confirmed races on the 2021 F1 calendar have been adjusted ahead of the 72nd running of the championship.

Although the sport released the draft of its 2021 schedule at the end of the last year, the ongoing restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic has forced Formula One to make multiple changes to its calendar. The original season-opening Australian Grand Prix has been postponed and is now poised to take place in November instead of March. The change sees the Bahrain Grand Prix take over the role of the season-opening round.

A further change has been made which saw the Chinese Grand Prix being postponed. The new date of the race that was the third round on the original schedule will be revealed later on.

The sport has now revealed that the starting times for the races on the 2021 schedule has been modified. The change means that the Grands Prix will once again start on the hour instead of ten minutes past as was the case in the previous seasons.

The length of the Friday practice session will also be modified for the 2021 season. Both FP1 and FP2 have traditionally been 90 minutes apiece, but from this season onwards they will be reduced to 60 minutes each – the same as Saturday's FP3 session.