2016 F1 Calendar Brings Back Germany, Adds Azerbaijan
Next year’s Formula 1 season may have 21 races, including the first in Azerbaijan and a race in Germany after this year’s planned event was cancelled.
The provisional calendar for F1 was released Friday with 21 races scheduled, the same number of races on last year’s provisional calendar. The race on the streets in Baku, Azerbaijan this year would be dubbed the European Grand Prix and could be held in July.
The 2016 season would begin in Australia in April and end in Abu Dhabi in November.
Other changes on the 2016 F1 calendar include moving the Russian Grand Prix from October to May, and moving the Malaysian Grand Prix from April to September.
Last year, the provisional calendar included 21 races, including a Korean Grand Prix that was eventually dropped from the calendar. Mexico was added to be the 20th race this year before the German GP was dropped. F1 has only held a 20-race season once, which was in 2012.
The provisional 2016 calendar effectively eliminates the summer break for F1 teams. The largest gap between two races next year is only two weeks, with three back-to-back races in Asia, North America and Indonesia-Malaysia.
The provisional calendar was part of a larger set of changes F1’s governing body made to the sport this week. The FIA released a new set of rules simplifying how teams serve penalties, according to the BBC. Teams will move to the back of the grid for power-unit penalties, rather than a complicated system of grid penalties and time penalties based on position.
McLaren-Honda will also be allowed to use an additional complete power unit this year after the FIA relaxed rules for first-year engine suppliers. The rule will retroactively apply to McLaren-Honda this season.
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Ah, finally the European GP is back, and is held in the heart of Europe!
And the parade continues as Bernie leads F1 Properties on another jaunt to vacuum up the loose shekels of the Dick Tater set and deposit it in Luxembourg banks for nominal safe-keeping. Next year's project? Azerbaijan. The Grand Poobah there wishes to cast cake crumbs over his adoring flock by way of tribute to their unflagging belief in him. For Bernie, that's not a European Grand Prix, it's a European Grand Coup. Meanwhile, wait a minute, yes, puffing up the backstretch with a crutch, a limp and penny-rattling tin cup, here comes Max Mosley eager to not miss any opportunity to sell training in UNECE standards to Azerbaijan's fledgling auto industry. And they didn't even know they needed it. Two more wretchedly offensive people are hard to imagine. But then there is Sepp Blagger, and he's up to the challenge. It's a toss-up for the win. Geriatric rip-off artists - they say they get better with age.