Credit: Daimler AG

The World Motorsport Council have signed off on the 2018 F1 calendar, a lot earlier than normal, and have approved 21 separate events to equal the largest season, alongside 2016. The most visible changes to the calendar include a return to Germany and France, the latter having been off the schedule for a decade, as well as the departure of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The season starts in Australia and ends in Abu Dhabi as normal, but with an extra race squeezed in, the timeframe gets a bit tight in the middle. There are five European races across six weeks in the summer months, including a back-to-back-to-back triple header from France to Austria to Great Britain in three weeks.

Chase Carey said: “We wanted to finalise next season’s calendar early, so that all our stakeholders would have more time to prepare and we have managed it, thanks in part through working closely with the FIA.”

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