FIA confirms 2013 calendar cut to 19 races

2013 F1 season

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With one week to go to the start of the new Formula One season the FIA has finally confirmed this year’s schedule.

The 2013 F1 calendar will have 19 rounds instead of the 20 previously announced in September.

Plans for an additional race in Europe on July 21st have been scrapped after a host could not be found.

The sport’s governing body added that discussions over the new Concorde Agreement are still ongoing and will be “concluded in the near future”. A settlement on the commercial agreement which governs F1 was originally due to be reached last October.

Here is the final calendar for 2013:

RoundRaceCircuitDateForum
1Australian Grand PrixAlbert ParkMarch 15 – 17Forum
2Malaysian Grand PrixSepang International CircuitMarch 22 – 24Forum
3Chinese Grand PrixShanghai International CircuitApril 12 – 14Forum
4Bahrain Grand PrixBahrain International CircuitApril 19 – 21Forum
5Spanish Grand PrixCircuit de CatalunyaMay 10 – 12Forum
6Monaco Grand PrixMonte-CarloMay 23 – 26Forum
7Canadian Grand PrixCircuit Gilles VilleneuveJune 7 – 9Forum
8British Grand PrixSilverstoneJune 28 – 30Forum
9German Grand PrixNurburgringJuly 5 – 7Forum
10Hungarian Grand PrixHungaroringJuly 26 – 28Forum
11Belgian Grand PrixSpa-FrancorchampsAugust 23 – 25Forum
12Italian Grand PrixMonzaSeptember 6 – 8Forum
13Singapore Grand PrixSingaporeSeptember 20 – 22Forum
14Korean Grand PrixKorean International CircuitOctober 4 – 6Forum
15Japanese Grand PrixSuzukaOctober 11 – 13Forum
16Indian Grand PrixBuddh International CircuitOctober 25 – 27Forum
17Abu Dhabi Grand PrixYas MarinaNovember 1 – 3Forum
18United States Grand PrixCircuit of the AmericasNovember 15 – 17Forum
19Brazilian Grand PrixInterlagosNovember 22 – 24Forum

2013 F1 season


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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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44 comments on “FIA confirms 2013 calendar cut to 19 races”

  1. So well done BBC, who apparently will be showing less than half the races this year (as they picked a TBC one)?

    1. While we have no actual information on the precise way the races were chosen this year, if the format was the same as last year then the BBC probably had the choice of picking between the TBC race and Bahrain.

      I think that if those were the circumstances they made the correct decision.

    2. TBC suggests that they already knew where the race was going to take place. TBA would mean that the venue is yet to be found.

  2. I forget why Valencia was dropped.

    1. @jmwalley It’s supposed to be sharing the Spanish Grand Prix with the Circuit de Catalunya, but it remains to be seen whether it actually will.

  3. So the US Grand Prix is at Circuit of the Americas again and not in Weehauken, NJ or is that a tentative scheduling because Weehauken may not be ready?

    1. The United States Grand Prix will be at the Circuit of the Americas and the planned ‘Jersey Grand Prix’ in New Jersey which appeared on earlier schedules has been postponed to 2014.

      1. @keithcollantine ‘Jersey Grand Prix’? Not ‘Grand Prix of America’??

        1. @wsrgo That’s what the FIA called it anyway.

          Perhaps they felt it would be a bit strange to have both a Grand Prix of America and a Grand Prix of the United States of America on the calendar (though it’s no stranger than having a Luxembourg Grand Prix in Germany).

          1. San Marino in Italy? :)

          2. Grand Prix of America and United States Grand Prix, mayhap?

            I personally champion calling it the Grand Prix of Weehawken. Think about it: Monaco. Singapore. Abu Dhabi. Weehawken. It’s a natural!

        2. Could we not just get a St. Hellier Street Race instead!?

  4. So Nurburgring is confirmed as host of the German GP?

    1. That’s what the post says. Great news, considering the financial difficulties the ‘Ring has been facing recently. It would have been a massive shame had it been dropped from the calendar.

    2. @oel-f1 Yeah they started selling tickets a few weeks ago.

  5. Disapointing news especially as it means there is one less race for me to watch live this year,
    I wonder which is more likely, that there was not a single race track which is accredited to host an F1 race which was available on the specified weekend, or there was not one who would meet the fees which were being charged for the pleasure of hosting? think i know which of those two options is most likely.
    So how does this work out for Bernie, would he have paid the teams on the basis of 20 races and is thus out of pocket, he must make less money than he planned so surely it was more in his interest to get a race on than not?

    1. The teams get a share (+- 50%) of FOM profit divided up according to success and whatever bonus Bernie has promised them not to make waves (see “Marussia article) so an extra race would mean a little extra “prize”money for the teams but Bernie/FOM lose as much as all the teams combined for each missed race which is why Bernie wants 24 races.

  6. So the changes for last year… The European GP has been taken out, the Korean and Japanese GP’s have switched their positions in the Calender and The German GP is in Nurburgring.

  7. So there’s talks of potentially being 22 races in the future. Yet, when one venue drops of the preliminary calendar there is a hard timing filling the slot.

    1. @suave – there are new venues being planned though, which is the main reason why Bernie thinks 22 races could be justified (New Jersey is one of them and Bangkok another). So it looks like those extra slots may be needed soon!

  8. “Plans for an additional race in Europe on July 21st have been scrapped after a sucker to rip off could not be found”

    There, fixed.

  9. Doesn’t make a huge difference in my opinion. I think 19 races is still quiet a lot considering how spoiled we’ve been getting in recent years in regards to the number of Grand Prix per season.

  10. So that’s a six week period with just the Hungaroring to keep us going. That period between Germany and Belgium is going to be torture.

  11. Montreal in June, Texas in November, this must be close to a zero gain solution, obviously the promoters don’t want to pay a huge fee if half of the ticket buyers might choose 1 or the other if they were only 1-2 weeks apart, but how much does it cost to fly the whole circus across the Atlantic and back again, and how many overseas fans might go to both if they were only a week apart?
    Giving the promoters a discount equal to the trans Atlantic costs might be in everyones best interest.

    1. Texas in June and Montreal in November would both be rather problematic due to climate issues.

      1. Texas in May? Monaco might have to give up its Lunar calendar date though.

    2. Canada, Austin and New Jersey should all be next to each other if it were to be done logically (probably with Brazil there as well) but Canada and New Jersey near November wouldn’t be at all a good idea.

  12. Too many 3-week breaks.

  13. Well that three week break between Germany and Hungary is gonna suck, but I hope the teams will be given a little bit of down time there as a little reward. I know it’s unlikely given they’ll have two weeks guarenteed off after Hungary and before Belgium, but still…

  14. Given the way North Korea has been behaving over the past few weeks, we might end up with sixteen races in 2013 – China, Korea and Japan could all be cancelled if the North makes good on its threat to attack. It’s one thing to hold a race in the midst of a civil uprising; it’s another thing entirely to hold races in an active war zone.

    1. I doubt it because they have all got good racing at times and it needs to be 17 with a few extras if teams agree to it if I am correct? I hear nothing about China on the news except pollution. Don’t drop any races Bernie as it will just make it worse if they went to Bahrain last year so they can go to Korea

      1. @william – You are correct in saying that there must be a minimum of seventeen races, but if North Korea keeps going the way that they have been for the past few weeks, we’re going to be faced with some pretty extreme circumstances.

        Right now, Pyongyang has been issuing some of their most aggressive rhetoric in recent years, claiming that if the Americans and the South press on with military drills scheduled for next week, it will be interpreted as an act of war. They’ve torn up long-standing non-aggression pacts that they made with the South, and there are reports that they have been camouflaging buses and trains in the capital. Now that they have nuclear weapons – even if they lack the means to deliver them effectively – it makes for a pretty serious situation. And what makes North Korea so scary is that they are so unpredictable. Very little is known about Kim Jong-un, and he may just be crazy enough to think that if he attacks America, the South, or both, then he will win. In the worst-case scenario, the may just bomb an innocent city (like Shanghai or Tokyo) if the Americans were to strike against Pyongyang.

        Meanwhile, China have voted in favour of the latest round of UN sanctions. Traditionally, they have abstained from voting because they are pretty much the only country that the North will respond to. They abstain from voting (they can’t vote against sanctions because they have veto rights, which would stop the sanctions from going ahead), which they then use to approach the North and say “look, we didn’t vote for the sanctions, so you can trust us”. But this time, they’ve voted in favour of them.

        Don’t drop any races Bernie as it will just make it worse if they went to Bahrain last year so they can go to Korea

        Actually, it won’t make it worse. Because the two situations are not comparable. Bahrain was a series of violent crackdowns on the population, which is bad enough – but if the North start a war (and by all accounts, they’ve getting ready for one), it will make the situation in Bahrain look like nothing more than a playground bully picking on the younger kids. The North has nuclear, biological and chemical weapons at their disposal, and they may be willing to use them against the South, America, Japan, China and anyone who they think is standing in their way. It’s different by a whole order of magnitude.

        1. @prisoner-monkeys
          All drivers has praised China, Korea and Japan as they all like going to those circuits so I doubt that drivers will boycott the races as they were going to do it for Bahrain but they ended up not doing it as the FIA said it was given the green light to race. Officials saying that they will have it all under control for this year. I am sure it wont be a disaster prior to those GPs

          1. @william – I’m not talking about drivers boycotting China, Korea or Japan. I’m talking about Bernie and/or the FIA possibly being forced to cancel those races if North Korea starts a war.

  15. N Korea wont start a war its only against S Korea who they normally aim at and I think Yeongam is far way from the war zone area just like China and Japan is. Bernie demanded Bahrain to happen and so it did and this should go ahead as well well that’s IMO. Lets wait and see what happens

  16. bielsafication
    9th March 2013, 10:21

    Is Japanese GP has been confirmed to be dropped for 2014 season?

    1. On Wikipedia it hasn’t got the Japanese Formula One GP on there yet

  17. Codemasters F1 2013 is going to have to offer some big realism changes if we’re down to 19 races and 11 teams…

  18. Ben (@scuderia29)
    9th March 2013, 20:46

    were not going to miss one race

  19. @prisoner-monkeys has the nose on this one. I’m very surprised that more hasn’t been made of it. The hotline is down, the dmz is being hardened, and the potential for extreme devestation is worse in Korea than anywhere else in the world, in as much as it is actively and purposefully pursuing a state led nuclear pre-emptive weapon and standpoint. Do not think that Korea is a laughable country for Americans to make fun of. Under a generation of crippling sanctions, the military rule (in practice, if not in principle) is enforced completely, and the military of N.Korea consume the vast majority of GDP. This is a country that does not care what any other country thinks, and nor does it care what damage it does to it’s own citizens as a result of it’s own actions. Iran must seem a pussycat in comparison when global leaders are discussing different nations. N.Korea haven’t even used the bargaining chip of nuclear weapons to even try to get sanctions lifted for goodness sake. They’ve developed a trump card as far as global diplomacy is concerned, and they’re not going to play it? Why not? If not to use it in anger??
    I personally think that S.Korea is currently a much more dangerous place to be than Bahrain has ever been. Bahrain might have had localised violence and tens/hundreds of deaths, but S.Korea is under threat of nuclear attack for goodness sake, and the potential for hundreds of thousands of ongoing fatalities from a single strike.
    I wouldn’t go there, even at the moment, unless I was being paid serious danger money, and in the event that rhetoric moves up a level, I just wouldn’t go there full stop.

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