Categories: 2016 SeasonF1 News, Reports and Race Results

FOM confirms 2016 F1 calendar leak

Formula One Management (FOM) has confirmed the authenticity of a leaked 2016 calendar which would see next year's F1 season start in April.

The Australian Grand Prix organisers confirmed they would be hosting the season-opening race on April 3 next year as part of a more condensed calendar. The timing of the announcement was unusual in that a provisional calendar is usually circulated after the mid-season break in August.

However, FOM has now verified the calendar as its current provisional schedule for next season, though reinforcing it is not a final draft.

“It would appear that the proposed 2016 calendar has been leaked,” read a statement from FOM. “This calendar has not yet been approved.”

The final line of the statement suggests negotiations with a number of promoters are still ongoing, with the German Grand Prix set to return and the addition of a race in Baku swelling the calendar to 21 races.

The Italian Grand Prix at Monza is also facing an uncertain future, while the Russian Grand Prix organisers want an earlier slot in the schedule and Malaysia wants to revert to later in the year as it was when it first joined the calendar in 1999.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.