Categories: 2016 SeasonF1 News, Reports and Race Results

FIA approves 21-race calendar for 2016

The 2016 F1 season is set to feature 21 races with the first round taking place on April 3 after approval from the FIA.

A meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Mexico City on Friday saw the provisional calendar approved, with the season set to start in April in Melbourne. The inaugural race in Azerbaijan is scheduled in for July 17, while the German Grand Prix returns and there are a number of back-to-back races including Singapore and Malaysia in September.

With Malaysia dropping to late in the season, the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi will be the fourth round of the year as part of a back-to-back pairing with Bahrain, following another initial back-to-back of Australia and China.

The full calendar for 2016 released by the FIA is as follows:

Round	Race	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne)	3 April
2	Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai)	10 April
3	Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir)	24 April
4	Russian Grand Prix (Sochi)	1 May
5	Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona)	15 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix (Monte Carlo)	29 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal)	12 June
8	British Grand Prix (Silverstone)	26 June
9	Austrian Grand Prix (Spielberg)	3 July
10	European Grand Prix (Baku)	17 July
11	German Grand Prix (TBC)	31 July
12	Hungarian Grand Prix (Budapest)	7 August
13	Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps)	28 August
14	Italian Grand Prix (Monza)	4 September
15	Singapore Grand Prix (Marina Bay)	18 September
16	Malaysian Grand Prix (Sepang)	25 September
17	Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka)	9 October
18	United States Grand Prix (Austin)	23 October
19	Mexican Grand Prix (Mexico City)	30 October
20	Brazilian Grand Prix (Interlagos)	13 November
21	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Yas Marina)	27 November

Click here for a lighter look back at some scenes from the British Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.