FIA officially signs-off on 21-race calendar for 2018

©WRI2

Formula 1 racing’s governing body, the FIA has formally signed off next year's 21-race world championship calendar. The approval was given at a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on Wednesday.

The new season sees the addition of two races in France and Germany. Germany was missing from last year's itinerary, while France has been absent since 2008.

The number of races will rise by one compared with 2017, as Malaysia will no longer host a Grand Prix in 2018.

The season will start as usual with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 25. Abu Dhabi once again hosts the season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit on November 25.

Brawn - 'Triple header' in 2018 is emergency measure

The Bahrain and Chinese races swap round, with Sakhir now the second race of the 2018 campaign followed by Shanghai two weeks later.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku jumps forward and will now be held on April 29. It takes the slot previously held by the Russian Grand Prix, which will instead take place on September 30. That's to avoid a clash with the build up to the FIFA World Cup.

The United States Grand Prix scheduled for October 21 at the Circuit of the Americas is still listed as being subject to confirmation by the national sporting authority. It is not currently clear what the hold-up might be in this case, and the race is expected to go ahead as planned.

2018 Race Calendar

Round	Race	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne)	25 March
2	Bahrain Grand Prix (Sakhir)	8 April
3	Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai)	15 April
4	Azerbaijan Grand Prix (Baku)	29 April
5	Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona)	13 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix (Monte Carlo)	27 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal)	10 June
8	French Grand Prix (Le Castellet)	24 June
9	Austrian Grand Prix (Spielberg)	1 July
10	British Grand Prix (Silverstone)	8 July
11	German Grand Prix (Hockenheim)	22 July
12	Hungarian Grand Prix (Budapest)	29 July
13	Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps)	26 August
14	Italian Grand Prix (Monza)	2 September
15	Singapore Grand Prix (Marina Bay)	16 September
16	Russian Grand Prix (Sochi)	30 September
17	Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka)	7 October
18	United States Grand Prix * (Austin)	21 October
19	Mexican Grand Prix (Mexico City)	28 October
20	Brazilian Grand Prix (Interlagos)	11 November
21	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Yas Marina)	25 November

* - subject to confirmation by the national sporting authority

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

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.