Formula 1 2023 Calendar Has a Record-Breaking 24 Races
Belgium is back, baby! Photo: Dan Mullan (Getty Images)
The 2022 Formula 1 World Championship is as good as tied up now that Max Verstappen is a whopping 116 points ahead of his closest rival, Charles Leclerc. So, we can now start looking forward to next year, when the FIA has confirmed that F1 will host a record-breaking 24 grands prix over the course of the season.
Formula 1’s 2023 calendar has just been approved by motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, and it’s a big one. The 2023 F1 season will kick off in Bahrain on March 3 before covering 22 races ahead of the season close in Abu Dhabi on November 26th.
This all means that the 2023 season will start two weeks earlier than it did this year, and will end just a week later than 2022. Meaning F1 will cram a record-breaking 24 races into just 38 weeks. I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
But it is a pretty exciting calendar. Next year F1 will host its first race in Las Vegas on November 18. The penultimate race on the calendar, the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix is rumored for a late night start on the Saturday evening, in a change to the traditional F1 weekend format.
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There is also a return for F1 to Qatar on October 8. The race in the kingdom is the first in a new 10-year contract that will see F1 host events at the Losail Circuit.
Next year also sees the long-awaited return of the Chinese Grand Prix, which hasn’t taken place since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
F1 will race under the lights of Las Vegas in 2023. Photo: Visions of America/Education Images/Universal Images Group (Getty Images)
Despite worries that it might be absent from next year’s schedule, the Belgian Grand Prix remains a fixture in 2023. The historic race will now take place before the sport takes its summer break. This sees the race fill a gap left by the French Grand Prix, which has been dropped for next year.
After the Belgian race, teams will have just over three weeks off for the summer break before racing returns at the Dutch Grand Prix on August 27.
And that’s a theme of this calendar, less time off for teams. Over the 38 weeks of racing, there will be six double header races, including the final back to back events in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
Qatar begins a new 10-year contract with F1 in 2023. Photo: Clive Mason (Getty Images)
There are also two triple-header races, including the Emilia Romagna event in Italy, Monaco and the Spanish Grand Prix. After the summer break, F1 will also host back-to-back races in Texas, Mexico and Brazil.
It’s a big ol’ calendar that includes three events in the U.S, nine races in Europe and seven events in Asia. I’m glad to see the return of China to the calendar, and I’m very intrigued by that Las Vegas race, which is set to take place on the U.S.’s Thanksgiving weekend.
What do you think to the calendar, and are there any tracks you’d have liked to see added? There has been talk of an event in South Africa for months now, is there a track that we should drop to make space for a race in Kyalami?
F1 is back in China in 2023Photo: Charles Coates (Getty Images)
The Full 2023 Formula 1 Calendar
03/05 Bahrain03/19 Saudi Arabia 04/02 Australia04/16 China04/30 Azerbaijan07/07 Miami, USA05/21 Emilia Romagna, Italy05/28 Monaco06/04 Spain06/18 Canada07/02 Austria07/09 United Kingdom07/23 Hungary07/30 Belgium08/27 Netherlands09/03 Italy09/17 Singapore09/24 Japan10/08 Qatar10/22 USA10/29 Mexico11/05 Brazil11/18 Las Vegas, USA11/26 Abu Dhabi
