Now that Autosport have published the 2013 calendar, I think it's fair to write about it, even if we were shown it yesterday and asked to keep it quiet until *after* next week's WMSC meeting in Paris.
I've reprinted it below, but broken down into back-to-backs and standalones, as you miss the impact of the calendar when it's just viewed as a long list of dates.
Also, it should be noted that there's a typo in the Autosport calendar - at the time of writing, they had Sao Paulo down as 27 November, when it's been scheduled for the 24th. Easy mistake to make.
But there are some asterisks on the calendar that might need explaining, especially as some of them conflict with information currently doing the rounds of the paddock.
New Jersey's down as provisional, but that's only to be expected - new races need to be homologated before they can officially be added, and that doesn't happen until 60 days before the race. So while NJ could drop off in theory, they'd have to really mess things up for that to happen.
Germany has several question marks, in that no one's quite sure whether we'll be in Hockenheim or the Nurburgring. According to the calendar I saw yesterday, it's Nurburgring with Hockenheim as fallback should the Ring collapse into an expensive and lawsuit-ridden puddle.
Singapore has a question mark because the race organisers are playing hardball with Bernie. We need Singapore more than Singapore needs us, and they know it. So they're currently using their position of power to try and negotiate a better deal, which is the smart thing to do. Despite that, it's very unlikely that we'll drop Singapore.
Which leaves us with Korea, currently down as unconfirmed. While it's not yet official, I've heard from numerous sources over the past two weeks that a new deal has been agreed, and that Yeongam will remain on the calendar for a few more years to come.
What's really interesting is the three week break between Silverstone and Germany. Is that because we're going to shoehorn a French race in the gap, or have the FIA and Bernie listened to Luca di Montezemolo's Monza comments about the stupidity of holding races when the world wants to be at the beach? God only knows.
2013 provisional F1 calendar
17 March Australia
24 March Malaysia
14 April China
21 April Bahrain
12 May Barcelona
26 May Monaco
9 June Canada
16 June New Jersey*
30 June Silverstone
21 July Germany**
28 July Hungary
1 September Spa
8 September Monza
22 September Singapore*
6 October Suzuka
13 October South Korea*
27 October India
3 November Abu Dhabi
17 November Austin
24 November Interlagos
I've reprinted it below, but broken down into back-to-backs and standalones, as you miss the impact of the calendar when it's just viewed as a long list of dates.
Also, it should be noted that there's a typo in the Autosport calendar - at the time of writing, they had Sao Paulo down as 27 November, when it's been scheduled for the 24th. Easy mistake to make.
But there are some asterisks on the calendar that might need explaining, especially as some of them conflict with information currently doing the rounds of the paddock.
New Jersey's down as provisional, but that's only to be expected - new races need to be homologated before they can officially be added, and that doesn't happen until 60 days before the race. So while NJ could drop off in theory, they'd have to really mess things up for that to happen.
Germany has several question marks, in that no one's quite sure whether we'll be in Hockenheim or the Nurburgring. According to the calendar I saw yesterday, it's Nurburgring with Hockenheim as fallback should the Ring collapse into an expensive and lawsuit-ridden puddle.
Singapore has a question mark because the race organisers are playing hardball with Bernie. We need Singapore more than Singapore needs us, and they know it. So they're currently using their position of power to try and negotiate a better deal, which is the smart thing to do. Despite that, it's very unlikely that we'll drop Singapore.
Which leaves us with Korea, currently down as unconfirmed. While it's not yet official, I've heard from numerous sources over the past two weeks that a new deal has been agreed, and that Yeongam will remain on the calendar for a few more years to come.
What's really interesting is the three week break between Silverstone and Germany. Is that because we're going to shoehorn a French race in the gap, or have the FIA and Bernie listened to Luca di Montezemolo's Monza comments about the stupidity of holding races when the world wants to be at the beach? God only knows.
2013 provisional F1 calendar
17 March Australia
24 March Malaysia
14 April China
21 April Bahrain
12 May Barcelona
26 May Monaco
9 June Canada
16 June New Jersey*
30 June Silverstone
21 July Germany**
28 July Hungary
1 September Spa
8 September Monza
22 September Singapore*
6 October Suzuka
13 October South Korea*
27 October India
3 November Abu Dhabi
17 November Austin
24 November Interlagos
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