Formula 1 just announced its calendar for the 2024 season, complete with 24 Grand Prix weekends, and a shuffling of the schedule from the norm. The series says it's taken "big steps forward in regionalization," meaning it's attempted to cluster races near eachother geographically. Perhaps the most obvious evidence for this is the move of the Japanese Grand Prix from its traditional October date to April.
Japan is now sandwiched between the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, which makes sense from a logistical standpoint. To that end, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix also moves to September, to be held back-to-back with the Singapore Grand Prix. Qatar and Abu Dhabi will also be held back-to-back to end the season. All that said, the calendar hasn't clustered all the dates in one region together. For example, after the Chinese Grand Prix in late April, F1 then heads to Miami, then Imola, and Monaco, before hitting Canada for the first week of June.
The Chinese Grand Prix will be the first since 2019, with the race cancelled from 2020-2023 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also of note, the opening two rounds, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, will be held on Saturdays to accomadate Ramadan. For these events, as with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the entire race weekend schedule is shifted back a day, with practice on Thursday and qualifying on Friday.
F1 has worked towards a 24-race calendar for some time, with 2023 set to be the first year with 24 Grands Prix until the cancellations of China and Emilia Romanga rounds. If all goes to plan, 2024 will be a record-setter for the series.
A car enthusiast since childhood, Chris Perkins is Road & Track's engineering nerd and Porsche apologist. He joined the staff in 2016 and no one has figured out a way to fire him since. He street-parks a Porsche Boxster in Brooklyn, New York, much to the horror of everyone who sees the car, not least the author himself. He also insists he's not a convertible person, despite owning three.
