Next year's 21-race campaign could be extended into 10th month
Wednesday 9 September 2015 13:13, UK
The 2016 F1 season is set to be extended until December, the sport's supremo Bernie Ecclestone has revealed.
The provisional calendar for next season, released by the sport's governing body two months ago, listed Abu Dhabi as hosting the season finale on November 27.
However, according to Ecclestone, the 21-race calendar could now be elongated until December to keep apart the Singapore and Malaysia GPs, which had been slated to take place back-to-back on September 18 and September 25.
"We're putting Malaysia later on, into December, away from Singapore," Ecclestone told Autosport. "The Malaysians were happy, but the Singaporeans weren't, so we decided to look into it. At this stage I don't think we'll need to change anything else."
Sky Sports F1 believes that the Malaysia GP could be staged on November 27 with the season-concluding Abu Dhabi event moved to either December 4 or 11.
F1's 2016 schedule has already proved contentious with both McLaren and Red Bull confirming they are opposed to plans for a three-month shutdown ahead of just two four-day pre-season tests, the first of which will take place in March.
Several teams have also privately expressed their concern at the traditional one-month summer break being cut to three weeks in August. However, a three-week gap in the schedule would emerge if the Malaysia GP was rescheduled, potentially paving the way for the Belgian, Italian and Singapore races to be moved back a week to increase the length of the summer shutdown.
"The travelling staff need to have that summer break and if we don't do that we will either burn them out or we will have to bring in a second crew – either way, it's not good for Formula 1," Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley warned. "The summer break, from my view and the view of Force India, must be retained at all costs."
Provisional 2016 calendar
April 3: Australian GP.
April 10: Chinese GP.
April 24: Bahrain GP.
May 1: Russian GP.
May 15: Spanish GP.
May 29: Monaco GP.
June 12: Canadian GP.
June 26: British GP.
July 3: Austrian GP.
July 17: European GP.
July 31: German GP.
August 7: Hungarian GP.
August 28: Belgian GP.
September 4: Italian GP.
September 18: Singapore GP.
September 25: Malaysia GP.
October 9: Japanese GP.
October 23: United States GP.
October 30: Mexican GP.
November 13: Brazilian GP.
November 27: Abu Dhabi GP.
