The FIA has ratified an unchanged calendar for 2019 which sees the season begin in Melbourne, Australia on March 17 and end in Abu Dhabi on December 1.
21 races will again take place with Germany remaining on consecutive calendars for the first time since 2014 as the success of this year’s event at Hockenheim led to a new deal being agreed with Liberty Media.
There will be no triple-header as there was for the first time in 2018 after it was largely criticised for the additional workload put on team personnel while the four-week summer break remains between the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 4 and Belgium on September 1.
The December 1 date for the season finale is the fourth latest ever for an F1 season with the last time a Grand Prix took place in the final month of the year being in 1963 while the Chinese Grand Prix will also mark the 1000th race in the sport’s history.
Other minor changes will be made to the mirrors and rear wings to improve visibility and LED lights will now also be mounted on the endplates to help in wet conditions.
Tweaks to the Safety Car procedures have been announced while teams will also be responsible for scrutineering their own cars before declaring they conform to the regulations.
In response to the incident in Canada, when the checkered flag was waved two laps early, a light panel will now be the main signal to designate the end of the race but the flag will continue to be waved.
