The FIA has published the World Motor Sport Council’s (WMSC) ruling with the 21-race calendar approved for 2019 along with few modifications on the cars.
The WMSC has confirmed the calendar for the 2019 F1 season as revealed during the Italian Grand Prix with the season starting in March with the Australian Grand Prix and ending in December with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
In addition to the said rules for the 2019 season, the cars will have the rear endplates lights attached along with minor changes on Halo for driver extraction. The teams will now have to conduct their own scrutineering before the cars hit the track.
It also stated that the cars can only overtake at certain points on the track when the safety car comes in. There will be a new chequered light panel which will mark the official end of the race – the chequered flag will also be waved.
The Council approved changes to the 2019 Sporting Regulations published by the FIA which includes:
- Changes to the Safety Car regulations to ensure there is a consistent point at which drivers may overtake when the Safety Car returns to the pits. This will now be the same in all three types of restart.
- The teams will now be responsible for initial scrutineering of their cars. Before the cars go on track for the first time, teams must declare conformity with all safety related matters.
- The official end-of-race signal will now be a chequered light panel, although the chequered flag will still be shown.
- For 2020, the team personnel curfew – the amount of time for which all team personnel must be away from the track – will increase from eight to nine hours.
Formula 1 Strategy Group and Commission proposals concerning the 2019 Technical Regulations were agreed, including:
- Changes to the mirror regulations and also associated rear wing changes (height) for rear view visibility and safety (Articles 3.6 and 14.3).
- The on-board camera regulations will be modified to improve the TV spectacle (Article 21).
- Rear endplate lights are to be added for safety (Article 14.5).
- Minor modifications to the halo fairing (Article 15.2.6) are to be made for safety reasons during a potential driver extraction.
2019 F1 calendar:
Australian GP – March 15-17
Bahrain GP – March 29-31
Chinese GP – April 12-14
Azerbaijan GP – April 26-28
Spanish GP – May 10-12
Monaco GP – May 24-26
Canadian GP – June 7-9
French GP – June 21-23
Austrian GP – June 28-30
British GP – July 12-14
German GP – July 26-28
Hungarian GP – August 2-4
Belgian GP – August 30 – September 1
Italian GP – September 6-8
Singapore GP – September 20-22
Russian GP – September 27-29
Japanese GP – October 11-13
Mexico GP – October 25-27
US GP – November 1-3 (to be confirmed by the ASN)
Brazilian GP – November 15-17
Abu Dhabi GP – November 29 – December 1
