F1 has released a largely unchanged race schedule for the 2019 season with only alteration with the start time of the French GP.
The timings of all the sessions – FP1, FP2, FP3, Qualifying and Race – taking place during a grand prix weekend remains largely unchanged for the 2019 F1 season apart from the start time of French GP being brought forward by one hour.
The new timing schedule was released by Liberty Media last year with the race time altered to suit more of the US audience and also help the broadcasters to start with their race programme at the stroke of an hour.
As a result, several of the grand prixs saw its time changed and pushed back by one hour with additional 10 minutes added to all of the F1 races to help with the broadcasting programme. The move though wasn’t welcomed hugely by the fans.
With the races in Europe starting late along with the American ones, it meant the audiences in Australia and Asia were affected largely. At the same time, the changed time did not sit well with all of the European fans as it ate up their holiday.
In totality, there were several pros and cons to the altered times but they are to stay in 2019 as well as being confirmed by F1. As mentioned, the only change comes for the French GP as the race clashed with a Football World Cup game of England in 2018.
Full race schedule of the 2019 F1 season – includes altered French GP time (all local time):
