FIA announces revised 2016 calendar, clarifies rules to make cars louder

Formula One racing’s governing body the FIA has released a revised provisional schedule for next year’s world championship, with the season set to get underway in Australia in March, not in April as previously indicated.

A record 21 races remain on the calendar, with the brand-new event in Baku, Azerbaijan taking place the week after Canada - one of six back-to-back Grand Prix weekends.

Also announced at Wednesday’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) meeting in Paris were new rules to increase the noise of cars. From 2016, all cars must have a separate exhaust wastegate tailpipe through which all and only wastegate exhaust gases must pass. This move will not have any significant effect on power or emissions.

Several other changes were announced to the F1 regulations. They were:

• Cars must now comply with all cockpit and safety equipment requirements during testing; such as the position of the driver’s head, all headrest padding, cockpit padding and ease of driver egress.
• Sporting Regulations regarding track limits have been clarified and specify that drivers “must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not deliberately leave the track without a justifiable reason”. Penalties will still be allocated based on whether a driver is judged to have gained an advantage.
• The WMSC approved the proposal of the F1 Commission regarding regulations for power unit and gearbox changes. Such penalties prior to qualifying will be applied based on the time of use. For changes made after qualifying, preference will be given to the driver whose team first informed the technical delegate that a change will occur.
• Any driver who causes a start to be aborted, even if he is then able to start the extra formation lap, will be required to start the race from the pit lane. The same process will be applied to a re-start from a race suspension where drivers have been brought to the pit lane.
• The WMSC confirmed a number of clarifications were made to aerodynamic testing restrictions for wind tunnel use and CFD, specifically focusing on reporting and inspection processes for these development tools.
• For 2017, on board cameras on stalks on the nose of cars will be prohibited.

The revised provisional calendar in full:

March 20 - Australia
April 3 - Bahrain
April 17 - China
May 1 - Sochi
May 15 - Spain
May 29 - Monaco
June 12 - Canada
June 19 - Baku*
July 3 - Austria
July 10 - Britain
July 24 - Hungary
July 31 - Germany
August 28 - Belgium
September 4 - Italy
September 18 - Singapore
October 2 - Malaysia
October 9 - Japan
October 23 - USA
November 6 - Mexico
November 13 - Brazil
November 27 - Abu Dhabi

*race start to be scheduled to avoid conflict with the conclusion of the 24 Hours of Le Mans