Formula 1’s 2021 season will be longest EVER – starting in March and ending on December 5 

Next year’s Formula One season will be the longest in the sport’s history, with a  mammoth 23 races held over more than eight months. 

The 2021 calendar starts on March 21 at Albert Park in Melbourne, and will take place in an ‘F1 biosphere’ due to coronavirus regulations in Australia.  

The British Grand Prix will be held on July 18 – a week later than usual – while the season will end on December 5 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. 

The 2021 F1 season will be the longest ever, starting in a ‘biosphere’ in Melbourne, Australia

The season will conclude on December 5, 2021 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE 

Lewis Hamilton will be chasing a record-breaking eighth world championship but will have to perform over more Grands Prix than ever before. 

The only outstanding date is April 25, which was previously allocated to the new Vietnamese Grand Prix in Hanoi. 

But a new host country is required and will likely come from one of the tracks that filled the truncated 2020 calendar which was based mostly in Europe. 

Turkey’s Istanbul Park, Portugal’s Portimao and Italy’s Imola track are the leading candidates to replace Vietnam. 

Lewis Hamilton will have to race in more Grands Prix than ever before to win again in 2021

Saudi Arabia will make its debut with a street race in Jeddah as the penultimate grand prix of the year on 28 November.  

F1 has said it is confident it will be able to run a full calendar – but of course, it is dependent on no further coronavirus pandemic disruption.   

At a total of 261 days, it is 98 days longer than the shortened 2020 calendar – yet it is exactly the same amount of days as the 2019 season, but with two more races.